W M Nixon

Beaufort Cup racing in Volvo Cork Week. Commandant Barry Byrne’s success with racing John Maybury’s J/109 Joker 2 in this series, and in the Round Ireland Race earlier in July, was one of 2018’s many remarkable achievements

2018’s Sailors of the Month - The Human Face of Exceptional Irish Sailing Achievements

3rd November 2018 W M Nixon

As we begin to contemplate a 24th year for the Afloat.ie/Irish Sailing “Sailors of the Month” assessments in 2019, it’s time and more for a look back to the people and the achievements which defined our top performers in and…

Summer sailing as it should be….Jump Juice from Cork in the lead at the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta, which will be the biggest event in Irish waters in 2019

Ireland’s Sailing Prospects for 2019 – Constantly Changing to Stay The Same

26th October 2018 W M Nixon

“For everything to stay the same, everything must change….” It’s an enduring and profound thought from the classic Italian novel The Leopard. And it applies to Irish sailing at least much as it does to most other aspects of Irish…

Cool performer. Niall Dowling’s Ker 43 Baraka GP at Wicklow Head at the start of the Volvo Round Ireland Race 2018. Despite being well down the overall rankings off the coast of Mayo, a tactically brilliant second half saw her emerge as line honours victor and overall winner

2018 – An Irish Sailing Year Like No Other

20th October 2018 W M Nixon

Anyone who claims to comprehend every nuance of Ireland’s sailing story during 2018 is living in a state of happy delusion writes W M Nixon. For sure, much that happened followed the set path of the annual programme at home…

Alex & Daria Blackwell’s Bowman 57 Aleria enjoying the best of Galician summer weather in the midst of the ICC’s July 2017 Rally to Northwest Spain. Although normally based in Clew Bay, Aleria elected to stay on in Galicia, where she was recently hauled for her second winter in Spain

Is Ryanair Bad News for Sailing in Ireland?

13th October 2018 W M Nixon

Is Irish sailing heading south? Are significant sectors of the national fleet heading for new home berths in the Lotus Lands asks W M Nixon. Every Autumn, we hear of boats which have headed down to southern Brittany or southwest…

Whatever about the outcome of this weekend’s J/109 Nationals at Howth, home team Pat Kelly (centre) and his crew on Storm are already winners of the RC35 Celtic Trophy 2018 after success (seen here) in the Silvers Scottish Series in May, followed by second at Bangor Town Regatta in July, and first at the Welsh IRC Championship in August.

Will Irish Cruiser-Racing Find Fresh Vitality in the RC35 Class?

5th October 2018 W M Nixon

The great Danish sailor Paul Elvstrom famously commented that it was much easier to create a completely new racing boat with top class potential than it was to create a successful Class Association with global reach to give proper support…

Ready and willing – just 14 weeks ago, this was Gregor McGuckin at the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire with Hanley Energy Endurance, about to depart for the Golden Globe Golden Jubilee Race in France

Gregor McGuckin’s Path to Fame Underlines Ireland’s Challenges in Finding a Place in Offshore Sailing

29th September 2018 W M Nixon

Gregor McGuckin is currently and very deservedly the best-known Irish sailor in the world writes W M Nixon. The sheer gallantry and utter rightness of his efforts to bring aid last weekend to injured fellow Golden Globe competitor Abilash Tomy…

Home again – solo sailor Richard Hayes in his Ireland-circumnavigating Laser is welcomed back to Rinville and Galway Bay Sailing Club

The Smallest Boats To Sail Round Ireland – A Story of Courage & Character

22nd September 2018 W M Nixon

The contrast could not have been greater writes W M Nixon. On Friday, September 14th on Ireland’s relatively sheltered East Coast, 302 Laser dinghies came in from Dublin Bay to Dun Laoghaire’s elegant and busy harbour to conclude the penultimate day’s…

A race and a place imbued with history – the Rock is astern in 2015’s Rolex Fastnet Race with the classic Stormy Weather (overall winner in 1935) leading from fellow-classic Dorade (overall winner in 1931 and again in 1933).

Is This The Beginning Of The End Of The Fastnet Race As We Know It?

15th September 2018 W M Nixon

It was announced this week that the 2019 RORC Rolex Fastnet Race from Cowes will have a change of its original date, with its start moved back from Sunday, August 18th all the way to Saturday, August 3rd. W M…

The Supreme Master – Bruce Kirby designed the hugely popular Laser 48 years ago.

The Laser Masters Refresh Ireland With the “Tír na nÓg Afloat” Effect

7th September 2018 W M Nixon

Lasers Masters do not grow old as those who stay ashore or go into keelboats grow old. On the contrary, they’re Tir na nOg afloat. It’s the Land of the Ever-Young out on the sea. And the prospect of the…

The fleet nicely stitched up at the start. Jonny Swan’s Harmony (foreground) and Dave Cullen’s Checkmate XV (blue bow) nicely clear in a Half Ton Classics start in Belgium. The final overall result was Checkmate first and Harmony second

Six Irish Cruiser-Racers with the Sweet Smell of Success

1st September 2018 W M Nixon

A properly managed race-winning cruiser-racer talks to us. And we, in turn, think in terms of “a well-presented boat” writes W M Nixon. But there’s much more to it than stylish presentation. It’s not enough just to look good. Everything…

The home place……clear evening at Greystones Harbour with the Sugarloaf Mountain silhouetted against the last of the sunset. This weekend sees the two-day Taste of Greystones Regatta in the continuing celebration of Greystones Sailing Club’s Golden Jubilee Year

Dublin Bay, Greystones, Howth, Cork Harbour & Kinsale: It’s Down Home Time for Irish Sailing

24th August 2018 W M Nixon

When 2018’s rain-free heat-wave of zephyrs and calms was at its peak in July, old salts of every age and gender naturally and inevitably observed in their sagacious way that it would all end with a bang. They reckoned that…

Hanging in there……Ireland’s community-minded International GP 14 Class meet for their three-day Irish Nationals at Sligo today. Skerries SC and GP14 Ireland will be hosting the Worlds at Skerries in 2020

Resilient Irish Sailing Scene Moves on From This Week’s Setbacks

17th August 2018 W M Nixon

With 178 Optimists racing in the Irish Nationals at Kinsale, and Ireland’s GP14 dinghies in fine form after the massive Worlds in England as they gather for their own Nationals in Sligo this weekend through to Monday, there’s much to…

John Maybury’s J/109 Joker II will be looking to take her fourth ICRA National title in a row in Galway next week after an extraordinary month in July when she achieved success in the Round Ireland and Beaufort Cup skippered by Commandant Barry Byrne

ICRA Nats 2018 in Galway will Celebrate the Atlantic Seaboard’s Great Sailors

11th August 2018 W M Nixon

With three-times-in-a-row class champion Joker 2 (John Maybury, Royal Irish YC) set to defend her title for an unprecedented fourth time, the Irish Cruiser Racing Association Nationals in Galway next week will be making history at least twice over in…

West Cork sailing at its best – Paul O'Higgins' JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI in action at Calves Week

Calves Week Will Celebrate Sailing Enchantment of West Cork

3rd August 2018 W M Nixon

West Cork, Ireland's own Lotus Land, should be designated a licensed substance writes W M Nixon. A licensed substance with a proper scientific code, to be administered only by highly-trained professionals. People in white coats. In a clinical setting. For…

May 7th, 1915. The sailing fishing boat Wanderer from the Isle of Man is first on the scene after the Transatlantic liner Lusitania is torpedoed ten miles off the Old Head of Kinsale by a German submarine as an act of war. The first survivors have already been hauled on board Wanderer, while others struggle towards their rescuer in the water or on lifeboats

Lusitania Sinking Recalled as Irish Rescue Reward Boat is Restored

27th July 2018 W M Nixon

In the midst of high summer, with life slowed by the all-pervading heat, it is almost impossible to contemplate the sheer horror of total conflict as experienced in the industrialised attacks of the Great War of 1914-18 writes W M…

2020 is the Royal Cork YC Tricentenary and1720 was when it first happened. The 1720 Sportsboats racing in towards Cork Harbour with the growing sea breeze are a timely reminder of this globally significant date in just two years’ time

Cork Week 2018 Review: Royal Cork Yacht Club's Colourful Sailing Complexity

20th July 2018 W M Nixon

If you set out to explain to a stranger to sailing everything that has been going on afloat and ashore at Volvo Cork Week 2018 (and we refer only to the official events), then you’d find yourself warbling away until…