As Howth RNLI’s volunteers gathered to mark a special moment to celebrate 200 years of the RNLI last Thursday (1 August), pagers sounded with a report of an inflatable kayak with two people aboard that was being blown offshore from nearby Portmarnock Beach.

As the inshore lifeboat was already in the water, preparing for the station photograph, the crew were able to launch immediately shortly after 6pm. Visibility was good with a moderate southerly offshore breeze.

Within 10 minutes, the lifeboat reached the inflatable kayak, which had blown some 500 meters offshore. A passing motorboat had heard the VHF radio communications between the lifeboat and Dublin Coast Guard and stood by the kayak awaiting the lifeboat’s arrival.

Once on scene, the crew took the two persons on board the lifeboat and assessed their condition. Both cold and tired, were otherwise in good health.

The kayak was also taken on board and the lifeboat made its way back to Portmarnock beach, where the crew handed the two persons into the care of beach lifeguards.

Howth RNLI volunteers mark ‘One Moment for One Crew’ to celebrate 200 years of the RNLI — sans the inshore lifeboat and crew who departed for Portmarnock on a rescue call-out | Credit: RNLI/Johnny Wormold

Speaking following the incident, Ronan Murphy, helm of the Howth RNLI inshore lifeboat said: “This was one of our quickest launch times given that the lifeboat was already in the water and crew in their kit to take part in the 'One Moment for One Crew' photograph.

“Thankfully this gave us precious minutes to reach the two persons in difficulty, who had already been blown almost 500 metres offshore by the time we reached them.

“Although the conditions for heading out on the water were good [on Thursday], things can change very quickly and with inflatables like these, even the slightest wind can take them out to sea. You should carefully consider the suitability of inflatables in Irish waters. Make sure to always check the weather forecast and tides before you head out to sea.

“It’s also really important that anyone going out on the water wears a lifejacket that is suitable for the activity they are doing and that it is in good working order and fits well. You should also carry a means of calling for help. A mobile phone in a waterproof pouch can work well for kayakers who are staying close to the shore.

“Although we missed the opportunity to take part in the ‘One Moment One Crew’ photograph at Howth RNLI, what unfolded yesterday was a really great example of the value of our lifesaving work. Our volunteer crew will drop what they’re doing once the pager goes off to get out there and save lives at sea. That has been our charity’s mission for 200 years, and we hope to be in a position to continue that service for 200 more here at Howth.”

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, lifeboat crews joined station volunteers and staff across Ireland and the UK last Thursday for the special event to create a photographic record of those involved with the lifesaving charity in this, its 200th anniversary year.

The volunteer lifeboat crew of Howth RNLI launched their All-Weather lifeboat on Saturday 27th, and twice on Sunday 28th of July to assist sailors in difficulty.

In all three incidents, each yacht had suffered engine failure east of Howth and was unable to make its way to safety due to light winds. The coxswain of the Lifeboat transferred crew members on board each yacht, and the tow line was secured. The lifeboat proceeded to tow each yacht to safety at Howth Harbour.

Speaking following the call-outs, Howth RNLI coxswain Fred Connolly said: “Our volunteer crew responded quickly to all three incidents over the weekend, and we were able to safely tow three yachts to safety in Howth. The busy shipping lane in Dublin bay can become treacherous very quickly for a boat without power. It was crucial that the sailors called for help right away once they got into difficulty.

As this spell of summer weather continues, we expect to see more people out on the water enjoying themselves, he said.

"If you’re heading out on your boat you need to know how to keep you and everyone on board safe. Make sure you can stay afloat in an emergency with a life jacket, stay in touch with a radio or phone and stay put with a suitable anchor to secure your position", Connolly said.

A family of six was rescued by the Howth RNLI, a volunteer crew, after their powerboat suffered engine failure and ended up on rocks at Lambay Island, off the north Dublin coast on Friday 3 May. The Dublin Coast Guard received a 999 call from the family, and the lifeboat was launched within 10 minutes with seven crew members on board. The Coast Guard helicopter, Rescue 116, and Skerries RNLI were also tasked to the emergency. Conditions were good with a westerly wind and slight swell.

Upon arrival, the crew observed the family had abandoned their boat and were stranded on the rocks, unable to safely make it ashore to the island. The lifeboat crew launched their daughter boat, the XP boat, which allows the crew to get in close to the rocks to assist.

Rescue 116 lowered a winchman to assess the situation and observed that all six individuals were in good health and wearing lifejackets. In consultation with the crew on the XP boat, and given the conditions on scene, it was decided that the safest approach was to winch the family on board the helicopter.

The family was winched one-by-one on board the helicopter and taken to Rescue 116’s base at Dublin Airport. The volunteer lifeboat crew from Skerries RNLI, on board their Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat, attempted to recover the powerboat but given the conditions and the location of the boat on rocks, it was unable to safely recover the boat.

Fred Connolly, the Coxswain of Howth RNLI, who was in command of the lifeboat, praised the family for doing the right thing by calling for help as soon as they got into difficulty. He also thanked the charity's supporters for their generosity which enables them to respond to emergencies like this. The incident comes at the start of the May bank holiday weekend, which traditionally sees the start of the summer busy season and an expected increase in demand for lifesaving services.

A tourist was rescued from the waters off Howth in North Co Dublin at the weekend after attempting to swim from Burrow Beach to Ireland’s Eye.

As RTÉ News reports, the man in his 20s was discovered clinging to a marker buoy around a kilometre from the shore by a passing ferry on Sunday evening (21 April).

The ferry was shortly after met by the Irish Coast Guard’s Howth unit whose volunteers administered care to the casualty, who showed symptoms of severe hypothermia.

The casualty was subsequently transferred by ambulance to Beaumont Hospital.

In a statement on social media, Howth Coast Guard said: “The swimmer, unfamiliar with the area, had become hypothermic and exhausted, clinging to a buoy for safety.

“Thankfully, the last ferry of the day spotted them just in time and brought them ashore.”

When the stories attached to the former Cassidy four-storey pub on Howth waterfront appeared on Afloat.ie last week, telling of how it might become a boutique hotel owned by a syndicate including MMI Word Champion Conor McGregor, eagle-eyed peninsula dwellers wondered why we mentioned some distinguished Cassidy descendants without including the late great Brendan Cassidy (1934-2006).

Well, it was because today is Brendan's Day. In his long ownership of the Howth 17 Anita, unless it was blowing a hurricane Brendan launched bang on time every April 15th, and made sure that when evening came, Anita would be sitting in fully-rigged but often solitary splendour in the midst of the outer harbour, looking quietly wonderful.

For the rest of us, it was an even surer sign than the departure of the Brent geese that summer was on its way. And Brendan provided many other services for the sailing community. He was HYC Honorary Secretary for years. He frequently served as Race Officer for major events. And for a while, he came away every year cruising with me on the Hustler 30 Turtle, which fulfilled the vital function of taking both of us out of the Howth cauldron for a while, allowing an element of peace to descend back home.

MEMORABLE CRUISING IN BRISTOL CHANNEL

For we took the cauldron with us. So although we'd memorable cruises to the Outer Hebrides and Round Ireland, perhaps the best of all was in 1984, south to Cornwall and Falmouth and then out to the Isles of Scilly, and eventually clockwise round the Celtic Sea to take in Schull Centenary Regatta.

Best of all was the initial leg going south, hopping round the islands of Southwest Wales in perfect conditions and landing on four of them, and then eventually crossing the Bristol Channel from Caldy to Lundy with as good a sail as any of us had ever had. But the joy was too good to last, yet full of hope, we made our way in the warm, bright evening up to the Marisco Tavern on top of Lundy.

It was full of silent solitary ornithologists drinking sad half-pints. Naturally the three of us (Johnny Malcolm was there to try and keep the peace) lorried into proper and rather rapid pints. What started as a
quiet discussion about developing various means of fund-raising for the new Howth YC clubhouse steadily became more heated. It soon developed into a full-blown and noisy row. I can assure you there is no faster way of clearing a characterful bar entirely of its population of solitary silent ornithologists.

All was eventually peace again the next day as we made a magic 72-mile passage along the north coasts of Devon and Cornwall to St Ives. And back home in due course, Brendan resumed his position as the Conscience of
Howth Yacht Club and particularly of the Howth 17 class. So when Anita became the only Howth 17 to be deemed a write-off in Storm Emmma's shoreside destruction in March 2018, there was no way the Class would accept that. Ian Malcolm saw to it that she was re-built in Douarnenez in 2019, and she sails on in Dave O'Connell's ownership.

Perhaps it was as well that Brendan had been long gone from amongst us, even if it was honouring his memory that most inspired the re-birth. For the restoration was done by the great Paul Robert with his team. And Paul's workshop in Douarnenez glories in the name of L'Atelier d'Enfer - the Workshop of Hell. That might have bothered Brendan. But needs must when the Devil drives.

The sacred duty. Anita is re-born in 2019 in Douarnenez's Workshop of Hell. Photo: Ian Malcolm

It may have been recently known as the boarded-up Baily Court Hotel. Yet for many in Howth, it was still the modestly-sized Royal Hotel. Once upon a time, it was the heart of the village, a reminder that way back in the day, Howth was seen as the main ferryport for Dublin, with the Royal Hotel – formerly the Stagecoach Inn – providing overnight accommodation when needed for cross-channel travellers awaiting (or recovering from) their seagoing ship experiences.

TWO FAILED HARBOURS

Going beyond that, it was a reminder that in the early 1800s, both of the artificial harbours constructed in the Greater Dublin region had failed in their original declared objectives. For after the Act of Union in 1801, as ship sizes increased, the larger packet boats maintaining the key and expanding government mail and administrative personnel links between Dublin and London had found themselves increasingly relying on the greater freedom of movement available off Howth.

The distinctive double gable end of the Royal Hotel with the Martello Tower beyond. We can date this photo precisely to the 1880s, as the largest yacht in the harbour is Judge Boyd’s yawl Aideen, which he based at Howth throughout that decade, making a pioneering cruise round Ireland in 1889. Photo: HYC

There, in the natural shelter in Howth Sound inside Ireland’s Eye, their increasingly demanding anchoring requirements were better met than in the flukey and restricted conditions of Dalkey Sound, while Dublin itself was limited by its very shallow bar. Nevertheless for ordinary travellers, Dublin was of course the less expensive option, provided they were prepared to spend time waiting in the Pigeon House Hotel for tides and winds and the necessary small craft to take them out to basic cross-channel ships that were waiting as best they could in Dublin Bay.

HOWTH FOR ELITE

But for the elite, Howth was the preferred choice for the likelihood of speedier cross-channel travel, even if on the other side they fetched up at Parkgate on the Dee Estuary in Cheshire, as some years were to pass before the great Scottish civil engineer Thomas Telford had completed his roadways through Wales with their Menai Bridge to access the much-nearer Holyhead.

FIXED OFFICIAL MINDSET

Thus the official mindset was soon so conditioned by the route through Howth that when moves began to provide a proper ferry port for Dublin, it was assumed it would be at Howth. Work began in 1807, yet even by the time the first steam-powered paddleship arrived in 1816, it was apparent the shallow and largely-tidal new harbour was of limited value, even if the old hostelry in the village had upped its game with a name-change from the Stagecoach Inn to the Royal Hotel in 1810.

Putting the best possible spin on the new cross-channel steamship service, which ran from Howth from 1816 to 1834. The semi-drying harbour is shown at High Water Springs and clearly dominated by Howth Castle, while the fishing fleet are obligingly staying outside the to provide maximum space for the ferry to make a celebratory circuit

Boarding the first paddle-steamer ferry from Howth in 1816 – “forming an orderly queue” was still a concept barely in its infancy

Meanwhile on Dublin Bay, the loss of ships in onshore gales - one of them a crowded troopship – resulted in increased agitation for the provision of a breakwater at Dunleary, on which construction started in 1817. It ultimately developed into the large-scale Asylum Harbour whose breakwaters we know today.

But while the official plan was that this impressive new structure should only provide shelter when urgently needed, with no direct contact at all between ship and shore, some maritime entrepreneurs soon began using it for private enterprise cross-channel ferry services. And ashore the place became Kingstown after a royal visit in 1821 to establish a fashionable township just waiting to happen.

KINGSTOWN RAILWAY MARKED PIVOTAL YEAR OF 1834

The advent of the first passenger railway in Ireland between Dublin and Kingstown meant that 1834 was the pivotal year, for although the railway didn’t begin operating until December, earlier that year the decision had been made to transfer mailboat operations from Howth to Kingstown.

Dun Laoghaire/Kingstown had been intended purely as a harbour of refuge with no shoreside amenities, yet it seemed to become the Mailboat Harbour with full on-pier railway connections almost overnight in 1834. Photo: Facebook

Quite how the Royal Hotel in Howth survived in the lean years that followed before the port became a fishery harbour served by the railway in 1846 is anybody’s guess. But somehow the peninsula increased in prosperity to such an extent that in 1899 the impressive new Church of the Assumption was consecrated in Howth village, its builder the Wicklow stonemason William Lacy. He and his family stayed on in Howth, and they’ve currently reached William Lacy V, an Afloat.ie “Sailor of the Month” in March for his role in UCD’s championship success in the Intervarsities at Schull.

The old Royal Hotel in Howth was barely hanging in after the ferries moved to Kingstown, but it was clearly still serving horse-drawn traffic. Photo: Facebook

The new church nears completion in the 1890s, providing the south side of the village’s central “plaza”. Photo: courtesy Billy O’Boyle’s Barbers

The new church contributed to the village centre feeling of the roomy space – plaza you might almost say - overlooked by the Royal Hotel, where originally the road had been widened to enable the stage-coaches to swing round in front of the inn before re-tracing their route back to Dublin, thereby avoiding the challenge of the glorified lanes that ran to the summit. That said, in stage-coach times the inn had stabling facilities as well. And then in 1901, the opening of the Sutton & Howth Electric Tramway to circle the hill brought another transport option to add to the buzz and the peninsula’s sustainable population.

MAGIC TIME OF SHOPPING BALANCE IN HOWTH VILLAGE

Thus in time other businesses opened around the village central area framed by the church, the hotel, and the row of shops along the west side.

Memories are probably rose-tinted, but there seems to have been a magic time when we had the Royal Hotel in its Baily Court phase, the church looking just right without the spire which had once been intended, and other reasonably proportioned premises including primary school, doctor’s surgery, optician’s consulting room, general store and post office with newsagents (now a Centra), greengrocers, flower shop, off-license, restaurant (The House), physiotherapy clinic, gift shop, coffee shop, butcher’s, a couple of hairdressers, McDermott’s pharmacy (there since 1899), library, and Health Centre, all of it book-ended by three pubs - the Top House, the Harbour Bar (aka The Cock Tavern), and the Abbey Tavern that traces its origins back to the mediaeval Howth abbey.

Civilised balance – darkness sees the church, the bars and restaurants, and the yacht club the most brightly floodlit buildings in Howth. Photo: HYC

It’s a thriving local community heart that remains largely unknown to the low-spend day visitors who arrive at the harbourside Dart station from Dublin, and then get shovelled along the waterfront straight towards the Cliff Path. And for those who lived in or about it, Howth’s centre remained pleasingly complete even though what had been the modestly-sized Royal Hotel was neatly-enough boarded up. But now the Royal is gone, and we’re working towards a scenario where it will be replaced by the new access road to an apartment development. This means, should anyone wish it, that Howth’s compact retail and services centre could accurately be re-named The Seven Roads End Plaza.

PRECISION STRIKE ON OLD HOTEL?

But as Gerry Sinnott’s new photo (top) reveals, removing the former hotel currently looks as though a drone missile has arrived bang on target, leaving the attractive community-related parish church and other adjacent buildings impressively intact, yet wiping out the old Royal Hotel completely.

This has been done to provide access for developers to the formerly difficult-to-reach vacant area close south of Howth’s Martello tower (also the radio museum), opening up an elevated housing location above Balscadden Bay (Balscadden is “Herring-town”) where they’ll have three residential blocks with a total of 180 apartments.

CGI of the new Balscadden development at Howth – its new access road means that there are now seven streets or roads coming into Howth village’s central “plaza”

CLAREMONT CROWD

As the longer-established Howth clans are people who like to have a bit of space around them, some will think of this new crowded space as Sardine Street rather than Herring Town. And as the other new Howth development down along Claremont Beach will be providing an astonishing 512 apartments including a 240 sqm crèche - babies are big in Howth - pessimists are expecting the peninsular access road through Sutton Cross to frequently become jam-packed, and will probably demand a tunnel.

FRESH CREW POTENTIAL

The more positively-minded in the sailing community will be seeing this fresh population influx as a useful source of potential crewing talent, while others will remember that when the Pandemic Lockdown was at its height, the Howth Peninsula effectively became a single isolation bubble. And it did very well on it too, with Howth YC membership soaring within a place that was rapidly acquiring a much stronger sense of its own special identity.

Howth in gentler times, before the harbour redevelopments began in the 1960s

ALL DONE DESPITE LACK OF HOTELS

All this is being done with a significant lack of hotels. It’s a self-inflicted wound, as in times past people would come and stay in a Howth hotel and decide they like the place so such they wanted to live there. So to meet this demand, hotels large and small were knocked, with housing and apartment developments replacing them.

The Royal Hotel as many Howth folk will remember it, expanded but still recognisabe, and prospering steadily under the ownership and management of the Hanratty family. Photo: Facebook

But even as the last memories of the Royal Hotel are carted away, help seems to be on the way in the unlikely form of Mixed Martial Arts World Champion Conor McGregor and some associates in a hospitality development company. In a place like Howth, there’d be something seriously wrong with any private development proposal that didn’t draw opposition, and The Irish Times has the story here

THE UPWARDLY MOBILE CASSIDYS

Senior-plus Howth folk will remember the proposed four storey boutique hotel development premises of the Waterside as having been Cassidy’s, a place of character that was affixed – more or less – to the conveniently-sized cliff face in such a way that in the weird five years between 1982 and 1987 when the marina was complete but the new clubhouse was still to be built, village-dwelling HYC sailors more or less made the Waterside their clubhouse.

Its convenience was such you could enter at harbour front level though the Waterside, and with judicious use of secret stairways, could exit at the top through a place which had become Cassidy’s, after a pint or two on each floor. This would have been fine and dandy except that the hurdle of Pat Kenny’s Lighthouse Bar was right on the threshold at village level, and you’d to make your number there too, as Pat was a keen Quarter Tonner racer.

Howth quietly includes a lot of history, with the remains of the early-Mediaeval abbey above the marina. Photo: Facebook

But now the Cassidys are long gone, but most emphatically not to nowhere. Constance Cassidy is chatelaine of Lissadell on the Sligo coast, and her twin brother Frank – having won a major Irish Cruising Club trophy last year - is convening the Cruising Group in the National Yacht Club after a distinguished international legal career that culminated in a major posting to Brussels for the EU.

Back at Cassidy base meanwhile, the McGregor of McGregor is now apparently making the scene. When you’re in a little place that has seen Tristan the Breton, Granuaille, Jonathan Swift, William Butler Yeats, Leopold Bloom, Erskine Childers, Edwin Lutyens and The Ginger Man himself making their mark at various times, it’s just another part of an everyday life which, if it includes a boutique hotel with ultra-boxing connections emerging from what formerly Cassidy’s, will still seem to be merrily running along.

The volunteer lifeboat crew of Howth RNLI launched their All-Weather Lifeboat yesterday (Friday, 29 December) to reports of a yacht with two people on board that was being blown offshore and unable to make its way back to safety.

Shortly after midday, the Coast Guard received a call from the yacht which gave its position as south of Lambay Island, the largest island off the east coast of Ireland. The sea conditions were challenging and the crew of the yacht were unable to make progress towards their intended destination, and were unable to make their way back to the safety of a harbour.

The volunteer lifeboat crew were paged at 12:11 pm to launch the All-Weather Lifeboat, the Roy Barker III. The crew made their way to the lifeboat station, and launched the lifeboat within ten minutes. Visibility was good, however the winds and sea state were challenging with winds blowing force 5 to 6, and gusting force 7.

A Howth RNLI Lifeboat crew member ready to transfer across to the yacht in difficulty off Lambay Island Photo: Howth RNLI

The lifeboat was on scene in fifteen minutes. The coxswain decided to put a lifeboat crew member on board the yacht to assess the two people on board. The coxswain manoeuvred the lifeboat alongside the yacht and transferred the crew member across. The crew member established that the two people on board were wet and cold but otherwise unharmed. The coxswain decided to take the yacht under tow and to bring it to the safety of Howth harbour.

The crew set up the tow line and once ready, the coxswain again brought the lifeboat alongside the yacht to allow the crew transfer the tow line across. The tow line was secured and the yacht was towed back to Howth. The lifeboat returned to the lifeboat station at 13:40 and was made ready for its next service.

Speaking following the incident, Howth RNLI Second Coxswain Ian Sheridan said: "The RNLI volunteer lifeboat crews are on call 24/7 365 days of the year. As the weather conditions were deteriorating, the crew of the yacht did the right thing in calling for help before it was too late. Our volunteer crew responded to the pager quickly and we were able to launch and locate the yacht within twenty five minutes of their call for help". 

The Howth RNLI volunteer lifeboat crew sprang into action on Monday evening, launching both of their lifeboats to assist in a multi-agency incident near the Baily Lighthouse. The Coast Guard had requested the inshore lifeboat to respond to reports of an individual stranded at the base of cliffs close to the lighthouse. The Dublin Fire Brigade and the Howth Coast Guard unit were also involved in the operation.

Upon arrival, the lifeboat crew located a man who had fallen while out walking the previous evening. He could not call for help, and had spent the night and the day stranded on the cliff, very close to the high water point. The man was visibly wet, cold, and unable to move due to injuries, but was conscious and able to communicate with the crew.

The crew assisted an advanced paramedic from Dublin Fire Brigade in assessing the man’s injuries, and decided to take him by sea to an ambulance. As a potential injury was suspected, the Howth all-weather lifeboat was launched for the extraction.

The all-weather lifeboat, with five crew members on board, arrived within minutes. The helm of the inshore lifeboat held the boat steady while the two crew members, assisted by a member of the Coast Guard unit and the advanced paramedic, brought the casualty on board on a stretcher. The inshore lifeboat then made its way to the all-weather lifeboat, and the casualty and the advanced paramedic were transferred across. The all-weather lifeboat proceeded to Howth Lifeboat Station, where the casualty was handed over to the ambulance crew.

Fin Goggin, a Howth RNLI lifeboat crew member, expressed her relief that the incident had a positive outcome. She noted that the man had been exposed to the elements for close to 24 hours, and had he fallen any further, he could have ended up in the water. Goggin added that these types of rescues from rocks and cliffs form a regular part of their training, and urged anyone who sees someone in difficulty on or close to the water to dial 999 or 112 and ask for the Coast Guard.

The volunteer crew of Howth RNLI are urging anyone planning a trip to the coast, beach or inland waters over the weekend to stay safe amid the continued good spell of warm weather forecast.

This follows a busy period for the crew who launched five times last weekend to people in distress.

On Saturday (2 September), the inshore lifeboat was launched to recover three people who had been cut off by the rising tide while walking along the coastline.

On Sunday morning (3 September) the inshore lifeboat was launched to assist a powerboat with people onboard which had suffered engine failure. The crew returned the powerboat to Howth Harbour and prepared the lifeboat for its next service.

Shortly before 3pm, the crew launched the inshore lifeboat to assist a swimmer who had suffered an injury at a swimming spot in Balscadden Bay. The crew took the injured person onboard the lifeboat and provided casualty care before transferring them to an ambulance.

Later that evening, a distress call was made from a yacht with 11 people onboard which had run aground at the entrance to Malahide Harbour. Both the inshore and all-weather lifeboats were launched.

The children onboard the yacht were taken ashore and the crew attempted to free the yacht from the sand. After a number of attempts, a decision was taken to await the rising tide that night. The lifeboats returned to station and were made ready for their next service.

The volunteer crew launched the all-weather lifeboat at 11.20pm that night at high tide and proceeded to assist the yacht, which was floated and its fouled propeller freed. The yacht was then escorted into Malahide Harbour.

Speaking ahead of the weekend, Howth RNLI coxswain Fred Connolly said: “Thankfully our crews were able to respond quickly to all those in distress last weekend which led to positive outcomes in all cases.

“With large numbers expected to visit Howth this weekend for the Howth Maritime and Seafood Festival, and as this period of good weather looks set to continue, we’d like to encourage people to enjoy themselves but also to be mindful of their personal safety.

“Check weather and tide times before venturing out on the water and always check local signage for safety and hazards. Always carry a means of communication such as a VHF radio or mobile phone in a waterproof pouch and let someone know where you are going and when you are due back.

“If you go swimming and you find yourself in a rip current, do not swim against or it or you will get exhausted. If you can, stand up and wade, or swim parallel to the shore until you are free of the rip, then head to shore.

“If you can, raise your hand and call for help — and remember to Float to Live if you can’t make it back or become too tired. To do this, tilt your head back with ears submerged and try to relax and control your breathing. Use your hands to help you stay afloat and call for help or swim to safety if you can.

“If you get into difficulty or see someone else in trouble, call 999 or 112 and ask for the coastguard.”

When the three-day Irish Cruiser-Racing Association monday.com-sponsored annual National Championship gets underway today (Friday) at Howth, it will be the combination of a modern innovation in Irish sailing, which is barely twenty years old, and a local regatta tradition of major significance going back 170 years.

For it was in the not-so-distant yet seemingly remote days of 2002 that those sage observer-participants of the Irish cruiser-racer scene - Fintan Cairns of Dun Laoghaire and the late Jim Donegan of Cork - rightly concluded that the cruiser-racer fleets played such a significant and growing role in our sailing that they needed their own Irish Cruiser-Racing Association to represent and promote their interests.

And beyond that, they perceptively envisioned that their new baby of ICRA would give such extra heft to the popularity of cruiser-racing that at season’s end the title of ICRA “Boat of the Year” would become one of sailing’s most coveted titles. And equally, it would build a strong feeling that ICRA should stage its own stand-alone National Championship, ideally at least three days long.

SUCCESS OF ICRA CONCEPT HAS CONFLICTING RESULTS

Ironically, the success of the first ideal has contributed to the difficulty of fulfilling the second. With ICRA flexing its muscles, established regatta organisers have had a national body to which they can quickly refer when any problems involving their large cruiser-racer entry arise.

Champion John Maybury at the ICRA Nats 2022, when the series was within Volvo Cork Week 2022, with the platform party including RCYC Admiral Kieran O’Connell (right). Photo: Robert Bateman

Thus the pre-event setting of class rating bands for ICRA boats has now assumed the sort of pre-regatta interest which in times past would be focused on which of the One-Design classes would have the biggest turnout. Yet this inevitable re-focusing has in turn so strengthened the significance of the ICRA presence at all major regattas that local club organisers very much prefer the large Cruiser-Racer presence to be a central part of their event, rather than take on the challenge of including the ICRA Nats as a part of – yet still semi-separate championship – within their established event.

CROWDED ANNUAL PROGRAMME

Thus in an ideal world, the already-crowded annual national sailing programme would include a comprehensive three or four-day ICRA Nats in all its solitary stand-alone splendour. But the annual setting of the programme is already a matter of dexterous juggling and much trading in barely-available dates So an exhausting and event-packed programme of very mixed weather, such as we’ve already seen in 2023 has meant that the prospects for the late-season turnout and success of the ICRA Nats at Howth in the second weekend of September have not necessarily been viewed with optimism.

“A Force in the Land” – trophies lined up for the 2022 Championship. Photo: Robert Bateman

Yet it now looks as though the turnout today of race-ready IRC-rated boats will be north of 70 keenly-sailed craft. And with the entry list very strong in quality to offset any queries about quantity, the key problem is whether or not there’ll be enough wind to move them through Howth’s interesting racing waters in any worthwhile way, while managing to keep the Indian summer heatwave temperatures under control.

WEIRD WEATHER OF SEPTEMBER 2023

In the weird weather of September 2023, that’s a big ask. But as for staging weather-optimising regattas, Howth has form – and good form at that. In this year in which they are celebrating being the MG Motor “Sailing Club of the Year 2023”, Commodore Neil Murphy has been leading his members in putting on events of local, regional and national status in which - as you’d expect, with the numerically-largest club in Ireland – HYC members have themselves not been strangers to the podium.

On the international front, not only did they stage the J/24 Europeans within the past 12 months, but as well in 2023 as in 2022, the Howth names have been featuring abroad towards the top of various leaderboards.

Howth Yacht Club as newly-built in 1987 – it has since been extended to complete the curve of the “regatta roof” to the left. Sailing in the foreground are gaff sloop-rigged yachts of the Howth 17ft OD Class, founded 1898. Photo: Jamie Blandford

ANCIENT HISTORY OF “REGATTAS”

As to the matter of Howth having regatta history, where could we begin? It was a Viking venue for special sailing events, then the Breton-Norman sailing party which subsequently became the St Lawrence family took over the village and castle in regatta style in 1177, and stayed until 2021. And when - in 1576 - the great western sea queen Grace O’Malley called by while cruiser-racing in the area, she temporarily abducted the son and heir to the castle because she felt the hospitality offered to visiting seafarers did not meet her demanding Connacht requirements.

 Howth Castle (left) and Harbour (right) with race area beyond island of Ireland's Eye

THE KIDNAP “RANSOM”

The kidnapped boy was safely returned when it was agreed that the gates of Howth Castle would never be closed in future (even if the main door was much reinforced), and there would always be an extra place at the dinner table for any unexpected but otherwise well-intentioned visitor.

Thanks to this, it can be assumed that hospitality for visiting seafarers has since been kept up to the mark generally, with the inauguration of the Howth rail connection on 30th May 1847 opening up the possibility of regattas as a spectator sport to provide a significant shoreside element.

RAILWAY DAY EXCURSIONS TO WATCH THE BOATS

The viewing figures were augmented by special railway regatta day tickets to such an extent that the railway – originally intended mainly to transport fish from the expanding port – found it worth their while to provide regatta prizes and sponsorship in an era before the entertainment of profitable arena sports had become a central part of life. It was a simpler time when watching boats sailing was still in the heights of daytime entertainment, somewhere along with horse racing and bare knuckle boxing.

Ten years after the railway had reached Howth in 1847, annual railway-company-sponsored regattas were a regular feature. While most of the yachts were home-ported at Kingstown, those with the RWYC were of the 1828-founded Royal Western Yacht Club, whose fleet had dispersed from Kilrush on the Shannon Estuary after the Great Famine of 1846-49

Thus regattas at Howth long pre-date any local sailing clubs, which didn’t start to become established at the port until 1895. But with its 2,000-plus membership and extensive marina/clubhouse complex now providing a significant element of the economy both of Howth Harbour and its Peninsula, Howth itself is a significant part of the ICRA engine, and the fact that current ICRA Commodore Dave Cullen is a longtime and successful Howth sailor is part of the pattern.

Dave Cullen of Howth, current Commodore of ICRA. After many successful years racing Classic Half Tonners including winning the Worlds, he now campaigns the First 50 Checkmate XX with Nigel Biggs, their successes in 2023 including winning the Coastal Division in the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta in July. Photo: Robert Bateman

This Howth input also arises with the remarkable role played by the American-originating range of cruiser-racing J/Boats. It is simply impossible to imagine the current Irish sailing scene without the extensive J/Boat range – first founded in 1977 - playing a key role in it.

GROWTH OF ICRA/HOWTH U25 J/24 DEVELOPMENT SCHEME

Thus the single largest numerical presence will be the 18 boats racing in what is also the J/24 Nationals. It was another Howth-based ICRA Commodore, Nobby Reilly in 2012, who first suggested that a scheme should be set up whereby ICRA and the leading clubs would provide tangible support for Under 25s to race J/24s, and gradually this idea has taken root from its Howth origins.

Its success has been such that one product of the scheme, the all-Ireland crew on Headcase helmed by Cillian Dickson of Lough Ree and Howth, are currently in Thessaloniki in Greece and about to start racing in the J/24 Worlds, having just travelled from Hungary where they won the J/24 Europeans.

Kinsailor (right) on the hunt at the J/24 Europeans at Howth in 2022, when she finished on the podium and was top Irish boat

Meanwhile, the top Irish boat in the 2022 Euros in Howth, the similarly U25-developed Kinsailor from Kinsale with Micheal O Suillebhain as helm, is surely among the front runners at Howth after a convincing display at the J-Cup in Dun Laoghaire a fortnight ago.

J/109s STILL ON TARGET

However, it is the J/24s’ big sister, the ever-young J/109, which seems to have been conceived and developed with Irish needs most specifically in demand. Thus the defending overall champion, after the ICRA Nats 2022 were held within Volvo Cork Week last year, is John Maybury’sJ/109 Joker 2 of the Royal Irish YC in Dun Laoghaire, while clubmate Barry Cunningham with sister-ship Chimaera was top boat in the recent J/Cup.

In her time, Chimaera has won at home and abroad, with previous owner Andrew Craig of Dun Laoghaire making his exit from the class in some style with the overall win at the Scottish Series, while racing in Scotland has also provided a happy hunting ground for another top contending J/109, Pat Kelly’s Storm from Rush SC.

SNAPSHOT IN THE HUNT, SWUZZLE BUBBLING, AND FINAL CALL II ON TARGET

A newer, slightly smaller J/Boat is the host club’s Mike & Richie Evans’ J/99 Snapshot, ICRA “Boat of the Year” 2022 and a winner here, there and everywhere looking to hit that extra sweet spot of speed to guarantee success in home waters.

“Winning here, there and everywhere…” Snapshot on her way to success in the Sovereign’s Cup at Kinsale. Photo: Robert Bateman

Making a return visit to Howth after last being present in 1980 is the extremely likeable Bruce Farr-designed Half Tonner Half Tonner Swuzzlebubble of 1976 New Zealand origins. She last featured in the area in the final race of the 1980 ISORA season across channel to Howth from Abersoch in the ownership of the late Bruce Lyster of RSTGYC, winning to take that year’s ISORA Championship. Now in superbly restored form and looking like new, she is in the ownership of the Dwyer family of Crosshaven, living proof that glassfibre can last just about for ever with TLC, her continuing competitiveness in the right conditions an encouragement for everyone.

Swuzzlebubble coming in to Howth to win the race from Abersoch in August 1980, and the ISORA title with it. Photo: W M Nixon

In sailing as in other sports, competing in an away fixture sometimes adds the vital extra slice of performance that takes those essential extra seconds off the elapsed time, and it is Our Friends In The North, owner John Minnis (RUYC & RNIYC) and helm Gareth Flannigan, with the highly-optimised Archambault 35 Final Call II, who have shown sparks of pure genius and magic extra speed in 2023’s sailing.

Final Call II from Belfast Lough racing to success in the Wave Regatta at Howth in June 2022. She races today as one of the favourites in the ICRA Nats. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

They’ve broad shoulders, but they’ll surely need them as Final Call II starts racing this morning with a great weight of expectation on her crew. Meanwhile, lead organiser Jill Sommerville and her Howth Yacht Club team are in line with a level of organisation which is a very long way ahead of the modest expectations of the regattas of yore. For Howth is currently in overdrive with the tented village of the weekend’s Howth Maritime Festival on the green beside the clubhouse in tandem with the high-powered sport on the water. All that’s needed is a reasonable sailing wind, and if the skies can stay clear, the sea breeze should do the business.

ICRA Nationals Class Entries 2023

Class Zero

IRL	66	Checkmate XX
GBR	732R	Hijacker
IRL	985	Ghost Raider
IRL	2729	Searcher
IRL	3721	ValenTina
IRL	4240	Prima Forte
GBR	7536	HotCookie
IRL	9753	Jelly Baby
IRL	10800	Rockabill VI

 

Class One

IRL	811	Raptor
IRL	1003	Final Call II
IRL	1141	Storm
IRL	1206	Joker 2
GBR	1242r	white mischief
IRL	1383	Ruth
IRL	1543	Indian
IRL	1699	Snapshot
IRL	2160	Chimaera
GBR	8933R	Bon Exemple
IRL	19109	Outrajeous
FRA	21711	Tribal

 

Class Two 

IRL	977	Crazy Diamond
GBR	1371	Elixir
IRL	1484	Harmony
IRL	1551	Mojo
GBR	2678	Perseverence
IRL	2798	Mata
KZ	3494	Swuzzlebubble
IRL	6909	Extreme Reality
IRL	9970	Lambay Rules

 

Class Three

FRA	111	ALLIG8R
IRL	971	Leeuwin
IRL	988	Dux
IRL	1972	No Excuse
IRL	2507	Impetuous
IRL	3022	Xebec
IRL	3087	Anchor Challenge
IRL	4444	Insider
IRL	4571	Flyover
IRL	7115	Gecko
IRL	7495	Maximus
IRL	8188	Alliance II
IRL	9538	Running Wild
IRL	90210	Snoopy

 

White Sails

IRL	1333	White Lotus
IRL	2070	Out&About
IRL	4073	Splashdance
GBR	8571	Spellbound
IRL	33301	White Pearl
IRL	100	Demelza
GBR	1411t	Toughnut

 

J24 National Championships

	Rush 2	Juvenile Delinquent
IRL	191	Battling J
IRL	680	Kilcullen
IRL	1183
IRL	1234	Lady Caroline
IRL	3109	Jade
GBR	4084	Billy Whizz
IRL	4191	Janx Spirit
IRL	4212	Cool Jade
IRL	4217	Hedgehog
IRL	4236	KINSAILOR
GBR	4265	smugairle róin
IRL	4384	Jibberish
IRL	4532	Jelignite
IRL	4533	Crazy Horse
IRL	4794	Hard on Port
IRL	5067	Jedi
IRL	5072	Printfix.ie
IRL	5159	Jibe
IRL	5219	IL Riccio
IRL	5278	Hung Jury