Wicklow Sailing Club members elected Karen Kissane as Commodore at their recent AGM.

Kissane has been hon secretary of the east coast club for the last few years and moves into her new role with immediate effect.

She has spent many years committed and dedicated to helping run WSC and was the overwhelming choice for Commodore.

At the AGM, WSC extended a huge thanks to outgoing Commodore Kyran O'Grady, who has been at the helm of Wicklow Sailing Club for the last number of years.

O'Grady led WSC through a successful Round Ireland Yacht Race in 2022, amongst many other events and improvements in the club.

"He leaves a lasting legacy in this role and we thank him for all his hard work, endless hours of dedication and valuable leadership", a club spokesperson told Afloat.

The Round Ireland Race is the dominant focus of Wicklow Sailing Club at the moment, but there is a lot more to the club.

The members take pride in describing their club as “a small family-oriented sailing club run by volunteers with a love for sailing.”

So, for my Podcast this week I’m taking a look at the overall workings of the club which runs Ireland’s top offshore race which the Commodore describes as also being one of the top six offshore races in the world.

I’ve sailed it a few times myself and appreciated the huge effort running it at Wicklow. There were pressures from bigger sailing centres over the years which would have coveted holding and ownership of the race. These were successfully seen off by Wicklow SC.

Dinghy sailing at Wicklow

“We have a great committee of dedicated people who are maintaining, preserving and honouring those who established the race. It has got strong support from clubs all around the country,” Commodore Kyran O’Grady told me. “It is more than just a race, it is a big occasion for sailing and for Wicklow and we run it for the benefit of the community also, of which the club ids part.”

“Children who learn to sail in the club go on to become the sailing instructors who teach and give back to the club,” says Oonagh Healy, the Communications Officer. “With that in mind, we manage to be the home of this unbelievable offshore race. We feel the people of Ireland are ready to hear more about the sport of sailing, that we are so passionate about,”

In the club which runs the Round Ireland, the membership structure is about 60-40 per cent in favour dinghies at present, following a big growth of interest.

Cruiser racing off Wicklow

“After being prominent in the 70s, there was a wane for a while, but interest has increased in dinghy sailing,” says the Commodore, who points out that, despite the disappointment of having to cancel the last scheduled Round Ireland Race in 2020 because of Covid, club membership increased from the pandemic period. “As more people took interest in sailing, our membership has increased to 400.”

Cruiser sailing is active, but the rise in dinghy sailing is surely indicative of more young people and first-timers coming into the sport, which is vital for the future.

Wicklow Sailing Club’s Commodore, Kyran O’Grady, has a lot more to say about the club and is my Podcast guest this week. He began by telling me about the foundation of the club.

Following on from the successful lift of sailing cruisers at Dun Laoghaire Harbour a fortnight ago, at the Royal St. George Yacht Club and National Yacht Clubs, another east coast club has launched for the 2021 boating season.

It might be a little unclear when the season is to officially start under lockdown but there is no doubt 'boating season 2021' is well underway in any case given the level of activity on the water this weekend up and down the country.

Wicklow Sailing Club launched its cruiser fleet yesterday from its South Quay clubhouse.

Approximately 15 cruisers were launched by crane on a perfect Spring morning. As always at Wicklow, it was the team spirit that led to the safe and successful completion of the lift-in.

The National Yacht Club’s planned two-day race weekend for its own 150th anniversary has been scaled down to a single-day event now known as the Sesquicentennial Race Day.

The decision was reached earlier this week following the latest Government announcements concerning the coronavirus pandemic.

Now scheduled solely on Saturday 5 September, the event will be on-the-water only with no social events or catering on land other than regular offerings available to club members by prior booking.

The NYC website has further details of the reconfigured event and how to enter.

Elsewhere, Wicklow Sailing Club has offered its apologies to the catamarans that were expected to visit the club next weekend as due to the current restrictions, the club is not in a position to host visiting boats.

The East Coast club, which last month was forced to cancel this year’s edition of the Round Ireland Yacht Race, says it hopes to welcome the catamarans again in 2021.

Roll on sailing in 2020, says Wicklow Sailing Club as it welcomed a number of very happy sailors out on the water this past Saturday 13 June with the recent further relaxing of coronavirus restrictions.

In its latest newsletter, the club reminded members that its clubhouse remains closed for the moment, however cruisers are back on the water and dinghy racing will have an amended format.

Thursday and Saturday club sailing for dinghies will only be open to a maximum of 30 sailors that can recover and sail on their own. Families can sail with younger sailors so long as they can all recover safely.

Mixed households may sail but again at their own risk and must have someone capable of full recovery and being able to return to shore — which means there must be a Level 3 or above sailor at all times in a boat.

Further details of changes and restrictions can be found in the Wicklow Sailing Club newsletter HERE.

Following an outboard motor theft from their boat park in the small hours of Monday morning, Wicklow Sailing Club are advising other clubs – particularly those with stand-alone locations like WSC – of the risk of organised equipment theft even when every precaution has been taken.

It is known from limited CCTV footage from a camera on the clubhouse that those responsible arrived with a car and trailer. But having broken into the boat park from the side away from the clubhouse by accessing the barrier from the lifeboat slip, and then cutting through the fence, the in-yard CCTV camera was then bent away so that it recorded little of the crime.

The club had three RIB engines stolen from the boat-park. They had outboard locks on, were chained and padlocked to the ground, and thought to be safe inside a locked boat yard. But within minutes the thieves cut through the chain link fence, then cut through the padlocks and everything else.

The outboards stolen include are a Mariner 40 (new last season), a Suzuki 25 and a Yamaha 15. The Gardai are now liaising with other CCTV camera owners on the approaches to the club to see if any further coverage is available.

Irish sailing’s informal inter-club competition has named a “Club of the Year” annually since 1979, and since 1986 the title’s steadfast sponsorship support from Mitsubishi Motors has made it an integral part of the national sailing scene. Yet it has proven to be something which does not lend itself easily to imitations elsewhere. Other sailing countries have tried to establish versions of it. But somehow it has never worked as effectively as it has in Ireland, where the size of the country, the number, size and variety of our clubs, the sense of community within our sailing, and our very long history of having clubs in some form at the heart of our sport - all these factors contribute to making this special competition viable in Ireland.

These elements combine to contribute to a continually developing awareness of how a successful club must play a key role in its local community as well as making a contribution of significance to the national sailing programme, while at the same time encouraging new boat talent and interest at every level. At the same time, club officers and committee have to be acutely aware that they are functioning in a constantly changing socio-economic environment in which the “business model” of a sailing club has to be continually monitored, regularly modified, and sometimes radically changed if it is to continue operating successfully. W M Nixon tries to capture the mood of Wicklow Sailing Club as it takes on the mantle of “Mitsubishi Motors Sailing Club of the Year 2017” with the new sailing season getting into its stride.

There’s something about Wicklow Sailing Club that makes everyone lighten up as they step through the front door of its friendly little clubhouse. It becomes a characterful little place where people of many backgrounds from a wide swathe of the Garden County and beyond express their shared enthusiasm for boats and people and those who sail them – and more particularly, for those who would like to sail them, but need encouragement to enter what is a strange world for people from a completely different landbound background.

For it was Wicklow Sailing Club’s energetic and imaginative ways of encouraging their own youngsters afloat, together with others from a non-sailing background, which contributed greatly to its becoming the Mitsubishi Motors “Sailing Club of the Year 2017” at a very relaxed summer’s evening ceremony this week.

Of course the club’s continued and determined staging of the biennial 704-mile Volvo Round Ireland Race, which attracted a record and very international entry of 63 boats with records tumbling every which way in 2016, was an important consideration in the winning of the award.

Wicklow SC’s committee and special volunteers on the podium with (left to right) Fergus Somers (committee), W M Nixon of adjudicators, Mark Redmond (Rear Commodore, Dinghies), Joanne Logan (Accounts Officer), Dave Ballesty (Juniors), Michael Martin (Rear Commodore, House), Charlie Kavanagh (Committee), Commodore Denise Cummins, Kyran O’Grady (Hon. Treas.), Eugene Lynch (Rear Commodore Cruisers), Frank Keane of FKH, owners of Mitsubishi Motors, Roisin Hennessy (Vice Commodore), Billy Riordan (CEO of FKH), Peter Shearer (Hon. Sec.), Angela Higgins (Committee & PR), Jack Roy (President Irish Sailing Association), and Hal Fitzgerald (WSC Commodore 2015-2016). Photo Roseita Burke

But those involved in the adjudication quietly kept tabs on Wicklow SC’s levels of more ordinary activity after the big event had been tidied away at the end of June. Its successful staging had seemed to involve just about every member of the club in some voluntary function, led by Race Organiser Theo Phelan and his Chairman Peter Shearer, so you might have expected Wicklow sailing to relax for a while.

Not a bit of it. Junior sailing and introductory courses under the direction of the likes of Dave Ballesty and Mark Redmond were up and running again within days, the local dinghy racing and cruiser-racing programme was back in action with Jason Moran scoring tops in the latter in Hydrogin, and on the national and international front, Wicklow’s own Barry Byrne – now Commandant Barry Byrne – skippered the Defence Forces’ J/109 Joker 2 to a convincing victory in the new Beaufort Cup, the inter-military and maritime agencies offshore sailing competition which, in its inaugural year in 2016 in Cork, attracted an international entry of 32 boats and crews.

Club activity resumes – Laser racing in Wicklow Bay

International success. Commandant Barry Byrne (centre), first skipper to win the new Beaufort Cup in command of the Defence Forces J/109 Joker Two, at the “Club of the Year” reception with his father Shea (left) and Dave Ballesty. Photo Angela Higgins
Such achievements, and those of other renowned Wicklow offshore sailors such as Brian Flahive, Simon Greenwood, Charlie Kavanagh and Alan Rountree, speak of a well-balanced club whose friendly premises - in the very maritime setting down at the beginning of the East Pier clustered close with the Wicklow lifeboat HQ, they’re in a sort of citadel of the sea – are popular for hosting events of local organisations which may have no connection with the sea whatever.

It was this particular sense of welcome which was most evident for those arriving for this week’s presentation, with Wicklow Sailing Club represented by new Commodore Denise Cummins and also by 2016 Commodore Hal Fitzgerald, while WSC’s national and international partners were there with Jack Roy, President of the Irish Sailing Association, and leading ISA Board members including Brian Craig of Dun Laoghaire and Sarah Byrne of Greystones as well as CEO Harry Hermon and members of his staff who deal directly with Wicklow, notably Eastern Region Development Officer Sarah-Louise Rossiter.

The leading international organisation with which Wicklow is most closely involved is of course the Royal Ocean Racing Club who provide massive support for the Round Ireland race. Although current Commodore Michael Boyd – a round Ireland winner in 1996 and top Irish boat in 2016 – couldn’t be there personally, he ensured he was very ably represented by his brother Paddy Boyd. Paddy is a veteran of several Round Irelands but is also, as it emerged on the night, a veteran of a certain event which made Wicklow Sailing Club the very first Sailing Club of the Year way back in 1979, in the brief pre-Mitsubishi Motors years - more of that later.

Spanning the generations. At the award of the Mitsubishi Motors “Sailing Club of the Year 2017” trophy to Wicklow Sailing Club were (back row, left to right) Cillian Ballesty, Robert Bell King, Carl Somers, Kieran Fitzgerald and Ryan Fitzgerald, (middle row) W M Nixon, Billy Riordan (CEO Frank Keane Holdings), Jack Roy (President Irish Sailing Association), Frank Keane (Chairman FKH, owners of Mitsubishi Motors Ireland), Denise Cummins (Commodore, Wicklow SC (2017-2018), Hal Fitzgerald (Commodore WSC 2015-2016), and Gerard Rice (MD, Mitsubishi Motors) (front row) Jack Cummins and Hal Og Fitzgerald. Photo: Angela Higgins

Today, the Mitsubishi Motors team are still led by Chairman Frank Keane, who has been involved since 1986, and Frank and his son Brian and their group arrived into WSC to find themselves being welcomed not just by the great and the good in national and international sailing, but also by leaders of other Wicklow marine, business and administrative bodies whose presence very effectively demonstrated how WSC is at the nexus of the little commercial and recreational port’s interaction with the sea.

Mitsubishi Motors involvement with sailing continues to have a decidedly personal element, as Billy Riordan, CEO of Frank Keane Holdings, the parent company, is both a keen SB20 sailor in Dublin Bay and beyond, and an Optimist dad at major competitions all over the country. His group included Mitsubishi Motors MD Gerard Rice and their Wicklow agents, Dale Moran and Gavin Moran of the Morans of Avoca group, something which meant they were inevitably described in the course of the evening as being the Mitsubishi Motors agents for Ballykissangel – that’s showbusiness for you.

Keeping us all on the right track was Roseita Burke, Mitsubishi Motors Marketing & PR Manager, who is now renowned in sailing for getting good weather for this annual event. It’s usually staged early in the summer just as the “proper” season is getting into gear, and the winning clubs get into the spirit of it all by dressing overall as though it’s Regatta Day. But it all wouldn’t quite work unless we’d a sunny evening, and despite the week’s decidedly mixed weather, once again Roseita worked her magic, and the sun shone.

But if all this organizational effort goes unrecorded it’s soon forgotten, and an ace photographer is needed, so when key WSC administrator Peter Shearer - a former Commodore and Round Ireland Chairman who has now taken up the reins as Honorary Secretary - assured us that in Angela Higgins the club had its own amateur photographer who could produce work of professional standard and was very good at getting the right people into the right groups, it all seemed too good to be true. But as the results show, it was true, Angela was brilliant, and her huge contribution to the success of the evening speaks volumes for the voluntary spirit of Wicklow SC.

Kenya Lynch of Wicklow SC (left) and Sarah Byrne of Greystones SC, who is also a Director of the Irish Sailing Association. Photo: Angela Higgins
Inevitably in such a surge of life there were those who couldn’t be there, and ISORA Chairman Peter Ryan, whose organization had already run its first race of the year from Dun Laoghaire to Wicklow on April 22nd, and is personally a great fan of what Wicklow does for offshore racing, was absent with the sad death of his mother - our thoughts were with him. And our thoughts were also very much with WSC President and very long-serving and active member Gerry Nolan, who was over the moon about his baby being Club of the Year, but he’d been kept in dock in hospital under doctor’s orders. So good wishes were conveyed directly to him through his wife Angela, who was there for him at the party, and it was quipped that, being Gerry, he’d probably re-organised the hospital’s CCTV cameras in order to follow events in WSC.

It was such a remarkable gathering of so many viewpoints from within Wicklow and beyond that it was an ideal opportunity for new Irish sailing Association President Jack Roy to tell us, in his speech, of his hopes and plans for Irish sailing. This is a President for us all. He’s not just a President for the top international medal-achieving sailors, but a President for whom the interests of the ordinary club sailor or indeed anyone who’s interested in sailing - whether they race a bit or limit their activities to cruising or simply day sailing – merit close attention and support.

His parents were founder members of Greystones Sailing Club, and the President reckons the smaller clubs such as big-hearted Wicklow (it has about 160 members with all categories included) are the true life blood of sailing, “the core strength of our sport around the coast”.

During his Presidency he intends to visit absolutely every club in Ireland , which knowing Jack means in several cases it will be many times. His exuberant enthusiasm, shown through his many race officer duties and personal Squib sailing and cruising with his Halberg Rassy cutter, is an inspiration to his members, and it enables him to voice strong opinions on re-shaping sailing for its own good.

Despite being a commited boat owner himself, he is more than ready to welcome those who just want to taste sailing without financial commitment, and he particularly commended Wicklow’s club ownership of sailing dinghies which are made readily available for public use.

Jack Roy had many other fresh and invigorating ideas, but as we’ll be shortly doing a full interview with him for a future Sailing on Saturday, we’ll give those views and others a proper airing in due course. Meanwhile, this week he brilliantly conveyed the goodwill of the entire Irish sailing community to Wicklow SC in their success, and the gratitude of all involved to Mitsubishi Motors for their continuing support of an informal but important competition which helps us all to understand and support Ireland’s sailing clubs in a positive way.

On behalf of Mitsubishi Motors, Billy Riordan, CEO of Frank Keane holdings, spoke particularly if his own enthusiasm for the way in which the “Club of the Year” competition encourages clubs to re-think their relationship with the larger community around them. Sailing clubs are a vital interconnector between sea and land, and their unique position enables them to provide lines of communication which are of benefit to everyone, while the use of their premises for non-maritime events has contributed greatly to mutual understanding.

But as mentioned at the beginning, simply being in Wicklow Sailing Club makes everyone lighten up, and Billy went cheerfully off script to talk of his own experiences in taking part in the Round Ireland Race. This is a rite of passage for every Irish sailor, and for most of us - as in Billy’s case - the memories can be of great amusement as much as they are of more serious stuff dealing with the challenges of racing on the Atlantic Ocean.

It was like regatta time....Wicklow SC Hon. Sec. Peter Shearer (left) with Gerard Rice (MD Mitsubishi Motors), Frank Keane (Chairman, FKH, Dave Ballesty of Wicklow SC, and Brian Keane of FKH. Photo Angela Higgin

In response to all this, Wicklow Sailing Club Commodore Denise Cummins made a speech which so perfectly encapsulated the spirit of the club and the mood of the evening that it’s only right and proper to reproduce its key messages:

“It is my pleasure to welcome you all to Wicklow Sailing Club tonight. We are delighted to see so many friends from near and far joining us on this special evening. In particular we welcome the Club of the Year adjudicators, and are honoured to have Frank Keane and Billy Riordan and their team from Mitsubishi Motors.

We welcome Jack Roy our new ISA President, and also Paddy Boyd – well known to many of us – representing his brother Michael, Commodore of our very good friends at the Royal Ocean racing Club.

We welcome too the representatives from our local community, who give us as a club so much support. Representatives from the RNLI, from Wicklow Chamber & local businesses, from Sailfest, from the County Council, from local Sports Partnership, from nearby sailing clubs, from other water-sports clubs, and so on - it’s great that you are all here.

Our club President, Gerry Nolan, was really looking forward to this evening’s reception, but unfortunately as you have heard he is unable to be here. We are delighted to see that Angela could make it here tonight. We wish him well and look forward to seeing him again as soon as possible. But now that I think of it, he has remote access to our security cameras so I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he was keeping an eye on me right now!!

Georgina Campbell, Angela Nolan and Afloat.ie’s W M Nixon Photo Angela Higgins
I have been a member of this sailing club for a number years now, not that long, but I certainly wasn’t here when WSC was first awarded the Club of the Year back in 1979, the first club to receive the award. However, we do have a photograph of the presentation of the award in 1979, a photograph which includes a bearded & only slightly younger-looking Winkie Nixon!

As Commodore of WSC, I would like to thank Mitsubishi Motors for this award, the Mitsubishi Sailing Club of the Year 2017. We are both delighted & very proud to accept this wonderful award. It will be displayed with great pride of place in our club.

I would also like to thank Mitsubishi Motors for continuing to sponsor this award and we acknowledge their contribution, reflected in the ethos in that company, not just to us as a club, but indeed to the local community. It underlines the recognition of the hard work of volunteer club members and the community. Our club is firmly based in the community and we receive a lot of support from the local community here in Wicklow.

The ethos and spirit of the club has evolved over many years and on my watch I want to ensure that this continues on into the future.

Last year’s Committee Boat, as we might call our club administration, started with an able crew of many helpers. This honour of running Wicklow Sailing Club is now bestowed on our 2017 group.

It is easy to take over when a ship has been running a good course, and sailed with skill and good judgment. A special thank you to Peter Shearer, Gerry Nolan and Kevin Desmond for working hard as our anchors, while Hal Fitzgerald was on helm as Commodore, and provided a steady hand on the tiller .

Theo Phelan as Race Organiser of the Round Ireland is our kite, our spinnaker, always on a run leading us ahead. Our mainsail handlers and trimmers - Dave Ballesty, Roisin Henessy and Mark Redmond - have organised and trained many sailors for years, and last year in particular the dinghy section was one of high achievement - they are the power house of sailing from the root up.

Brian Malone and Eugene Lynch are our headsail and foredeck men, converting the juniors and turning them into Cruising Adult Sailors.

Angela Higgins and Fergus Sommer are our telltales, helping us to pick up the change in wind and ensure we are in tune with our community, environment and surroundings.

Kyran O’Grady is our mast and boom, supporting every facet of the club while ensuring the sheets and halliards don’t get tangled, yet in addition he is the glue which holds the club together.

David Ryan is our bow-sprit, always looking at least eight feet ahead, always looking outward and forward. Not all clubs have this vision, let alone a visionary like Farmer Ryan with his practicality combined his direction and passion.

The men who make things happen. Leading offshore sailor and committee member Charlie Kavanagh (left) with Round Ireland Race organiser Theo Phelan and David “Farmer” Ryan Photo: Angela Higgins

Yet the boat whch is the club cannot sail without the wind, and our wind is our volunteers and our sailors, all our members who keep us moving forward, pushing us, carry us through the course, across the line to every finish.

Thank you to our friends in the local community who give us such great support. It is wonderful to have an opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone, who turn out week after week throughout the year, and who make the club the great place it is.

It is very fitting that the award is made during this week, which is National Volunteer Week. This deserves celebration. So while the club is all about sailing and fostering the community and getting people on the water, ultimately the club is also about having fun. Tonight is one of those many fun occasions. So now you know what you have to do for the remainder of this evening, which I hope you will enjoy.”

Celebrating their club’s success as Mitsubishi Motors “Sailing Club of the Year 2017” are WSC members (left to right) Paul Sinnott, Paul Carr, Tony Gillespie, Kevin Desmond (Trustee, Wicklow SC) and Derek Stuart. Photo: Angela Higgins

Which they most certainly did. And during it, Paddy Boyd reminisced about Wicklow’s first win back in 1979, when they got the trophy for organizing a sailing rally open to everyone. He was one of the few present this week who had taken part all of 38 years ago, and it showed Wicklow SC what it could do if it spread its wings. It certainly gave Wicklow the Great Idea. The following year in 1980, the Round Ireland Race was inaugurated. The rest you know.

That was then – Wicklow SC become the first “Sailing Club of the Year” in 1979

This is now. Wicklow SC are the Mitsubishi Motors “Sailing Club of the Year 2017” with (left to right) Hal Fitzgerald (WSC Commodore 2015-2016), WSC Commodore Denise Cummins, Frank Keane of FKH, and on the right are two from the original photo – Brendan Haughton (seated, Commodore WSC 1980) and W M Nixon. Photo Angela Higgins

The sun shone on a crowded Wicklow Sailing Club last night as one of the country’s smallest clubs was celebrated with the presentation of the Mitsubishi Motors “Sailing Club of the Year 2017” award to WSC in recognition of its remarkable achievements during the past year and beyond writes W M Nixon.

These annual (and unique) award ceremonies, and the assessments which precede them, have now been sponsored by Mitsubishi Motors for 31 years. Over the years, the ceremony has developed from being a trophy handover event into a series of thoughtful and entertaining speakers, each of whom provides a considered insight into what makes for a successful sailing club in today’s rapidly-changing world.

We’ll be exploring some of the ideas put forward last night in this weekend’s Sailing on Saturday. But with the considered input from sailors of the calibre of Jack Roy (President of the Irish Sailing Association), Billy Riordan of Mitsubishi Motors (an active sailor and Opty dad), and Denise Cummins, Commodore of Wicklow SC, it was both an entertaining evening, and one with much food for thought.

In a big sailing week for County Wicklow, New York Yacht club has announced Kilbride's Mark Mills will design its brand new IC37 One-Design IC37 One-Design fleet, and tonight Wicklow Sailing Club will be awarded the coveted Mitsubishi Motors Ships Wheel Trophy at a special Irish Sailing Club of the Year ceremony at its South Quay clubhouse in Wicklow Harbour.

Best-known as the big-hearted little organisation which keeps the iconic Volvo Round Ireland Race show on the road with such style that it is now one of Europe’s premier events, with a stellar international entry list of 63 boats – many of them world famous – in June 2016. But where some other smaller clubs might find their own members’ sailing activities distorted or diminished through the voluntary organisational effort which is required to keep a biennial mega-event on this scale running smoothly, in Wicklow the reverse is true.

Read W M Nixon's full review of Wicklow Sailing Club's achievements here.

Wicklow Sailing Club are best-known as the big-hearted little organisation which keeps the iconic Volvo Round Ireland Race show on the road with such style that it is now one of Europe’s premier events, with a stellar international entry list of 63 boats – many of them world famous - in June 2016. But where some other smaller clubs might find their own members’ sailing activities distorted or diminished through the voluntary organisational effort which is required to keep a biennial mega-event on this scale running smoothly, in Wicklow the reverse is true writes W M Nixon.

The big race – at 704 miles it is nearly a hundred miles longer than the other classics such as the Fastnet, the Sydney-Hobart, the Caribbean 600, the Bermuda Race and the Middle Sea Race – is run with the full co-operation of the RORC, and back-up support from the Royal Irish YC in Dun Laoghaire. Yet in Wicklow the club spirit is such that not only are there volunteers ready and willing to provide further assistance to key personnel such as the Volvo Round Ireland Race Organiser Theo Phelan and his team, but there is ample evidence that this high level of voluntary effort spreads into every corner of club activity. This is particularly the case with a thriving junior training and racing programme, in which the leading figures have been Dave Ballesty and Mark Redmond.

Wicklow is a busy and colourful place on the morning of the Round Ireland start. Photo: W M Nixon

Wicklow in a different mood, as it might be seen while cruising, with a couple of visiting yachts in port including a pretty little schooner, and the Wicklow SC junior training squad heading back towards the club after a day’s instruction afloat. Photo Mike Harper

En fete for the Round Ireland, with the Royal Irish YC burgee discreetly beside Wicklow’s own flags to indicate the support of one of Ireland’s premier clubs. Photo: W M Nixon

Anyone who has been in Wicklow for the impressive, crowded and colourful Seafest which is clustered around the Volvo Round Ireland Race start at the midsummer weekend will have naturally tended to assume that, after the big event has been tidied up and its week of long-distance racing rounded out with the Friday night prize-giving, Wicklow sailing takes a well-earned rest.

Not so. The Round Ireland tents are folded away, and the real Wicklow, la Wicklow profonde, will have emerged within days. Toppers, Lasers, Picos and other two-handed dinghies will flock seaward for training, accompanied by busy instructor RIBS zooming about to encourage yet another new generation into proper sailing in a club which has produced notable sailors on the national and international scene such as Round Britain and Ireland two-Handed winner Brian Flahive, Commandant Barry Byrne the winning Skipper of the inaugural Beaufort Cup at Volvo Cork Week in 2016, award-winning international cruising man Alan Rountree who self-built – to an immaculate level – his much-travelled 34ft sloop Tallulah, and the popular Charlie Kavanagh, whose abilities as a seaman and sailing teacher are deservedly renowned.

Wicklow SC’s fleet of cruisers moored in the Outer Harbour. Photo: W M Nixon

Wicklow cruisers in action for a club race, WSC has produced several sailors of national renown

But being Wicklow, these kids coming up through a club which has been producing distinguished sailors since its foundation in 1950 will have voluntarism in their genes. Wicklow SC has only around 160 members, of whom barely a hundred are full adult members. Yet not only most of the adults, but many of the young people too, see voluntary work for the club - both in keeping its activities at a high level while maintaining its fabric and the fleet of club-owned training boats in proper order – as part of the Wicklow way of doing things. And of course among all sailing folk, whether racing or cruising, dinghy or offshore, Wicklow Sailing Club is a byword for hospitality and making newcomers welcome to our sport.

Getting them started. Guidance and instruction from Dave Ballesty for a group of junior trainees.

An unexpected bit of colour co-ordination for Wicklow’s famous lighthouse and the local Topper fleet

Lasers racing at Wicklow over the same waters where the Volvo Round Ireland start is staged, and where the finish is fought out

Wicklow Harbour seen from the southeast. It takes ingenuity and dedication to run a successful sailing club in what is essentially a busy small commercial port

With a thriving club life, it also plays a key role in its local community. Yet at the same time, every two years since 1980 it has organised the Round Ireland Race. And though there have been years when the entry has been thin enough, in 2016 everything came together with glorious success for a club which simply never gave up on the idea that a proper Round Ireland Race was central to the entire Irish sailing scene.

To say that the race organisers down the years since 1980 have beavered away behind the scenes to keep the show on the road only hints at the effort sometimes required to enable an event of this stature to fulfill its true potential. But since 2012, current organizer Theo Phelan has been working with a special statesmanlike dedication – some would call it Machiavellian skill – to raise the event onto a new plane. By 2016, with the full support of the RORC and its Irish Commodore Michael Boyd, together with the discreet assistance of the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire in order to provide a pre-race base for larger yachts, and the added involvement of superstar multi-hulls to make full use of a package which now included sponsorship from Volvo Car Ireland, the Round Ireland Race came of age and entered the big boys league.

Spreading the support base. Round Ireland Race organiser Theo Phelan (left) with Wicklow TD Andrew Doyle, and Jim Horan, Commodore of the Royal Irish Yacht Club

Yet this all was done from one tiny club in a workaday commercial and country town whose small port has a very strong commercial bias. But when something is functioning as perfectly as Wicklow Sailing Club and the Volvo Round Ireland Race in 2016, perhaps it’s better not to dissect it all in too much detail. You might break the magic spell. So instead, we’ll just try and tell you who does what, and hope the story speaks for itself.

In addition to its major role in sailing, Wicklow SC is very much a community focus with an emphasis on family life – this is a Games Night for all ages in the Clubhouse

Wicklow Sailing Club has learned to live with the biennial appearance of the big one by ensuring that the Commodore’s two year term sees that the Round Ireland Race – which has to be in a non-Fastnet year – will be happening in the second year of office, when he or she is well settled into the top role. But even this was something which had to be learned, and the club is eternally grateful to a former Commodore Johnny Johnson, who gallantly served three years in order to get the sequence right.

Two people who have given long and valuable service to Wicklow SC are Sadie Phelan (President 2016), and former Commodore Peter Shearer, who chaired the organising committee for the Volvo Round Ireland Race 2016. Photo: W M Nixon

Round Britain & Ireland Two-handed Winners Liam Coyne & Brian Flahive were conferred with Honorary Membership of Wicklow SC – (left to right) Liam Coyne, WSC Commodore Hal Fitzgerald, President Sadie Phelan, and Brian Flahive.

However, when you’re drawing on such a small membership, the succession has to be carefully planned to make best use of the limited pool of talent, and when Wicklow Sailing Club’s officer and committee board underwent its usual total biennial change just ten days ago, Hal Fitzgerald stood down after his two year term as Commodore to be succeeded by Denise Cummins, who had been Honorary Secretary and thus will be tuned to every nuance of club life and administration when the Volvo Round Ireland Race 2018 comes roaring over the horizon.

Last year’s full list gives an idea of the many talents needed to keep any club operating smoothly:

Wicklow Sailing Club - 2016

Officers, General Committee and Sub-committees

President: Sadie Phelan
Commodore: Hal Fitzgerald
Vice-Commodore: Brian Malone (Lead for Try Sailing - Cruisers)
Rear Commodore Sailing: David Ryan (lead for Berthing Round Ireland)
Rear Commodore House: Gerry Nolan (Long standing, long serving member, came to cruisers after many years on the GP 14 circuit)
Hon. Treasurer: Fergus Somers (Lead for Finance Ctte)
Hon. Secretary: Denise Cummins
Membership Secretary: Joanne Logan (& Finance Ctte)

General Committee:
Dave Ballesty (ISA Training Centre Principal, Try Sailing – Dinghies, & lots of other work), Eugene Lynch (Communications & VRIYR Official Race Programme), Roisin Hennessy (Lead for Dinghies), Paul Hennessy, Kyran O Grady (Lead for boat maintenance & house fabric), Peter Shearer, Angela Higgins (Ballesy) (Lead for Grants & Club Development).

Volvo Round Ireland Yacht Race Organising Committee:
Chair & Secretary: Peter Shearer
Race Organiser: Theo Phelan
Asst Race Organiser: David Ryan
Commodore ex officio: Hal Fitzgerald

Volvo Round Ireland Yacht Race Catering Committee:
Sandra Fitzgerald, Liam Whitty, Paul Hennessy PLUS many, many volunteers, particularly those who fed the returning boats.

ISA Training Centre Principal: Dave Ballesty, assisted by Mark Redmond and Roisin Hennessy

However, in a club of this size it would be very counter-productive if people insisted on a clear job description, and stuck rigidly to their own interpretation of the brief. A delicate balance has to be drawn and maintained between recognizing who is ultimately responsible for some task, yet being prepared to leap in to do the job or at least assist with it during periods of particular stress.

And of course in a town like Wicklow – which mercifully is just far enough from Dublin to be its own place, healthily clear of rigid metropolitan attitudes – there’s interest in how people spend their time in their day jobs, and the lineup keeping the Wicklow SC machine moving along includes the talents of one of Ireland’s leading thatchers, Kyran O’Grady, who in 2017 takes on the additional role of Honorary Treasurer, whole another key figure is David “Farmer” Ryan who organised the participation of the Volvo 70 Monster Project in the 2014 Race, and is getting his sailing off to an early start this year with participation in the RORC Caribbean 600 in February.

As for the season of 2016, everyone will be well aware that in the Volvo Round Ireland Race for mono-hulls, the overall winner, line honours winner and establisher of a new record was George David with Rambler 88, while the multihull winner – by a matter of seconds – was Oman Sailing (Sydney Gavignet), which also established a new record.

Theo Phelan and RORC Commodore Michael Boyd immediately after the latter had taken third place overall in the Volvo Round Ireland Race 2016.

But for aficionados, perhaps the most popular prize was what might be called the Corinthian Award, which doesn’t actually exist, but if it did who would have gone to RORC Commodore Michael Boyd who took third overall in the standard First 44.7 Lisa after sailing a virtually faultless race, a race which incidentally he won overall in 1996, racing the J/35 Big Ears.

Jason Moran with his 2016 club trophies won with his Hydro 20 Hydrogin
Once it was all over, Wicklow life resumed, and local racing saw Jason Moran with the David Thomas-designed Hyrdo 28 Hydrogin win the cruiser classes, while the dinghy events were dominated by the annual Junior Regatta which produced a wide spread of results, and here’s a photo of the winners:

Winners at the 2016 WSC Junior Regatta were (alphabetically) Cillian Ballesty. James Beattie Doyle, Ryan Fitzgerald, Charles Heather, Rick Johnson, Isobel O’Grady, and “a visitor from Courtown Sailing Club”.

Wicklow Sailing Club last won the “Club of the Year” award in 1979. In those pre-Round Ireland days, they were experimenting with events which would make sailing more accessible, and Irish ports more welcoming, to sailors from elsewhere. So they staged a sort of cruising rally open to absolutely everything which floated, and from anywhere, and it worked very well to be the highlight of a busy season for a club which was starting to find its feet.

They’ve certainly found their feet very well indeed now. The entire Irish sailing community owes a mountain of gratitude to Wicklow Sailing Club for never losing the faith on the Round Ireland race, and bringing it to its present eminence through sheer dogged persistence, and an awesome amount of hard work, nearly all of it voluntary. They become the very worthy Mitsubishi Motors “Sailing Club of the Year” 2017.

It is not generally known that Wicklow is in a unique micro-climate where sub-tropical conditions are frequently experienced, and Junior Instructors have to take special steps to protect themselves from the sun’s rays.