Carpe diem. Or Seize the Day if you prefer. Either way, 2024 has been serving up a very mixed bag of weather. Yet when we look at the number of major regatta events in which the full programme has been completed, it has to be admitted that good weather often brings useless calms, whereas vigorous systems rolling by on a fairly frequent basis 2024-style can usually get a result, even if it is achieved by racing in sometimes marginal conditions.
In a weather pattern like this, good sailing days need to be grasped when they're happening, then experienced at speed, and savoured afterwards at leisure. This is what is happening to recollections of Saturday's (August 10th) annual At Home in Clontarf, a successful re-sail for an event cancelled from a gale on July 21st. The re-play drew in classic local classes sailing from Dun Laoghaire and Howth to the head of Dublin Bay, where you find Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club's drying anchorage. Their place there may have acres of mud at low water, but as high water approaches it provides excellent sailing, though with a keelboat you do hope to leave as soon as there's a whisper of the ebb after making your number at the 1875-founded club.
The 1875-founded Clontarf Y & BC's clubhouse of Belvedere was originally a farmhouse, and later the seaside home of a Dublin merchant
Scene of the action – Dublin Bay with the city and Contarf at left, Dun Laoghaire Harbour in the foreground, and Howth beyond the headland
The restored Dublin Bay 21s Garavogue (4) and Naneen (6) making their way up the bay to Clontarf. Photo: DB21 Sailors
150TH AT CLONTARF NEXT YEAR
Yes indeed. 1875. But the CY & BC Sesquicentennial next year is work in progress, whereas Saturday's forecast of showery westerlies was top of the agenda. But while the occasional bite to the breeze was partly accurate, despite the occasional darker cloud any rain had long since fallen on the Irish Midlands, and on the Leinster coast it was one super sailing day for those who took it. While it may have been cloyingly humid ashore, out on the sunny sea it was perfect. And if the breeze weaved more than a little, such that no-one quite knows why some boats got clear ahead, then so be it – just enjoy the day instead.
There was enough wind along the south shore of Dublin Bay for the quartet of restored 1902 Dublin Bay 21s to have a reef in as they set out to race across. But to the north the 1898 Howth 17s – with a fleet of a dozen-and-one-foreby – came gaily south past the Baily with everything set unto jackyard topsails. And later, when a trio of Glens (1946) came across from Dun Laoghaire to join the party, they too could carry full sail.
Keith Malcolm's Glenroan (RStGYC) arrives off the Poolbeg Lighthouse in a close finish. Photo: DB Glen Class
The Howth 17s were to finish with a beat, but here Aura and Leila – both of 1898 vintage – are running along under the cliffs of the northeast side of Howth Head. Photo: Howth 17 Association
NATIONAL TREASURES
But as the beautifully-restored DB 21s are now by way of becoming National Treasures, it behoves them to err on the side of caution. And as the fleets became inter-mingled at Liffey-mouth's North Bull Lighthouse as they sailed to a plan agreed by the Port Authorities, an extra puff of wind had the DB21s under the ideal sail area, whereas the Howth 17s were extra busy.
DB21s Geraldine (sailed by Mike Reid) and Estelle (sailed by John Leahy). Photo: Jonathan O'Rourke
That said, the Howth 17s needed all the sail they could find to get south past the cliffs of Howth Head, where some intrepid souls went right inshore in the hope of finding the south-going eddy between Cannon Rock and the Baily. But it was those who went out to the breeze who got there, despite finding themselves in the strongest foul tide.
WARMEST NEIGHBOURLY FEELINGS
For the reality is that when you go from Howth to Clontarf for the annual At Home centred around High Water, you'll inevitably be pushing tide for the first two-thirds of the passage. And yet as sure as God made little apples, it's exactly the reverse coming back. Thus Howth sailors must have the warmest neighbourly feelings about Clontarf in order to cope with so much uphill sailing to get there and back again. But we can be quite sure they'll nevertheless support the Clontarf Sesquicentennial in 2025 with enthusiasm, for after all, it's from Clontarf that many of them emerged.
Eventual Howth 17 winner Sheila, seen here while still in Howth Sound neck and neck with Deilginis, was to finish first with Deilginis second. Photo: Howth 17s
Dublin Bay 21 Garavogue going sweetly with Rupert Bowen on the helm. Photo: Jonathan O'Rourke
With The Baily astern for Leila (Roddy Cooper), Dublin Bay has a different climate
O'ROURKE ENTHUSIASM
The pandemic lockdown may have only seen a brief pause in Howth's determination to continue raiding Clontarf, but the Dun Laoghaire enthusiasm had waned somewhat post-covid until Jonathan O'Rourke – once a Clontarf sailor, but now so Dun Laoghaire that he has been a Dublin Bay SC Flag officer – decided that the re-birth of the DB 21s, formerly Clontarf regulars, would hit the target up the bay. And so it did, with fleets from north and south mingling – some would say "miscegenating" – at the green North Bull Lighthouse as they made their way to the inner bay.
Action stations at the North Bull Lighthouse, as the Howth 17 Oonagh (Peter Courtney) shoots the calm patch in its lee while the DB 21s Geraldine and Naneen arrive in a rush
Howth 17 Oonagh is feeling the breeze coming past the lighthouse, while Geraldine has jib-sheet problems and Naneen hurtles on
As a squall comes down the river, Geraldine (John Leahy) has control again as first in the DB21s, while the Howth 17 Oonagh is in the situation of "what she can't carry, she can drag"
The North Bull isn't as old as the red Poolbeg Lighthouse to the south of Liffeymouth, as that dates back to 1767. But both lights long pre-date any of the boats sailing past them on Saturday, which is more than can be said for the mighty Fastnet Rock, as its current lighthouse only dates back to 1904.
How did we do that? The Sheila team find themselves so clear ahead that they can safely look back
INFORMAL RESULTS SHEET
Yet this historic boat procession had been so much a matter of hope rather than solid expectation that the results sheet seems to be a suitably informal document. But proper timing was scrupulously maintained, and in the hand-written notes we find the spare outline of a great day's sailing with classic boats, and an intriguing precursor of what might be done to help Clontarf Yacht & Boat Club celebrate their Sesquicentennial in 2025.
The style of the results is of another era, but the times of the Howth 17s – apart from the Sheila (20) clear lead – speak of very close racing
A good breeze in Dublin Bay sharpened the sailing for the visiting Howth 17s
CYBC Commodore Claire Meany with the winning Sheila team of Sean O'Mahony, Dave Mulligan, Andy Johnson and Andy George
The 1898 Howth 17 Rita and the two 1974-1976 Poolbeg smokestacks – all three are now subject to conservation. Photo: Howth 17s
All in a day's sail – Eileen and Echo off the cliffs of Howth, on their way to Dublin City. Photo: Howth 17s
