Friendship, family and sailing enjoyment expressed enthusiastically through quietly efficient organisations - that was the warm theme which dominated Thursday evening’s convivial gathering in the National Yacht Club on Dun Laoghaire waterfront.

The successful hosting club and the Golden Jubilee-celebrating Ruffian 23 Association were being jointly presented with the MG Motor “Sailing Club of the Year 2024 ” award. Yet despite being a shared award, that too was a matter of celebration rather than any hidden rivalry, as was the linking of sailing with a distinguished marque that is now a pace-setter in all-electric vehicles.

Frank Keane, founder of the Frank Keane Group which includes MG Motor Ireland, with National YC Commodore Peter Sherry and SB20 and J80 sailor Billy Riordan, Chairman of Frank Keane Holdings. Photo: Michael Chester

The special links between the two sailing organisations go all the way back to 1975, when NYC members Jim Poole and Eamonn Crosbie competed in the former’s new Ruffian 23 Ruffino in an early three stage two-handed Round Ireland race/rally from Ballyholme. Despite being the smallest boat in the fleet, they finished second overall at the beginning of what were very notable shared and then individual national and international offshore racing careers.

Ruffian 23 enhusiasts at the National YC include (left to right) Feena Lynch (Class Captain 2023), Eoin O’Eochaidh (Class Captain 2024), Ann Kirwan (Captain of Team for Hong Kong Inter-port), Heather Kennedy and Will Brown (daughter and son of designer Billy Brown, and senior owner Michael Cutliffe of DMYC. Photo: Michael Chester

TAKING SUCCESS IN THEIR STRIDE

That the National Yacht Club can take such special achievements effortlessly in its stride was demonstrated just a week ago, when Commodore Peter Sherry hosted the club’s Achievers of 2023 ceremony here, a boisterous event which highlighted the club’s extraordinary range of local, national and international achievements afloat during 2023, and leaves us in the happy position of now having the space to highlight those tireless voluntary workers – often behind the scenes – who keep Ireland’s hugely varied sailing show on the road.

The leaders. Peter Sherry was Commodore of the National YC during 2023, while Feena Lynch Captained the Ruffian 23 Class. Photo: Michael Chester

Because although the National YC and the Ruffian 23 Association have clearcut and different objectives, they both share the blessing of having a significant cohort of members who go beyond President John F Kennedy’s definition of a good citizen. At a time now when - in life generally - everybody seems to be complaining about more or less everything, we would do well to remember that more than sixty years ago, at his inauguration, Kennedy defined good citizenship as being expressed in the statement: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”.

ASPIRATIONS AND SPECIAL EFFORT

Well, in both the National YC and the Ruffian 23 Association, we find key people who quietly get on with living up to this aspiration as it affects their group and its sailing. And in the case of the National in particular, it goes well beyond the needs of their own sailing organisation with its bricks and mortar clubhouse, as they play a huge role in the bigger picture with key positions in Dublin Bay Sailing Club, as well as ISORA (where former NYC Commodore Peter Ryan is Chairman), and class groupings with a particular inspiration recently being Fionan de Barra and Hal Sisk’s new life for the ancient yet ever-young Dublin Bay 21 class.

The National Yacht Club today. It has been in existence as a club at this location under various names since 1870

The Ruffian 23s likewise make their broader input, with Ann Kirwan being the Team Captain with the 20-strong squad that made a successful Golden Jubilee journey to Hong Kong in October for the Triennial series against the Royal Hong YC Ruffians. It all went off as smoothly run as you’d expect from someone whose CV includes being Commodore of Dublin Bay SC when it in turn won the MG Motor Club of the Year Award.

VERY SPECIAL SEASON

But equally, keeping the show on the road at home throughout the season was a demanding task for the Class Captain, and in 2023 that was Feena Lynch, who presided over a very special season in which highlights included an East-West team series in Clew Bay which was won by the Mayo SC team, while the Ruffian 23 Golden Jubilee Nationals were staged by the National YC (who else?) at the end of July, when the winner was Stephen Penney of Carickfergus Sailing Club with his immaculately-prepared Hot Orange.

The Champions – Stephen Penney’s beautifully-prepared Ruffian 23 Hot Orange from Carrickfergus. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O’Brien

But before that, a very high bar had been set with an all-fleets Golden Jubilee Regatta in mid-June at Portaferry, hosted by Heather Brown - now Heather Kennedy - daughter of Ruffian 23 designer Billy Brown, whose presence with her brother Will at Thursday night’s reception really was the icing on the cake.

That said, there was icing already on the cake from Portaferry, as the overall winner of the rally/regatta was Michael Cutliffe of Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club, who is the class’s senior owner as he has been happily cruising and racing Ruffles since 1979. It was good to see him there in great form on Thursday evening, when his beloved class of boats received the MG Motor accolade.

COMMODORES AND PATRIARCHS

In fact, it was quite the evening for the gathering of patriarchs on all sides, as the MG Motor party included the legendary Frank Keane Snr himself, that longtime giant of the Irish motor industry, whose unstinting sponsorship support for the demanding but worthwhile concept of an Irish “Sailing Club of the Year” goes unbroken all the way back to 1986.

The attendance included sailors at all levels from beginners to Olympic participants. Photo: Michael Chester

As it happens, if there was an all-powerful underlying theme to Thursday night’s informal ceremony, it was the sense of quietly celebrating longtime commitment and dedication. The very presence of Heather Brown Kennedy and her brother Will Brown was a reminder of times long ago when their father Billy Brown first sketched out the lines of the Ruffian 23 over several nights around three o’clock in the morning, a special time when he reckoned “the air is uncluttered by other people’s thoughts”.

Then his can-do younger brother Dick brought the first production boat off the line in time for her to have her “straight out of the wrappings” test sail exactly 51 years ago this morning, on the first Saturday of March 1973.

Early days - building the Ruffian 23s in 1974 is featured in an early video

You can check out the four minute video here

But although Billy may have preferred to be alone with his thoughts when designing boats, he was very much of the local community in every other way, and he and Dick saw the creation of Weatherly Yachts, the Ruffian 23 builders, as part of a larger project to increase Portaferry’s prosperity. And they increased its maritime awareness too, through the creation of the Portaferry RNLI station, in which Billy was the first Launching Officer, a role now held by Heather.

President Hillery with designer Billy Brown aboard a Ruffian 23 at Dun Laoghaire Boat Show 1976

POPULAR COMMODORES

As for those who have served their time as Commodore of the National Yacht Club, it shows all the signs of being a role in which the agreed incumbent receives so much support from their fellow members that they enjoy reverting to being a fully involved ordinary member afterwards, which is not necessarily the case in every other sailing organisation.

Billy Riordan with former National YC Commodore Con Murphy, who held the Round Ireland Sailing Record from 1993 to 2016, and is active in the sport internationally at many levels. Photo: Michael Chester

Certainly on Thursday night the number of happy former NYC Commodores present was a great encouragement to the current administration, but equally the length and breadth of involvement by Commodores over the many years with the Ruffian 23s is remarkable.

CRUISING SIGNIFICANT PART OF ACHIEVEMENT

Cruising is very much in the agenda at the club these days, as current Irish Cruising Club awardee Frank Cassidy is quietly re-invigorating the NYC’s Cruising Group. But equally we can remember that back in the day, subsequent NYC Commodore Ronan Beirne was awarded the ICC’s Round Ireland Cup in 1981 for a cruising circuit with his Ruffian 23 Rila while at the same time being Hon Editor of the ICC Annual, and some years later former NYC Commodore Franz Winkelmann was up on the ICC prizeboard for a cruise to St Kilda with the Ruffian 23 Seamrog.

Equally, in straightforward Ruffian 23 sailing in Dublin Bay, former Commodore Martin McCarthy – who was in the NYC’s hot seat when guidance was needed through the pandemic – represented the many in the National, and many other clubs near and far, who find their sport and camaraderie in the Ruffian 23s.

The man in the hard hat and the hot seat – Commodore Martin McCarthy at work during a restrictions-compliant crane-in day as the pandemic lock-down was eased. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O’Brien

But so many in the National YC and the Ruffian 23s spread their energies and enthusiasm into other sailing organisations that there was as much a sense of the future as there was of the present and the past, and another topic high on the agenda was that this year marks the 140th Anniversary of Dublin Bay Sailing Club, a very special organisation that has sailing innovation in a determining position in its DNA.

DUBLIN BAY SC “MEGAFEST” IN 2034

Now of course there’ll be a sailing megafest when the 150th comes around in 2034. But in the meantime, the arrival of the 140th provides an opportunity for some groundwork on the early history, and NYC stalwarts Chris Moore and Rosemary Roy – the immediately past and current Honorary Secretaries of Dublin Bay SC – were working the room in seeking every source of information.

Chris Moore, former Commodore National YC, is also a former Dublin Bay SC Commodore, and he used the occasion to gather further information about DBSC for its 140th Anniversary this year. Photo: Michael Chester

And in Chris Moore you have the NYC ethos personified, as he has served that club in many roles right up to Commodore, and equally has been Commodore and Honorary Secretary of DBSC, while Rosemary and her much-missed late husband Jack were the top team in running Dublin Bay and other races, and now Rosemary has taken on the overall DBSC job in which she was preceded by NYC members Chris Moore and Donal O’Sullivan.

This is how it is with healthy sailing organisations. There’s a sense of past, present, and future moving along in a living continuum, and it was well celebrated on Thursday night in the spirit of the Ruffian 23 Association and the National Yacht Club with their sharing of the MG Motor Award for 2024.

Commodore Peter Sherry with MG Motor’s Frank Keane Jnr, Gerard Rice, and Andy Johnson. Photo: Michael Chester

Photographer Michael Chester's MG Club of the Year Photo Gallery at the National Yacht Club, February 29th 2024

It is not unprecedented for leading clubs and one of the key class organisations within their ambit to share the MG Motor Sailing Club of the Year Award. It began with an added convention (the informal contest has been based on convention and precedent rather than rigid rules since it began 45 years ago) back in 1990, when class associations were first included. And while the contest’s gaining of traction resulted in another convention - that the same club could not receive the award two years running - it also emerged that Class Associations could better carry the venerable ship’s wheel trophy when the award was shared with the club with which they had most actively interacted during the year in question.

The most recent example of this was in 2022, when the 250-year-old-plus Lough Ree Yacht Club became a hotbed of activity with the Centenary-celebrating Shannon One Design Association, neatly acronymed SODA.

MG ALL-ELECTRIC VISION NOW PART OF IRISH MOTORING

That was the first time MG Motor were comprehensively on board as sponsors, and since then the pioneering all-electric brand has become part of the motoring scene in Ireland, attracting a host of accolades and awards while going well with this appropriate “sail-powered” sponsorship. The core of the range is in a comprehensive selection of saloons, but those who associate the MG brand with sports cars are well aware that the new MG Cyberster is coming down the line.

The new MG Cyberster is an all-electric sports car that will ring bells for classic MG enthusiasts

TURBO-POWERED OUT OF PANDEMIC SLOWDOWN

For 2024’s award, we’re dealing with organisations that emerged turbo-powered in 2023 from the lingering sense of restriction left by the pandemic. This has meant that the National YC (already a frequent former winner) would have been in the front line for the title regardless of the classes with which they were having dynamic interactions at different times during the past year.

The Ruffian 23s in sparkling form at their NYC-hosted Nationals in Dublin Bay in July. Photo: Afloat.ie

But equally, while the Ruffian 23s were celebrating their Golden Jubilee on an all-Ireland and global scale involving several clubs, it was when they interacted with the National YC (both as their main home base, and also as the host club for their Golden Jubilee 2023 National Championship) that something akin to nuclear fusion took place.

This provided an event and setting that was sailing in Ireland at its very best for sport, camaraderie, and a sense of something special, with visiting skipper Stephen Penney of Carrickfergus emerging as champion with his team on Hot Orange, thereby providing a result which was as healthy as the spirit of the class itself, and of the club hosting it too.

COMMUNITY SPIRIT

For there is no mistaking the sheer quality of spirit and community which underpins everything the National YC and its members achieved during 2023 under Commodore Peter Sherry, an owner-helm with the club’s Flying Fifteen fleet. It is one of the most active F/F groups in Ireland, though that position is increasingly matched by the Connemara fleet, whose growth the Dun Laoghaire fleet have encouraged with the broad-minded National YC way of doing things.

The National Yacht Club’s relatively secluded location at bottom right gives it a useful sense of identity away from the town, while providing the quickest club access from the seafront suburbs

But as it happens, this week Thomas Chaix - whose role as NYC Performance Coach for the past couple of seasons has upped the club’s success on all fronts – went ahead and posted his annual NYC Progress Report and Manifesto. This is purest serendipity, as the basic MG Motor Sailing Club of the Year 2024 decision was made - though very much under wraps - before Christmas. There were one or two provisos that had to be met before the end of the year, but the way that 2023’s final events concluded meant there was no change to the mid-December’s decision.

So the Chaix Gung-ho New Year 2024 Report and Mission Statement for the National YC is as valid as ever, as Thomas was unaware when he wrote it of the MG Motor award coming down the road this morning, and we posted his thoughts and images in full as seen here, meanwhile wondering what might be the French translation of gung-ho, and found that one possibility was tout feu tout flame.

NATIONAL YC IS WHERE TOP LEVEL SAILING MEETS LOCAL COMMUNITY SPIRIT

That does have a certain je ne sais quoi, but lacks the simple power of the original Anglicised Chinese gung-ho. Yet the fact that we’ve wandered into this very tangential discussion tells us much about the National YC. For its special location in the southeast corner of Dun Laoghaire, closest of all the clubs to the open sea while being clear of the crowded bustle of the town centre, means it has a real advantage through having the closest access to the suburbs – walking distance, in fact – such that it has perhaps the largest pavilion membership of any of the clubs. And the eclectic groups that gather there through the day to enjoy the club’s ambience and hospitality could be readily visualised as having an amiable discussion over coffee or something stronger about how best to translate gung-ho into French.

An aerial view of Dun Laoghaire harbour from seaward emphasizes the special nature of the National YC’s location at top left

FAMILY TRADITIONS

All of this provides a charming contrast with the club’s very focused sailing, which is nevertheless all of a piece with the easygoing social side, as much of it is very firmly family-based.

The pace here is set by the Mac Aleavey-Murphy clan. Con Murphy and Cathy MacAleavey have logged a incredible life-path through our sport, with an impressive new Round Ireland record set in 1993 (it stood until 216) with Steve Fossett’s superb 60ft trimaran Lakota, while before that Cathy Mac Aleavey was an Olympic sailor in 1988, and after it Con served as NYC Commodore while their daughter Annalise Murphy was to go on to take Silver in the 2016 Olympics.

Olympic Sailing Medalist Annalise Murphy with her parents Cathy Mac Aaleavey (left) and father Con Murphy, a former NYC Commodore

On another tack, Cathy was a pace-setter in the new growth of the Dublin Bay Water Wags, the harbour’s oldest class dating back to 1887, and at the same time became involved with the classic Shannon One Designs to such an extent that the NYC is now the venue for the Shannon’s annual Dublin Dinner in March, while at home the Water Wags current focus of expansion is in the National, with the latest addition to the class, the classic new-build Cormac, being commissioned by NYC Hon. Sail. Sec. Susan Spain in September 2023.

The National YC is the latest focal point for the continuing expansion of the 1887-founded Water Wags, seen here in their 1900 version during their midweek two-race programme in Dun Laoghaire Harbour

The boat was named in honour of her father Cormac McHenry, a longtime NYC Trustee who put the club on the world cruising map in a big way, reflecting the fact that the Commodore preceding Peter Sherry was Conor O’Regan, an out-and-out cruising man whose CV includes a global circumnavigation with the Rival 38 Pamina.

INTERESTING LINE OF COMMODORES

Conor’s predecessor as Commodore was in turn Martin McCarthy, who guided the club through the worst of the Pandemic lockdowns while managing to join his fellow syndicate owners in their frequently-raced Ruffian 23, a linkup which emphasizes the special interaction between the club and the Ruffians 23s.

NYC Commodore Peter Sherry with the NYC’s Ethan Spain and Cork’s Ben O’Shaugnessy after they’d won the Irish National 29er Championship 2023 hosted by the NYC

This lineup is shared by NYC and Dublin Bay SC activist and historian Donal O’Sullivan, something which reminds us that the National is currently contributing the lion’s share of voluntary effort to the administration of Dublin Bay SC, the world’s largest organiser of sailing races in terms of membership. In DBSC, Eddie Totterdell (National YC) has succeeded clubmate Ann Kirwan as Commodore, while she in turn has re-focussed her considerable sailing organisational energies towards the impressive Golden Jubilee programme of the Ruffian 23s, where she races Bandit with success in Dublin Bay, while in West Cork she races her “other Ruffian”, Orla II, with Schull Harbour SC.

Female sailors and administrators are so central to National YC life afloat and ashore that it scarcely is mentioned of late, what with the club having their first woman Commodore with the late Ida Kiernan nearly a quarter of a century back, while the club’s Rosemary Roy is currently DBSC’s Honorary Secretary, and in due course Commodore Peter Sherry will be succeeded by Vice Commodore Rosemary Cadogan.

Empowered….Water Wag female sailors gathered in the National YC for the Woman on Water Regatta, 2022

CARMEL WINKELMANN’S MISSION

This input was highlighted by the late Carmel Winkelmann, whose special mission in sailing life was the encouragement of promising young sailors to fulfil their highest potential. The classic case in point was ILCA sailor Finn Lynch, who back in 2016 was in the doldrums resources-wise, yet Carmel put a substantial support package together by the simple expedient of refusing to take “no” for an answer when approaching potential backers, and thus in 2023 Finn Lynch was the first to put Ireland’s 2024 Olympic sailing hopes back on track.

The late Carmel Winkelmann with Olympic hopeful Finn Lynch in July 2016 as they prepare to mark the completion of the package which will set Finn firmly on the road to an Olympic career, with an al fresco lunch on the HYC veranda providing the appropriate setting. Photo: W M Nixon

FIGARO SUCCESS

Another international sailor who hails from the National YC is Figaro skipper Tom Dolan, who celebrated the Figaro programme’s return post-Pandemic to international courses by winning the first leg of the 2023 Figaro contest, a long 610-mile race going round several turning marks in difficult sailing waters to get from Caen in Normandy to Kinsale, a real once-in-a-lifetime home-coming.

The National YC’s Tom Dolan coming into Kinsale on the last day of August 2023 to win the first 610-mile leg of the International Figaro Solo Paprec 2023

ISORA STRONGHOLD

As for offshore racing directly from the club, it is former NYC Commodore Peter Ryan who – as Chairman of the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association – is the main man in much of this. Although non-signature “ordinary” offshore races find difficulty in maintaining their popularity in the face of biennial big name events, the fact that Chairman Ryan is able to host the well-supported annual black-tie ISORA Dinner and Prize-giving in the National YC every November is something which helps to keep the show on the road.

ISORA Chairman Peter Ryan (right) with several times ISORA Champions Vicky Cox and Peter Dunlop of Pwllheli SC of the J/109 Mojito at the Annual ISORA Dinner & Prize-giving in the National Yacht Club

And finally, before we turn to the Ruffian 23’s extraordinary Golden Jubilee Year with its highlight at the National YC at the end of July, looking both to the future and the past it is encouraging to hear that negotiations are well advanced for the NYC to allocate seven highly-visible moorings along the East Pier to accommodate the 1902-founded Dublin Bay 21s. These have been or are being beautifully restored by Steve Morris in Kilrush for Hal Sisk and Fionan de Barra, both of whom have links to the National YC going way back into the previous Millennium. Providing them and the restored DB21 class with this high level of visual accessibility to public and club observers alike can only help a truly worthy cause.

The Dublin Bay 21 Naneen – originally built in Dun Laoghaire in 1905 – returns in restored form to Dun Laoghaire, where the re-born class have found their natural home at the National Yacht Club. Photo: W M Nixon

RUFFIAN 23s GOLDEN JUBILEE

It says much about how radical changes in the perception of word meaning can be achieved when we reflect that these days in Irish sailing, the word Ruffian no longer means “a violent or lawless person”. On the contrary, it immediately brings to mind a class of very able and popular little 23ft mini-offshore-racers that can trace their origins back to the original Ruffian, a very successful and much-liked 35-footer designed and built by Billy and Dickie Brown in Portaferry at the entrance to Strangford Lough in 1971.

The National YC’s Ann Kirwan, former Commodore of Dublin Bay SC, racing her Ruffian 23 Bandit in Dublin Bay

Perhaps they called her Ruffian to get their naming retaliation in first, in the expectation that nobody could come at you later with any worse nickname. Be that as it may, by the time Ruffian had sailed and raced for just one month in 1971, her name had become a term of affection, and when they unveiled the production-built 23ft version in March 1973, it was given an immediate rocket-boost of favourable publicity through being called the Ruffian 23.

We covered the entire and wonderful Golden Jubilee year with this anticipation of the season-concluding expedition by a team of 20 Iris Ruffian sailors to Hong Kong in October here and concluded it here then, before that we carried reports of the National Championship in July here

All of this rightly indicates a spirited class that fits in well at many clubs, but after 50 years it is the National Yacht Club and Dublin Bay SC which seem to best exemplify just what a successful local One Design the Ruffian 23 can be, and thus the joint award of the MG Motor “Sailing Club of the Year 2024 ” to the National Yacht Club and the Ruffian 23 perfectly expressed the overall mood of all that is best in Irish sailing as we move into 2024.

An all-inclusive and outgoing “Sailing Support Machine” - the National Yacht Club, home for 2024 of the MG Motor “Sailing Club of the Year” trophy

As solo star Tom Dolan said when he arrived this week in Greystones to position himself on stand-by for his waiting-game round Ireland record challenge from the Kish Lighthouse, the current increasingly Autumnal weather pattern is much more encouragingly dynamic than it was when he made his previous attempt in the Spring.

It’s the Meath Maestro’s first time back in Ireland with the boat since he emerged as the winner of Stage 1 of the Figaro Solo Paprec 2023 in Kinsale on the last day of August, after racing over an artificially lengthened, extremely challenging and complex 620-mile course from Caen in Normandy.

While the Figaro 3 can certainly make to windward with enthusiasm - as seen here in the 2023 Figaro Solo Paprec in which Tom Dolan won the first stage from Caen to Kinsale – the strategic minimizing of windward work is essential to a successful Round Ireland challenge

The Figaro concluded, he then teamed up with fellow Figaro racer Gaston Morvan on Region Bretagne, and with three others aboard they contested the crewed season-concluding Figaro 3 Nationals at Lorient on October 7th, and won. As it was sailed while the late summer weather prevailed in heatwave conditions, subsequently choosing to sail north in Smurfit-Kappa Kingspan when the summer shutters came down with a bang on Ireland was inevitably a matter of going suddenly into a very different world. But it’s typical of Tom’s approach to challenges that he can put a cheerful spin on it all.

This was just a fortnight ago in South Brittany - Gaston Morvan and Tom Dolan and their crew basking in late summer sunshine after winning the Figaro 3 National at Lorient

STORM BABET? SHE WAS DEFINITELY “DYNAMIC”

And certainly “dynamic” is normally used in this positive way. Yet those who have been at the receiving end of Storm Babet in recent days - whether through wind damage, flooding, power outage, or just plain inconvenience - might find different and often unprintable words to describe the current rapidly moving chaotic kaleidoscope of conditions. It’s doubtful they’d enjoy being told they’ve just had a dynamic experience, accentuated by the brief bursts of sunshine lasting just long enough to emphasise the meteorological horrors in between.

These have included yesterday’s near-visit by Babet’s un-named little sister. While in development form, she went slowly past to the south of us, heading in an eastward direction in deepening mode. Then, having gained power, the nameless one unfairly turned back to have a whack at Ireland’s East Coast yesterday afternoon before settling down over England to start the messy process of fading away.

FLOATING ON DOLAN ENTHUSIASM

So what else can we do other than let ourselves be carried along by Tom’s bubbling enthusiasm? The Irish weather may be adversely under the heel of the jet-stream at its most malignant. And there are too many places in the world where intractable people-made horrors prevail ashore. Yet when we look at what this weekend has to offer as that latest low pressure area grinds away to the eastward while slowly filling, we find Irish sailors coming out for more sport at home and abroad.

Unlikely as it might have seemed early in the night, the final race may be sailed this afternoon in the monday.com Autumn League at Howth. And although there’ll be a real nip to the northerly wind, there are enough close placings at the top of various leaderboards to make it well worthwhile competing.

When Autumn sailing is good, it’s very very good – the Autumn League at Howth celebrated its 40th Anniversary last year, and memories tend to be like this, as seen with the two Howth 17s Leila and Aura, both of 1898 vintage. Photo: HYC

As for the seasonal leagues in Cork and Kinsale, being further west and using more of the weekend, they can expect even gentler conditions.

OUR NAVY OF ARMCHAIR ADMIRALS

But meanwhile, the considerable presence of Ireland’s navy of Armchair Admirals has been glued to weather observation and prediction charts as they wait and opinionate about Tom and Smurfit-Kappa Kingspan making their move.

It’s easy enough to say that wind directions were near enough just right to take off anti-clockwise on Tuesday. But severe easterly gales and zilch visibility in the shipping-busy North Channel would have been unnecessarily and extremely hazardous when the campaign has the luxury of time.

CHALLENGE OF 1986 GOT AWAY “BY SKIN OF ITS TEETH”

The last thing you need in a Round Ireland Record attempt is too much wind, even if it is favourable. Back in May 1986 when we were hanging around in Dun Laoghaire with Robin Knox-Johnston and his 60ft trimaran British Airways to inaugurate the current wave of non-racing Round Ireland records, we waited for winds from all sorts of easterly directions (with much rain) to abate a bit, and settle in a favourable direction.

Robin Knox-Johnston’s 60ft MacAlpine-Downie catamaran British Airways making away from Dublin Bay at the start of a successful Round Ireland record challenge in May 1986. Shortly after disappearing northeastwards into the murk, she was almost capsized in a sudden extra gust of wind. Photo: BA

All the ducks seemed to be in a row by Saturday, with a strong yet seemingly steady easterly. So off we went anti-clockwise in driving rain from the Kish, in sailing conditions which saw the big twin-hulled bucket at her noisy best. But she went so fast that we caught up with a line of squalls that had been retreating northwards, and one of them as near as dammit capsized us, though happily it’s a memory that had been largely obliterated by all the subsequent experiences before the job was done.

A FAVOURABLE GALE?

A favourable gale is just about manageable if you’re on a straight-line course, but a problem-filled challenge like the Ireland circuit is better off with good steady whole-sail winds and reaching conditions, just like Tom is enjoying in our header photo. So maybe after the current climatic chaos has fully departed, we can revert to the dynamic conditions the Meath skipper favours, and the show will be on the road.

And to think they might have been guiding a plough – former Meath farmboy Tom Dolan’s hands exfoliated by salt water at the end of a tough solo race

Yet while we’ve been left meteorologically punch-drunk at home by the hectic conditions, elsewhere Irish sailors are enjoying competition in something approaching summer, although it looks to be tough enough in Tangiers where Eve McMahon (Howth YC) is at the top of the table in the ILCA 6 U21 Worlds, which conclude tomorrow.

Thanks to Eve McMahon, IRL has been looking good at Tangiers this week in the ILCA6 U21 Worlds. Photo: ILCA Class

Meanwhile in Malta, it has been high summer by our standards in the countdown to today’s start in Valetta of the 609-mile Rolex Middle Sea Race, in which Conor Doyle’s xP50 Freya from Kinsale is defending an ORC Class podium place. Whether or not the strong wind conditions in Tangiers move eastward towards Malta is a moot point, as the Mediterranean weather is something of a law unto itself.

The ultimate in-harbour start: tradition dictates that the Rolex Middle Sea Race from Malta should start within Grand Harbour, Valetta. Photo: Rolex/Kurt Arrigo

She certainly gets around - Conor Doyle’s Freya from Kinsale in Dublin Bay. This morning (Saturday) she starts her second Middle Sea Race from Malta. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O’Brien

Either way, the smart money overall might be on Bryon Ehrhart’s Lucky from the US, as she is of course the former round Ireland mono-hull record-holder Rambler 88 with which George David and his team demonstrated that they probably had the best-all-round big boat on the planet, with overall victory - including a course record – being part of their track record in the Malta major.

“Sail clear through the gap….” Nobody knows how the gap opened up to let Rambler 88 through the smaller boats at the start of the record-breaking 2016 Round Ireland Race from Wicklow, but she was right there at the Naval Vessel end of the line, bang on time and going two or three times as fast as any other mono-hull. Photo: W M Nixon

TWO MONTHS TO SYDNEY-HOBART

Rambler 88 had yet to prove herself in the Sydney-Hobart Race, which is sailed again in just over two months time, but meanwhile, Down Under the new season is having its traditional opening in New Zealand this weekend with the Auckland-Russell coastal race numbering a fleet of 150-plus.

Among them is “The Irish Boat”, Mick Martin’s TP52 Frantic (ex-Patches). She won the new Sydney-Auckland Race - a 1250-mile marathon – a week ago, with Trevor Smyth, formerly of Clontarf and one of the legendary Sailing Smyths, in the afterguard. After the Auckland-Russell contest, Frantic heads back to Australia and the Hobart count-down, with Trevor Smyth aboard for his second Sydney-Hobart.

While you can have year-round sailing in Auckland, for many New Zealanders the annual Auckland-Russell Race (seen starting here) marks the beginning of “the real season”

IRISH RUFFIANS IN HONG KONG

Thousands of miles to the north in Hong Kong, yesterday they were enjoying 25 degrees Centigrade, but on a cloudy day. Over the weekend, the temperature will drop a little, but the sky will clear, while the winds – 18 km/h today from just east of north - will freshen to 23-24 km/h fr between north and northeast.

It may be the other side of the world, but it’s of nationwide interest in Ireland today, as the Irish Ruffian 23 Class is carrying its Golden Jubilee celebrations to a new level with the resumption post-Covid of the biennial inter-port contest between the Irish and Hong Kong fleets.

This weekend sees the Irish Ruffian 23 Class in Hong Kong defending the inter-port trophy which they narrowly won in Dun Laoghaire pre-lockdown in 2018

In the fast-changing Hong Kong sailing scene, the relatively venerabe Ruffian 23s are seen as something of a mascot class in the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, where they’re much celebrated. That will reach new heights today as Ann Kirwan of the National YC – a former Dublin Bay SC Commodore – has managed the logistical challenge of getting an all-Ireland team of twenty Ruffian 23 sailors from half a dozen widespread clubs out to Hong Kong for a long weekend of international sport and celebration.

The Ruffian 23 Hong Kong class’s trophies on display in the Royal Hong Kong YC

That Ruffian 23 international Corinthian contest is probably about as far as you can get – both in real distance and spirit – from top level sailing in France. As has been said maybe too often, the past is a different country, they do things differently there.

THE FRENCH WAY IS DIFFERENT

Certainly as far as sailing is concerned, at the top level France is indeed a very foreign and different country, with the corporate structures of its society reflected at the highest levels of professional sailing. The talented sailors compete for the support of promotion-geared companies which recognise that there’s an enormous appetite for news of extreme sailing among the population, most of whom live at some distance from the nearest bit of sea. And ashore, the gung-ho regional authorities vie with each other through big budget campaigns to host the starred events.

Obviously we’re looking at an Irish take on this with Tom Dolan’s Smurfit-Kappa Kingspan support. But in a week’s time one of the the really big one is right on top of the agenda with Le Havre hyper-alive with the crowds gathered for the start on Sunday, October 29th of the Transat Jaques Vabre to Martinique in the Caribbean.

Irish interest has never been higher, as Pamela Lee of Greystones – currently holder of two of the most meaningful Round Ireland Records as the two-handed champ and women’s record titleist - is on the line for the two-handed division with her loaned Class 40 and lead sponsorship from Brittany Ferries.

THE 2024 VENDEE GLOBE?

At the moment, there’s no noise from any of the four Irish sailors who announced potential campaigns three years ago towards the November 2024 Vendee Globe solo from Les Sables d’Olonne in IMOCA 60s, but the outcome of the upcoming Transat Jacques Vabre might put a different spin on that.

Fast women. Pamela Lee (right) and Catherin Hunt in speed mode on the Figaro 3 with which they established a solid Round Ireland in October 2020

After five races sailed at a breezy Ruffian 23 National Championships at Dun Laoghaire Harbour, Carrickfergus Sailing Club's Stephen Penney leads the fleet counting three race wins on his scoresheet.

The Belfast Lough 'Hot Orange' crew are two points clear of Royal St. George's Shannagh (S. Gill & P. MacDiarmada) on seven points, with defending champion Ann Kirwan in Bandit lying in third place on 17 in the 15-boat fleet. 

Sailing with reefed mainsails, the Ruffian 23s completed three breezy national championship races on Dublin Bay. Photo: Afloat

Penney made short work of Saturday's strong wind conditions, winning two of the three races in a 16-knot westerly breeze gusting to over 30 knots and shifting between 210 to 250 degrees, an offshore direction in which locals know the importance of playing the shifts. 

Sailing with reefed mainsails, few hoisted spinnakers and opted instead to goosewing downwind in the blustery scene in the northwest of Dublin Bay.

Carrickfergus Sailing Club's Stephen Penney (IRL 346) makes a great start at the leeward end of the line at the Ruffian 23 National Championships on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

In a significant year for the Ruffian 23s, the class celebrated the Golden Jubilee of the Irish design at Portaferry on Strangford Lough in June.

The Ruffian 23 Nationals conclude at the National Yacht Club on Sunday.

2023 Ruffian 23 National Championships at the National Yacht Club Photo Gallery by Afloat.ie

Frank Bradley's Ripples from the DMYC had seven results in the top two to take the Ruffian 23 Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta prize on Sunday afternoon.

Bradley had three race wins on his scoresheet to be five points clear of clubmate Brendan Duffy's Carmen in second on 13 points.

One point behind, National Champion Ann Kirwan's Bandit took third. 

There was praise for the organisers of Ireland's largest sailing event, who managed racing for a fleet of 400 boats on three of the four days of the regatta despite being in the full grip of the northern jetstream. Winds from a southerly quadrant blew hard again on Sunday to bring a blustery ninth edition of the biennial event to a successful close at lunchtime.

The Ruffian 23s are congregating in Portaferry on Strangford Lough to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Irish-designed and built one-design class this weekend. 

As Afloat reported earlier, Heather Kennedy, the late boat designer Billy Brown’s daughter, is one of the main organisers.

Ruffian 23s are in Portaferry on Strangford Lough for the 50th birthday celebrations Photo: Ann Kirwan

Seven Ruffians sailed from Dublin, (six from Dun Laoghaire and one from Poolbeg).

17 Ruffians arrived in Portaferry in warm sunshine on Thursday evening, June 15. The 17-boat fleet was comprised of nine Ruffians from Carrickfergus and one from the home port. All spent the night snugly berthed on Portaferry marina.

On Friday morning, after a briefing from race officer John McAlea and Heather Kennedy, the fleet headed off up Strangford Lough with a favourable tide under spinnakers. They were guided into White Rock Bay, where they rafted up on the pontoon alongside the Down Cruising Club (the old lightship Petrel located at Ballydorn). They enjoyed a BBQ lunch in glorious weather aboard the lightship before casting off and heading back to Portaferry.

The Ruffian 23s rafted up on the pontoon alongside the Down Cruising Club (the old lightship Petrel) located at Ballydorn Photo: Ann Kirwan

The festivities continue with an evening in the company of the Brown family members, Michael Cutliffe (Ruffian 23 owner since 1974) and Weatherly Yachts craftsmen who were involved in building the Ruffians.

Ruffian 23s at Portaferry on Strangford Lough Photo: Ann Kirwan

There will be golden jubilee racing on the Lough on Saturday.

Read also:

Irish Sailing's Ruffian 23 Design Makes the Big Four–O

Ruffian 23s to Celebrate Golden Jubilee at Portaferry Sailing Club

Dickie Brown 1933-2014

Time was in sailing when the Golden Jubilee of any One Design Class was a matter of extra-special celebration. But it’s now more than fifty years since glassfibre construction became mainstream. Thus instead of fleets dominated by timber boats which became time-limited in their lifespan unless they were guaranteed increasingly lavish annual maintenance, much of our sailing is now done in plastic fantastics, the best-built of which can last for ever with little enough attention, even if they do respond very well to a little bit of spit and polish and other forms of TLC.

Thus the intensely-focused SailSat Editorial Complex initially had only brief cause for pause this past week when reminded that 2023 will mark the Golden Jubilee of the Ruffian 23 Class. The facility’s Verbiage Creation Unit soon hummed steadily back into full productivity with the thought that Ruffian 23s are attractive, robust, and able seagoing boats with a sparkling performance, while being well-built with it. And we should know, as we were there when it all started in Portaferry in County Down at the entrance to Strangford Lough in 1972, and we sail-tested the prototype in a brisk nor’easter in March 1973.

A brisk March day in Strangford Narrows in 1973 as Dickie Brown gives the new Ruffian 23 her first test. Photo: W M Nixon

Thus there was another pause in the production process here at the thought that we were there all those fifty years ago. For although many of the Ruffian 23s will sail merrily through the Centenary before there’s any thought of landfill or whatever way they deal with a hundred-plus years old plastic boats in 2073 and beyond, the weakness of human flesh is such that many of the key players back in 1973 are either already landfill, or scattered to the four winds. And notwithstanding various Faustian pacts, it’s unlikely any of the rest of us will still be around in visible form, despite an unhealthy interest in cryogenics, and a firm intention to do a spot of haunting in due course.

RUFFIAN 23s ACTIVE AT MANY CENTRES

So although Afloat.ie will be carrying more specific information about the Ruffian 23 Golden Jubilee Celebrations plans as we get further into 2023 with that initial jubilee of the test sail in March, at this stage it’s sufficient to say that at 50 years the Ruffian 23 is healthily active as a class in Dun Laoghaire with DBSC, in Dublin Port with Poolbeg Y&BC, with Mayo SC in Clew Bay, with Carrickfergus SC on Belfast Lough, and with the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. There are also strong nuclei in other centres, notably Greystones, Kinsale, West Cork, and Galway Bay, while the Ruffian 23 flame is kept alight by individual overseas enthusiasts in several countries.

With crewmen working in some of the city’s large sail-making factories, inevitably the Hong Kong Ruffian 23 fleet does not adhere to the Home Fleet’s Dacron sails rule

The high point of the special programme will be a Golden Jubilee Weekend at Portaferry on June 16th and 17th to which most boats will sail in a cruise-in-company. Class Captain Feena Lynch of Dun Laoghaire (who crews with former DBSC Commodore Ann Kirwan on the successful Bandit) and Vice Captain Roger Smith of Poolbeg are working on a class home-coming programme which will make best use of a characterful port renowned for its hospitality and unique for its special place in Ruffian 23 history.

Where it all began – Portaferry wll be the setting for the Ruffian 23 Golden Jubilee festivities in mid-June. Photo: Wikipedia

The date allows for plenty of breathing space before the Ruffian 23s feature in the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta from July 6th to 9th, while the class also organizes an inter-area event which, at Carrickfergus in 2022, saw Mayo SC dominant overall while the time-honoured contest between Carrickfergus and Dun Laoghaire saw Carrick win after a count-back.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

Clearly, the Golden Jubilee Year is being built on a class in good heart, but before we’re immersed in it all, it’s timely to remember how it started, Back in the 1960s, Dick Brown and his older brother Billy had various enterprises in Portaferry, where the Brown family had been part of the fabric of this somewhat idiosyncratic place ever since a distant patriarch of the tribe arrived in the town as either a Customs Officer or a Coastguard, liked what he saw, and decided to stay on after declining an offered promotion to another posting.

To thrive, the family had to have fingers in many local commercial pies, but they did well academically too, with an older brother, Tommy, going on into a distinguished career as a lawyer in Belfast, while Billy went into academia and college lectureships. But he was always drawn back to Portaferry, a feeling shared even more strongly by the youngest brother Dickie who determined to make his life there and raise a family in Portaferry, bringing new prosperity to the little town while he was at it.

Dublin Bay has been a stronghold of Ruffian 23 racing since 1976. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O’Brien 

This involved so many projects that at times you’d the feeling that the weekly general meeting of the management of the Brown Brothers Conglomerate was really held on Friday evenings in Dumigan’s tiny pub just off the Portaferry waterfront, where everything from the renting of land through the sale of livestock or the transfer of houses and the operation of a television and electronics company, could be allied with the buying and selling and the talk of boats and boat matters, for the Brown brothers were very much into sailing.

THE GENESIS OF THE “BIG RUFFIAN”

So after doing the 1969 Fastnet Race with Ronnie Wayte and his Carrickmacross, County Monaghan-designed-and-built 35ft Mayro of Skerries which finished 122nd in a fleet of 250, the Brown brothers decided they could do better, and Billy set to on the design work for a 35-footer, while Dickie cleared a commodious pig-farming shed at the foot of his hillside garden above the sea, and there he built the hull of the new boat upside down in wood in several skins to become the original 35ft Ruffian.

She was a success from the start, with many wins in 1971 and winning her class championship in the inaugural ISORA programme of 1972. But in the circumstances of the time, 35ft was too large a boat to contemplate series production, whereas some members of the Royal Ulster YC up in Bangor were contemplating a new OD Class based on the rapidly-expanding International Quarter Ton Class. And thus the Ruffian 23 was born, designed by Billy in the early hours of the morning as usual, when he felt he worked best as the air wasn’t cluttered by other people’s thoughts, and then series built by the Brown brothers in some converted premises near Portaferry by a company they called Weatherly Yachts.

The first Ruffian 23s set sails made by Johnny McWilliam’s Tasker Sails at Crosshaven, and flew the burgee of the Royal Ulster YC. Photo: W M Nixon

The irony is that though it was the spark of positive interest from RUYC which was one of the spurs to going into production with the new boat, as this was before Bangor Marina opened in 1984 the number of people prepared to keep their boats in the open anchorage of Ballyholme Bay was decreasing – particularly after a devastating northeasterly storm in August 1976 - and thus the focus of the new class’s One-Design Racing never really developed at Bangor.

HITTING THE SPOT AT DUN LAOGHAIRE BOAT SHOW 1976

But the class started to take off in Dublin Bay after Weatherly Yachts had exhibited at the Dun Laoghaire Boat Show in 1976, with the Ruffian 23 class taking hold and - in the best longterm Dublin Bay One Design style - thriving ever since. Other places were interested too. Far to the north, the nascent sailing club in Reykjavik in Iceland got to hear of the Ruffian 23, and ordered half a dozen. The gallant owners arrived in Portaferry to sail their boats home at the appointed date, which was a very effective inducement to getting this export order completed on time.

Presidential Seal of Approval…..President Hillery with Billy Brown aboard the Ruffian 23 at the 1976 Dun Laoghaire Boat Show

Meanwhile, halfway round the world, ex-Pats in Hong Kong got to hear of the boat, and in the Royal Hong Yacht Club the Ruffian 23 continues to have cult status, with immaculately-maintained boats sailing with maximum-plus crew numbers, and some setting black sails. This wouldn’t be allowed at most other places as the standard Ruffian 23 OD still sets Dacron, but as several of the crews in Hong Kong work in the local sail-making plants, it would be thought very odd if they didn’t go for the very best in racing sail-cloth.

Alas, little has been heard in recent years of the Iceland flotilla. But in Ireland, the class is having a new lease of life, particularly along the Atlantic seaboard. For as anyone who has ever taken a Ruffian 23 to windward in a big seaway with a firm and steady breeze will enthusiastically attest, the little boat just loves it, and it might have been built with Atlantic sailing primarily in mind.

Hong Kong by night. The close relationship between the hull shape of the Ruffian 23 and that of the original Ruffian 35 is clearly evident in this night image of one of the RHKYC fleet. Photo: RHKYC Ruffian Assoc.

In fact, when the first Round Ireland Race of all was sailed as a two-hander in three stages from Ballyholme YC in 1975, the smallest entry was Jim Poole’s Ruffian 23 Ruffino from the National YC, crewed by Eamonn Crosbie, and they finished second overall to the much larger S&S 34 Korsar raced by Robert Mollard and Dick Watson of the Royal St George YC.

Other Ruffians have cruised round Ireland, most notably Rila skippered by former NYC Commodore Ronan Beirne. He also cruised this little ship out to St Kilda beyond the Outer Hebrides, a notable Scottish venture similarly completed by the ultimate senior serious Ruffian 23 cruising and racing crew, the Royal Irish YC’s Mickey d’Alton, Franz Winkelmann and Leslie Latham. They got to those rugged islands despite a combined age of more than 220 years, and also despite the fact that, with Franz’s great height, the reality of the Ruffian 23’s very compact headroom mean that, as Mickey put it: “We had to fold him up before he could get below”.

MAGIC MOTORWAY BLUE

As most Ruffians were used as inshore racing One-Designs with offshore and cruising potential, some of the galleys were highly individual, and none more so than on an early boat, Jim Blaikie’s Diff’rent Drummer. Jim was the most amiable man you could meet and sail with, so he easily persuaded Weatherly Yachts that Diff’rent Drummer’s gelcoat should be that unique blue you find in Motorway road-signs. For as it happens, a friend ran the company in Belfast making those signs in vast quantities, so Jim was able to get the special paint by the barrel for next to nothing.

Afterwards, with the new hull looking very well, it took for ever to get the last traces of that expletive-deleted blue out of the mould in order to build the next white Ruffian 23. But by that time Jim and his shipmate Bob Hutchinson were working on optimising the tiny galley, into which they managed to fit a complete two-burner gas stove with oven. And in order to get the best use of it, Bob made a huge square cast-iron frying pan, which exactly fitted the space above one of the burners.

The standard Ruffian 23 layout provided only a basic galley, but Jim Blaikie and Bob Hutchinson made their cooking arrangements luxurious

Aboard Diff’rent Drummer, they may not have been able to stand up down below. But they could sit in comfort preparing luxurious one-pot meals long before telly chefs invented such things, and having cruised with them, I can assure you that they lived like kings.

NEVILLE MAGUIRE’S SPECIAL SPALPEEN

Another special Ruffian 23 owner who managed to talk himself into a unique boat was Neville Maguire of Howth. He and Dickie Brown were kindred spirits who got on extremely well despite the fact that Dickie prided himself on the strength and integrity of his boats, yet Neville wanted a hyper-light boat on which he would set an ultra-high fractional rig using the needle-spar system which he and another Howth engineer-innovator, Brian Murphy, were developing in their own various ways.

Reach for the stars…..Nevillle and Gordon Maguire hanging in there with the hyper-light Spalpeen in Class 3 at Howth, on an evening when they could have used some extra crew. Photo: W M Nixon

The result for Neville Maguire was the appropriately-named Spalpeen. She had some outstanding successes, particularly if Neville was able to secure his son Gordon as crew when the latter was not totally involved in developing his soaring national and international Windsurfing and Laser-racing careers. But in truth, Spalpeen was just too demanding for an average crew, particularly anyone who was accustomed to the standard Ruffian 23’s feeling of solidity and comfort.

POWERFUL IN A BREEZE

For that is what we best remember from that first sail of fifty years ago. It was real March weather, a blustery and dense northeasterly which, in the Narrows at Portaferry, could change almost instantly from heavy gusts of 30 knots-plus to near calm. But out in the open water of Strangford Lough, with the seas enlivened by the weather-going tide and the sunlit breeze strong and steady for a good slug to windward, the Ruffian 23 came into her own. She’s a “little big boat” in her style. With the main reefed and the No 2 genoa providing mighty power, she balanced a treat and went like a train. The de-briefing that evening in Dumigan’s was a celebration.

A great life in sailing – the late Dickie Brown helming in the 2012 Golden Jubilee Ailsa Craig Race. He was second in the first race of 1962, and won overall in 1963. Photo: W M Nixon

UK Sailmakers Ireland celebrates One Design sailing success this season with a stunning 1,2,3 at the 1720 European Championships at Cork Week in July.

The loft is also celebrating title wins in July's Ruffian National Championships and August's Beneteau 31.7s National Championships, both held on Dublin Bay. 

1720 

Congratulations to Ross McDonald, David Kenefick and Robert Dix, who all sailed with complete sets of UK sails to fill the podium at the 1720 European Championships.

Robert Dix's 1720 Photo: Deirdre Horgan

These boats all have the McWilliam Superkote 75 Asymmetric, which are proven race winners.

They also have our upgraded XD07BP X Drive Carbon racing upwind sails, including main and headsail upgrades.

Ruffian 23 

With two national championship wins in a row for Ann Kirwan and Brian Cullen in Bandit on Dublin Bay, the change in racing Dacron to 280AP HTP Dacron material is proving unstoppable.

Ann Kirwan and Brian Cullen's Ruffian 23 Bandit Photo: Afloat

Our racing-winning designs, which I developed in Hong Kong over 14 years of Ruffian sailing, have been given further tweaks for Irish waters.

First 31.7s 

Chris Johnson's XD sails won the day for his First 31.7 Prospect crew at last weekend's 2022 National Championships on Dublin Bay.

Chris Johnston's First 31.7 Prospect Photo: Afloat

The latest designs in XD 07BP XD Carbon also gave Nick Holman's First 31.7 a massive boost to take him to second place overall.

Busy Loft

Fairing Asymmetric kite seams at the busy UK Sailmakers Ireland loft this summer

We were busy building sails all summer. We built eight 1720 spinnakers in time for Cork Week, Dublin Bay Mermaid Sails, Howth 17 sails, and lots more, all in time for each national championship.

As sailmakers, we do not just design sails for boats. We design and build sails for your boat. Our extensive and versatile product line allows us to produce sails to suit your requirements and expectations. Call us for a quote.

The new loft Sheltie puppy, Bert, keeps an eye on spinnaker production

Read more about UK Sailmakers Ireland on their new website here

The National Yacht Club's Ann Kirwan was the winner of the Ruffian 23 class in Saturday's 2022 DMYC Regatta on a blustery Dublin Bay. 

Kirwan, at the helm of Bandit, took two wins from two races in the seven-boat one design fleet.

Gusting westerly winds reached over 20-knots for the annual races in over 20 different keelboat and dinghy divisions.

In a tie break for second overall, DMYC's Ruffles (Michael Cutliffe) scored a 4 and a 2 to finish on an equal six points as Ripples (Frank Bradley). 

In the big boat division, Patrick Burke's First 40, Prima Forte, from the Royal Irish Yacht Club was the winner of the IRC Crusiers Zero.

A 2,1 was sufficient for Burke's clubmate Tim Goodbody to claim IRC One victory in his J/109 White Mischief against a seven-boat fleet. 

Lindsay Casey's J97, Windjammer, from the Royal St. George Yacht Club won both races in IRC Two to claim the DMYC prize. 

Click here for results in all classes

The Ruffian 23 National Championships has been confirmed for July's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta National Championships on Dublin Bay. 

An expected entry of 15 boats will contest the title as part of the new format One Design weekend for VDLR 2021 from July  (2nd – 4th July 2021) specifically tailored for sailors in the one-design keelboat and dinghy classes.

The quarter-ton class which celebrated its 48th birthday this season is expected to see Ruffians from Skerries, Greystones & Wicklow and possibly Carrickfergus in Northern Ireland and Poolbeg compete.

The class has its biggest fleet on Dublin Bay with 15 registered with Dublin Bay Sailing Club, where club commodore Ann Kirwan is a stalwart.

The 2019 champion is  Belfast Lough Ruffian 23 Carrageen (Trevor Kirkpatrick) from Carrickfergus.