Sailing on Saturday with WM Nixon

A sense of anticipation. Tom Dolan in fine form in 2016 when he started campaigning his new Pogo 30 IRL 910, on which he’d done the finishing and fitting-out work himself. He wryly remembers now that he immediately won his first solo distance race: “Big mistake. I’ve been a marked man ever since”.

For Tom Dolan & Mini-Transat Comrades, the Long Wait is Nearly Over

29th September 2017 W M Nixon

In its forty years, the 4,000 mile Mini-Transat has become a very French event, despite always having a significant international presence which this time round will see Ireland’s Tom Dolan (30) in a leading role for 2017’s staging, starting tomorrow…

That winning feeling….the crew of the Irish National Sailing School’s J/109 Jedi in Plymouth after winning Class 3B in the Rolex Fastnet Race 2017 are (left to right, back row): Deirdre Foley, Lorcan Tighe, Fearghus McCormack, George Tottenham, Kylie McMillan and Kenneth Rumball. Front row: Conor Kinsella and Keith Kiernan

Fastnet Race Justice for Irish National Sailing School's Jedi

22nd September 2017 W M Nixon

With 312 entries in the IRC divisions alone, and numbers pushing towards the 400 mark when all classes are included, the record-breaking Fastnet Race 2017 was surely on the edge of becoming an unwieldy beast as it got under way…

Cliffhanger….the Volvo 65s Turn the Tide on Plastic and Team Vestas in a tacking duel at The Needles lighthouse during the first race of the new fleet, a sprint round the Isle of Wight in the middle of Cowes Week 2017. Annalise Murphy will contest the Volvo Ocean Race on Turn the Tide, and Damian Foxall and James O’Mahoney are with Team Vestas

Annalise Interest Shows That International Sailing Programme Has New Ordering of Priorities

16th September 2017 W M Nixon

In the days when sailing was a seasonal sport, a few main pillar events dominated the international programme. The Sailing Olympics. The America’s Cup. The Fastnet Race. The Dragon Gold Cup. The Sydney-Hobart Race. The Whitbread Round the World Race.…

Irish Lights’ 2,600 ton ship Granuaile is one of the most truly functional vessels in Ireland

Irish Lights Are at the Core of Our Maritime Identity

8th September 2017 W M Nixon

The functioning of the Commissioners of Irish Lights is within a matrix in partnership with the Northern Lighthouse Board in Scotland and the Isle of Man, and Trinity House in England and Wales. They co-operate actively through a grouping known…

Making history. David & Sally MacFarlane sailing the 107-year-old Moosmie on their way to winning the first Water Wag race with a fleet of more than thirty boats, with Dun Laoghaire Harbour’s wonderful stonework looking its classic best

Nin O’Leary & Alex Thomson Share The Stage with History in Dun Laoghaire

1st September 2017 W M Nixon

The rapidly-developing partnership between solo offshore veteran Alex Thomson and proven star of fully-crewed boats Nin O’Leary of Cork has been the focus of much attention this week as they visit Cork and Dun Laoghaire. Thomson’s eye-catching IMOCA 60 Hugo…

While there were hundreds of boats in the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2017, the Welsh-based Myfanwy, built 1897, and restored by owner Rob Mason (at helm), deservedly attract special attention

Ireland: No Country for New Boats?

25th August 2017 W M Nixon

In his poem Sailing to Byzantium (1928), William Butler Yeats immortalised the vision of Ireland as “no country for old men”. Expressed so well, the idea took hold and has been re-used internationally in novels and films, even if in Ireland…

Hugo Boss doing what she does best – zooming offwind on the foils

How Much in the Sponsorship Pot for all These Irish Offshore Sailing Superstar Hopefuls?

18th August 2017 W M Nixon

There have been several Irish offshore racing sailors who have been making national and world headlines for some years now, but in recent weeks and months the wave of new enthusiasm for the big ticket events has surged to fresh…

The start of something big. The Irish National Sailing School’s J/109 Jedi (IRL 8088, skipper Kenneth Rumball) gets away with a close start on Sunday in the Rolex Fastnet Race 2017. She finished first in Class 3B

Fastnet Race 2017 Teaches Us That You Just Keep on Learning…

11th August 2017 W M Nixon

The final results of the Rolex Fastnet Race 2017 show that Kenneth Rumball with the Irish National Sailing School’s J/109 Jedi has won in IRC 3B, where third place has been taken by ISORA’s J/109 Mojito. And RORC Commodore Michael…

(Top) That eternal Fastnet mystique – George David’s Rambler 90 and Mike Slade Leopard 100 leading on the water and closing in the on the rock in the Rolex Fastnet Race 2007……. yet in that race ten years ago, ((above) the overall winner was to emerge from further back in the fleet, in the form of Ger O’Rourke’s Cookson 50 Chieftain from Kilrush – seen here beating down the Solent shortly after the start

Ten Years After Chieftain’s Win for Ireland, Fastnet’s Mystique Runs Even Deeper

4th August 2017 W M Nixon

In August 2007, a lone Irish boat swept quickly towards the finish of the Fastnet Race at Plymouth. Groups of larger craft had finished ahead of her, and soon a rush of other boats would follow in her wake. But…

Ireland’s Solo Sailors Are Reaching New Heights

29th July 2017 W M Nixon

The great solo sailing challenges of world sailing are acquiring added stature as sailing is enmeshed in ever-more-advanced technologies. With fully-crewed vessels, interest in the people involved as individuals seems to decline in an inverse ratio to the rising graph…

Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2017. The town’s potential to host such events of international standard is made possible by the quiet yet efficient presence of Dun Laoghaire Marina

Dun Laoghaire Marina – Understated Yet Transformative Presence in a Unique Harbour

21st July 2017 W M Nixon

With the success of Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2017 now universally acknowledged in highlighting the developing role of Dun Laoghaire Harbour as a major waterborne recreational centre, it is timely to remember the vital contribution made to the contemporary scene…

The serious helmsman. Jack Roy and his daughter Jill racing their Squib class Kanaloa, no 130. One of the oldest boats racing in the Dublin Bay class, they worked together to restore her from a near-derelict condition

Irish Sailing’s Jack Roy: A President for Our Times

14th July 2017 W M Nixon

The role of President of what is now Irish Sailing is central to our activities afloat. The diverse boating community that the President both serves and represents is affected by the variable socio–economic circumstances in which our sport - in…

The photo that says a thousand words. Periwinkle and Myfanwy approach Dun Laoghaire harbour towards the finish of the first race on the Kingstown 200 series. To celebrate the 200th Anniversary of Kingstown Harbour, this year’s Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2017 includes a significant fleet of Classic and Traditional vessels, racing for the Kingstown 200 Trophy. And the fleet is varied in the extreme. Towards the end of their first race on Thursday - which concluded with an in-harbour finish close off the National YC where the classics are berthed - the leader on the water as expected was the superbly-restored Dublin Bay 24 Periwinkle (David Espey & Chris Craig), an Alfred Mylne design of late 1930s vintage. But the final leg to the harbour mouth was a long reach in a pleasant sou’easter from the middle of Dublin Bay, and the Welsh visitor Myfanwy, a 36ft cutter designed by Alexander Richardson of Liverpool in 1897 (he also designed John Jameson’s legendary Irex in 1884) was going like a train. Owner Rob Mason recently restored her himself from virtual dereliction. He has given her a fine suit of sails to match her generous spread of canvas, and with a keen crew, Myfanwy was very much a contender, though Periwinkle did stave her off at the very end. However, it has given us what could well be the photo that symbolises the Kingstown 200 within Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 200. The splendid granite East Pier now looks as though it is a natural part of the environment – you could well imagine it in place when Dublin Bay itself was formed. The crisp, clean and generously-sized tricolour flying proudly tells us there has been a change of management, but one that increasingly respects all that we have inherited from the past. And coming in past the pierhead are two handsome yachts which speak eloquently of our rich sailing history and heritage, as the Dublin Bay 24s were a major and very successful class in the bay from 1947 to 2004, while Myfanwy is a direct link back to a period when John Jameson of Dublin Bay with his mighty Irex was the most successful yacht owner of his era. Photo: David O’Brien/Afloat.ie

Gentle Start to Friendly Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2017

7th July 2017 W M Nixon

The difference between an un-sailable calm and a light breeze which is just good enough to provide decent racing is enormous when you’re trying to get a very large regatta off to a successful start. So although the fleet racing…

Mediterranean sailing at its best. With a suit of sails made by UK McWilliam, including one of Des McWilliam’s very special spinnakers, the Judel Vrolik IMS 48 Cristabelle is making hay off Alicante

McWilliam Sailmaking Story is Essence of Sailing in Our Time

1st July 2017 W M Nixon

Yesterday’s report on Afloat.ie of the major changes shaping up in the ownership structure of the UK/McWilliam Sailmakers business in Crosshaven clearly rings a bell with many in the sailing community at home and abroad. The remarkable response has reinforced…

Tectonic shift? Fingal islet of Rockabill nears the Fastnet Rock?? Leading the Dun Laoghaire-Dingle Race approaching the Fastnet Rock, the JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI’s crew are ahead on the water and on handicap, but ace helm Mark Pettit (left) doesn’t at all approve of frivolity. However, photographer Will Byrne managed to get a smile out of (left to right) Ian O’Meara, Rees Kavanagh, Conor O’Higgins, Peter Wilson, Ian Heffernan and heavily disguised owner-skipper Paul O’Higgins

Rockabill’s Win in D2D Race Exemplifies All That is Best in Irish Sailing

23rd June 2017 W M Nixon

The 275-mile Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race overall win was still open to challenge until the leader on the water, Paul O’Higgins’ JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI, had cleared the Fastnet Rock. However, with every mile sailed thereafter, it looked…

A beautiful sight for the sea-battered mariner. Hospitable Kinsale and its marina opens to view as you sail in past the forts

Irish Sailing all Happens at Once as We Soar Towards Kinsale & Midsummer’s Day

17th June 2017 W M Nixon

The people of Ireland – sailors and farmers alike - are gasping for a bit of real summer. But with Met Eireann predicting that next week will be favourable for hay-making, there’s a dilemma for grassland farmers who like a…