The death of Dr Noel P O'Sullivan of Lough Swilly Yacht Club at the age of 86, and his funeral last weekend in his home town of Derry, marked the conclusion of a remarkable personal input into the development of sailing in the Northwest, on Lough Foyle and c, and in Donegal and on the ocean beyond.
But although the "impish presence" of Noel O'Sullivan may have gone from among us, his benign influence and encouragement lives on in the many people he brought to sailing and guided on to further achievement afloat, whether as crew on his own boat, or in craft of their own.
He was an exceptionally generous individual who introduced many in the Northwest to sailing. And not just on Lough Swilly, but out past Dunree Fort, where perhaps the most serious sailing in Ireland begins. Thanks to his pioneering example and encouragement, no less than three young Lough Swilly sailors have since gone on to professionally skipper Clipper Challenge yachts racing around the world.
Home waters – Lough Swilly provides a remarkable variety of sailing water
SELF-TAUGHT IN STYLE
"Noel P" was the sort of person around whom many stories steadily accumulated as he learned and laughed his way through life, when his sailing initially was largely self-taught. One such tale goes back to his early days when he and his fellow dentist at the time, the late Brian Kelly, sailed their "decidedly compact" 17ft twin-keeled Lysander across Lough Swilly after work on a hot summer's evening from Fahan to Rathmullan, where they anchored just off the beach and went for a quick run ashore to the local hostelry.
DIG OUT FROM HIGH AND DRY
When they eventually made it back to the boat late in the evening, or perhaps very early next morning, the ebb tide had left the bilge-keeler high and dry, well up on the beach. But the two intrepid mariners located a JCB digger at a nearby building site, managed to get it started in the middle of the night, and dug a trench down to the water's edge, enabling them to get the 17 footer afloat and sailed back to Fahan in time to treat their patients in Derry next morning.
Modest beginnings. A co-owned 17ft Lysander provided Noel P with an excellent opportunity to demonstrate his capacity for lateral thinking
TOPS IN RACING PUPPETEER
"Graduating" to the Puppeteer 22 Magic Roundabout, his almost-vertical learning curve was such that he dominated Lough Swilly club racing for a period in the 1980s. Then after some time spent with a smaller Beneteau, he took delivery of one of the very first Beneteau 40.7s in 1999, literally "hot off the presses", planning to do the ARC and Antigua Week. He was probably, his friends and shipmates reckoned, the first Irishman to depart the Swilly environs and cross the North Atlantic in a small boat under sail since St Brendan the Navigator.
Racing with Lough Swilly YC was dominated for a decade by Noel P O'Sullivan with his Puppeteer 22 Magic Roundabout. Lough Swilly YC's annual three day regatta is being staged this Bank Holiday weekend
NEW BOAT PROBLEMS
The First 40.7 Aine of Swilly was undoubtedly his dreamship, but he had been so keen to get one of the very first off the production line that some snags still needed to be sorted. The boat was going very well in the racing division of the 1999 ARC when they encountered major steering mechanism problems in mid-Atlantic. Fortunately, he maintained close links with the marine industry in the Clyde, and Alastair Buchanan, who ran the Mast and Rigging company in Largs was in his crew and able to effect repairs and they made it safely to St Lucia.
CLASS WIN IN ANTIGUA WEEK
After a highly successful Antigua Week, first in class and second overall with Alastair as skipper and a combined crew from the Clyde and the Swilly, Noel and a fresh Lough Swilly crew then set out to take Áine of Fahan on the trip back to Europe via Bermuda in the ARC Europe 2000. Prior to departure on the main 1,800 mile ocean passage from Bermuda, Noel P. would allay the anxieties of the younger crew members telling them: "Sure it's only the same as doing thirty Tory races."
Close racing in Antigua Sailing Week – back in the day, Aine of Swilly was first in class and second overall
STEERING WHEEL SNAPS OFF
More steering problems developed 600 miles out from the Azores, when the wheel snapped off. They had to make do with the boarding ladder as a tiller after the autopilot also gave up the ghost in a developing storm in the early hours of next day. Fortunately, they'd the ladder rigged and ready before the storm set in fully.
Things got worse. A VHF call came in from another yacht up ahead of Aine of Swilly saying that they had just lost a man overboard. The First 40.7's windspeed was touching 44kts at the time.
COOL, CALM AND BUSINESSLIKE
Cool, calm and extremely businesslike out on deck, Noel P. established a two man steering roster on the makeshift tiller, and set lookouts both sides, while down below mixed communication with the other boat to offer and help summon assistance on the radio and satphone increasingly had less hopeful results, and later that morning they caught sight of a danbuoy away to port, but there was no-one near it when they approached.
CONTROLLED ECCENTRICITY
To say that Noel P. was eccentric would be an understatement, but he would revel in that description, although when the chips were down, the eccentricity vanished instantly. That said, he never helmed his boats, preferring foredeck work.
Blurred recollection……Aine of Swilly at the start of the Antigua-Bermuda Race, wearing distinctive headgear left behind by a Scottish crew, and with Noel P as usual not on the helm, but on the lee deck trimming the genoa.
THE SPINNAKER LOVER
Spinnakerss were the love of his life, apart from his wife Ann of course, to whom he was devoted. His bedtime reading at sea consisted of books on theoretical aerodynamics, and he had John Highcock of Saturn Sails in Scotland - who made all Aine's sails - aboard for the 1999 ARC.
John hardly got out on deck for the entire trip, so busy was he down below constantly rebuilding and reshaping the three spinnakers which Noel insisted were flown right out to and beyond the limits of their design specifications. He was extremely competitive, and loved to proclaim that only an owner can say: "Bugger the boat, buy a new one ".
FOUR EASY VOYAGING LESSONS
When undertaking a voyage, the crew learned from Noel P. how to cross an ocean in four easy lessons : Check; Check; Check; Check. He checked and re-checked everything constantly, both day and night, whether it was shrouds, bilges, engine compartment, batteries, halyards, sails, stays, everything. You name it and he checked it, again and again and again, and everything.
NO INTEREST IN ELECTRONICS
Everything that is, except for electronic devices and instruments. He had the best available on board, but had no interest in them. His crew reckoned he was secretly delighted when they failed from time to time as they always do. It was an opportunity for his favourite exhortation to the crew : "Sail the boat !"
Southern comforts. For his final decade with Aine of Swilly, Noel P O'Sullivan based his beloved First 40.7 in the warm south, cruising extensively in the Canaries, to Madeira, and along the coast of Morocco
SOUTHERN SAILING
Perhaps one of the reasons that Noel P was less widely known in national sailing circles is that, for the final eight years of his active sailing career, Aine of Swilly was based in the warmer climates of the Canaries, Madeira and Morocco, where she was well used. Apart from his own many and varied sailing achievements in this period, his renowned generosity continued to rate him highly among his sailing colleagues, as he generously loaned the boat in the sunny southern setting to his Lough Swilly YC clubmates.
A GIANT OF A SAILOR
Noel P. had an impish sense of humour and was agile as a cat around the boat into his late seventies. He wasn't the tallest man in the world, but nevertheless he was a giant of a sailor on the unforgiving north coast of Ireland and across offshore waters for many thousands of miles beyond. And today, his benevolence casts a long yet warm shadow among the many who knew him, sailed with him, and appreciated his very special qualities. He will be remembered with special fondness at this Bank Holiday Weekend's three-day Lough Swilly YC Regatta.
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