Sailing on Saturday with WM Nixon

A good start. “WHEN the Admiral will have the whole Fleet to Chace, he will hoist Dutch colours under his Flag, and fire a Gun from each Quarter; if a single boat, he will hoist a Pendant, and fire as many guns from the side as the Boat is distanced from him. WHEN he would have the Chace given over, he will hawl in his Flag and fire a Gun……” While the original Sailing Orders for an early race by the Water Club of the Harbour of Cork in the 1700s might not have worked for this fleet of a hundred at the start of the Harbour Race in Volvo Cork Week 2016, the spirit of the great pioneers of sailing was being properly celebrated

Royal Cork Yacht Club's Eternal Youth Pre–Dates Most Sailing History

16th July 2016 W M Nixon

Afloat.ie’s W M Nixon won’t divulge when he first sailed into Cork Harbour, but he claims to have taken part in an early version of Cork Week as long ago as 1970. And he also claims that, at the Week…

The spirit of Volvo Cork Week as expressed in 2014. Francois Giroud’s Open 750 Bois Dresses II from France revelling in great sailing off Cork Harbour

Volvo Cork Week 2016 Steps Up Interaction Between Sea & Land

9th July 2016 W M Nixon

Awareness of Cork Harbour’s long and colourful history of sailing has become so widespread and generally acknowledged that there’s a risk that the Irish and global sailing community will take it all for granted. Equally, the wonderful natural harbour of…

The jib topsail blossoms to drive Dickie Gomes’ Ainmara on her way as she sails fast to collect the “Best in Show” award at the RUYC’s 150th Anniversary Sail-past, fifty years after she took part in the same Club’s Centenary Regatta in 1966 with the same crew on board

Vintage Yachts’ Celebration Of 150 Years Of Belfast Lough Sailing

2nd July 2016 W M Nixon

Afloat.ie’s W M Nixon grabbed only a few hours sleep after his almost continuous coverage of the Volvo Round Ireland Race 2016 before haring off to Bangor in County Down to sail in the RUYC 150th Anniversary Regatta on Saturday…

Off to a flying start. Tim & Richard Goodbody’s first major campaign with their new J/109 White Mischief saw them in top form in yesterday’s first two races of the ICRA Nats at Howth in Class 1, in which eleven J/109s are competing.

ICRA Nats First Day Is Sailing Sport For Addicts Only

11th June 2016 W M Nixon

If you’d brought a party of strangers to sailing out in a spectator boat to view yesterday’s first day of the three-day Irish Cruiser Racing Association’s National Championship, they could have been forgiven wondering why it all attracts such interest.…

ICRA Nats with racing at its best. In the foreground is the vintage Mills 36 Raptor (ex Aztec) campaigned by Dennis Hewitt & partners of RIYC, and entered for next week’s ICRA Championship in Howth

ICRA Nats In Howth Yacht Club Will Attract The Cream Of The Fleets

4th June 2016 W M Nixon

To say that Irish sailing’s programme in June 2016 is crowded is a massive understatement. It’s a month which needs at least two extra weekends. Yet with only four available, sailors have to make hard choices, both as to where…

HMS Caroline in Belfast docks, September 2015. She is now nearing the completion of a restoration by Blu-Marine of Belfast in a project led by Staff Captain John Rees OBE

HMS Caroline: Shared Belfast Commemoration Expresses New Attitude To World War I In Ireland

28th May 2016 W M Nixon

Next Tuesday, May 31st, marks the Centenary of the outbreak of the Battle of Jutland off the northern coast of Denmark, the greatest sea battle of World War I (1914-18). In terms of the fire-power of the 250 vessels in…

The vision of sailing as it can be in high summer. Dave Cullen’s blue-hulled Checkmate XV starts to show towards the front of the fleet in the 2015 Half Ton World Classics, which she went on to win. But the story behind the pitch-perfect tune of these top racing machines can usually be found in workshops far from sea and sun.

Irish Sailing & Boating’s Fascination Is Found In Its Unexpected Interaction

21st May 2016 W M Nixon

The attraction of boats and the sea as a year-round fascination is something which by-passes many people. And even in summer – particularly if it’s a typical Irish summer – you’d sometimes be hard put to explain the appeal of…

Current Blue Water Medallists Tom and Vicky Jackson aboard their much-travelled S&S 40ft sloop Sunstone. Built by McGruer’s in Scotland in 1963 and originally called Deb, Sunstone was for many years known as Dai Mouse III when she was a regular contender with the ISORA fleet in the Irish Sea

Irish Sea Offshore Racing Is Getting A Whole New Lease Of Life

14th May 2016 W M Nixon

We take it for granted, and it’s always there - whether we like it or not. The good old Irish Sea. But could it be that there’s a new and growing awareness of just how much the Irish Sea can…

The big boys’ game….Antix in fine form in the RORC Easter Challenge 2016. But it was during this event that it became clear the newest generation of the Fast40+ class marked an up-grade in performance, and the amateur crew on the now-veteran Antix will have to focus their efforts with total attention if they’re to be at the races at all.

Will Any Irish Commodore’s Cup Defence Be Only A Sail Training Exercise?

7th May 2016 W M Nixon

It has been confirmed by the Irish Cruiser-Racing Association (ICRA) that it’s extremely unlikely that Ireland will be mounting a defence in July 2016 of the RORC Commodore’s Cup, which we so convincingly won in 2014 with the team of Catapult,…

The magic book. The Princess Royal receiving the special copy of Lord Dufferin’s Letters from High Latitudes from Myles Lindsay, Vice Commodore, at the recent reception in the Royal Ulster YC

Belfast Lough Sailing Story Seen In A New Light After Princess Anne Gives Royal Lead

30th April 2016 W M Nixon

Maybe it’s time and more to see sailing and its story – and particularly the complex history of Irish sailing north and south – in a new light. This year, the historical sailing focus is on Northern Ireland, where the…

The beginning of a beautiful friendship – top men Chris Moore of Dublin Bay SC (left) and Philip Sherry of Sherry Fitzgerald at yesterday’s launch of the new sponsorship. Photo: Brendan Fogarty

Dublin Bay Sailing Club & Sherry Fitzgerald Launch Yacht Racing Alliance in the Capital

16th April 2016 W M Nixon

The 133rd annual racing programme of Dublin Bay Sailing Club was unveiled yesterday in the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire, and it brought the announcement by incoming Commodore Chris Moore that the club had secured a strong three year…

The Ship’s Wheel finds its new home for 2016. At the Mitsubishi Motors “Sailing Club of the Year” presentation to the Royal Irish Yacht Club this week were (left to right) David Lovegrove (President Irish Sailing Association), Afloat.ie’s W M Nixon (adjudicator), James Horan (Commodore RIYC), Billy Riordan (Mitsubishi Motors, adjudicator) and Frank Keane (Chairman, Mitsubishi Motors).

Royal Irish Yacht Club Sails Toward 185th Birthday As 'Club of The Year 2016'

9th April 2016 W M Nixon

We’re into the last weekend in which the popular figure of James Horan will be making regular appearances on the Dun Laoghaire waterfront, and at national sailing occasions, as Commodore of the Royal Irish Yacht Club. Next week at the…

Howth Harbour today is a very long way from the place deliberately forgotten in the mid-1800s. Photo:W M Nixon

Howth Harbour Thoughts From Home

2nd April 2016 W M Nixon

This weekend has the Irish Sailing Youth Pathway Championships being staged at Howth, and despite the weather the place is buzzing. From being a harbour abandoned in embarrassment for twenty years in the middle of the 19th Century, the peninsula…

Let’s hear it for Tasmania! The Hobart-registered Reichel Pugh 66 Alive (Philip Turner) has just recorded line honours and a new record in the Rolex RORC China Sea Race

The Empire Strikes Back: RORC Active on Two Fronts in Two Oceans

26th March 2016 W M Nixon

Sailing forums have seen exchanges in recent days about the relative global coverage of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s (RORC) measurement system - the International Rating Certificate (IRC) - and the Offshore Racing Congress’s (ORC) Offshore Rating Certificate. Dobbs Davis…

The newly-built Fife-designed Belfast Lough Class I 25ft LWL boats Feltie (George Clark) and Halcyone (Bertie Brown) in action in Clyde Fortnight 1897, just four weeks after they’d had their maiden race on May 29th at Carrickfergus, where they were built by John Hilditch. In a classic Firth of Clyde squall, Feltie is still hanging on to her topsail, though Halcyone under her lowers seems to be providing her robust helmsman with quite enough to be thinking about as he shapes up for a gybe. Belfast Lough Class I made such an impressive debut in Scotland in 1897 that a lengthy report of their success were carried in the New York Times. Photo: Courtesy RUYC

Belfast Lough Celebrates 150 Years of Organised Sailing in Style

19th March 2016 W M Nixon

The development of organised sailing in Ireland seems to have spread northeastwards from the south and southwest coasts. Although the great chieftain Hugh Maguire had a fleet of pleasure vessels including sailing craft on Lough Erne in County Fermanagh in…

The new Commodore’s racing machine. Incoming ICRA Commodore Simon McGibney’s family-owned Dehler 101 Dis-a-ray in action in the ICRA Nationals in Tralee in 2013. Dis-a-ray is a good example of the competitive cruiser-racers - not all necessarily in the first flush of youth - which continue to get first class racing both with ICRA’s IRC Divisions, and with its impressive Progressive ECHO Handicap System.

Crazy But It Works: ICRA's Success Is a Highlight of Irish Sailing Scene

12th March 2016 W M Nixon

The Irish Cruiser-Racer Association (ICRA) is a unique organisation. “Run by sailors for sailors”, it is nevertheless a very land-centric administrative body whose only manifestation afloat as a group with its own identity is seen at the organisation of the…