Arise Dungarvan, and take your rightful place among the world's great sailing hotspots. Last night's Annual General Meeting of the Irish Cruising Club, presided over by Commodore Alan Markey at the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire, heard the 2024 log adjudicator - former ICC Commodore and noted high latitude and long distance cruiser Peter Killen of Malahide - handing down his thoughtful assessments of an extraordinary year of achievement. And the two top challenge trophies have gone to boats with strong West Waterford links.
ICC Commodore Alan Markey on his Sun Odyssey 36 Altaria off Fingal's Cave on Staffa in the Hebrides. He is the first ICC member to be elected Commodore when his father is also a member – Jimmy Markey has been an ICC member for 41 years
The massive 56ft steel-built Pilot Cutter-type gaff-rigged Annabel J is of such a size, and even more so when her long bowsprit is in place, that Andrew Wilkes and Maire Breathnach of Dungarvan find it easier to take her to the long pontoon in Waterford City when they're back in their home place in Dungarvan.
An intriguing place – Dungarvan is at the heart of some wonderful country
But the need to do so was absent in 2024. The boat had been over-wintered with a specialist yard in the Clyde, and then they left – just the two of them - along the coast of Norway (where other crew joined) and simply kept going until Finnsness, which is north and then north again, before working their way south to log 2838 miles in all in sometimes reasonable summer weather.
That better weather seems to have been Norway's portion in 2024. But in the Irish Sea the weather was very otherwise, as most of us know only too well. Maire Breathnach's brother Donal Walsh keeps his alloy-built Ovni 385 Lady Belle conveniently at home in Dungarvan as her lifting keel and compact size allows greater flexibility, and in 2024 he and Clare Morrissy decided to see if there was anything of interest along those eastern Cumbrian and Lancashire coasts of the Irish Sea that are seldom - if at all - visited by Irish boats, and thanks to Lady Belle's flexibility of draft they did find places of interest.
"Soncey big boat" – Annabel J in Waterford
However, they didn't find weather to do it all justice. For despite throwing in a round Ireland cruise as an extra – as one does – 34 days of a 77 day venture were lost to bad weather. Yet the plucky Dungarvan pair kept going until the job was done, and are awarded the ICC's Strangford Cup for an alternative best cruise.
SELF-CONTAINED DUNGARVAN STYLE
So what's with Dungarvan? Most of the time, being midway between the more prominent sailing centres of Cork Harbour and Dunmore East, it stays contentedly under the radar and does its own thing with the 1946-founded Dungarvan Harbour Sailing Club functioning in a self-contained style.
"All the bells and whistles" – Donal Walsh at the helm of the well-equipped Ovni 385 Lady Belle of Dungarvan. Photo: Clare Morrissy
But in the days of sail, Dungarvan prided itself on its fine fleet of coastal and cross-channel sailing traders. And even though in the 1950s DHSC was finding its feet in a modest way, local lawyer Reville Farrell had himself a hefty 34ft cutter of 1936 vintage, the Susanna, that took cruises to Spain and Brittany in her stride.
RORC WIN
Subsequently, Susanna was sold to Dun Laoghaire sailor John McConnell, who went on to become a popular Commodore of the National Yacht Club. But he is probably now best remembered for optimizing the comfortable Susanna's performance to such an extent that she won the RORC Anglesey to Cork Race of 1964 overall.
John McConnell (NYC) races the cutter Susanna (formerly of Dungarvan) to overall victory at Roche's Point in the 1964 RORC Anglesey to Cork Race.
In her Dungarvan days, Susanna's crew included Gerry Walsh, a hyper-keen young sailing enthusiast who went on to carve out his own colourful career afloat. In so doing, he planted the voyaging bug in his children to such an extent that his daughter Maire Breathnach is the co-awardee of the ICC's Faulkner Cup for 1924, while also compiling an ICC Annual of very good yet somehow always improving quality every year. And it is Maire's brother Donal who skippered Lady Belle to that "cruise of 2024 to peculiar places" to be awarded the Strangford Cup.
SPACIOUS SUNLIT UPLANDS
Over the years since its foundation in 1929 (that's another Centenary coming down the line), the ICC has engendered such affection among its members that they have presented new challenge cups for various categories. Thus the Club now has to find a new home for fifteen very various bits of silverware each year, but even in the spacious sunlit uplands of Sailing on Saturday, we only have room to mention the more special ones.
And few are more special than the John B Kearney Cup for an outstanding contribution to Irish sailing. The Ringsend-born John Kearney (1880-1968) was a largely self-taught yacht designer working in his spare time, as he had to handle the engineering challenges of Dublin Port in his day job. But despite his highly-regarded work for the harbour, he ended his days as he had wished, for his headstone in Glasnevin simply says; "John Kearney, Yacht Designer".
Mostly he created seaworthy yet fast cruisers that won races, notably including his own vessel, the 1925-built and Centenary-celebrating Mavis. But many sailors first learned of his work through sailing and racing his 1932-designed 17ft Mermaid.
John P Bourke's lifetime of sailing involvement has included 14 Fastnet Races and eight Round Irelands in addition to serving as Commodore of the Royal Ocean Racing Club and President of the Irish Sailing Association
14 FASTNETS AND EIGHT ROUND IRELANDS
One such was John Bourke of Dun Laoghaire, who has since gone on to sail in key roles on boats right up to SuperMaxi size. In so doing, he has sailed 14 Fastnet Races and eight Round Irelands, as well as two Transatlantics. Yet he has also found time to be active on the home front in administration, serving as a Flag Officer of the Royal St George YC, President of the Irish Sailing Association, and Commodore of the Royal Ocean Racing Club in an active life-pattern so complete that you'd think it was created to show exactly what the John B Kearney Cup is all about.
The S&S 34 Korsar under John Bourke's command with Ted Turner's American Eagle in the 1971 Fastnet Race. Earlier in the 1971 season, Korsar was line honours and overall winner in the ICC Howth to Port St Mary Race, despite being one of he smallest boats in a large fleet. Photo: W M Nixon
NORTHWEST SPAIN
An interesting aspect of today's Irish Cruising Club is the number of boats based in Northwest Spain. Peter Haden of Ballyvaughan and the late Joe Woodward of Cork have been among those developing the links and usage of this welcoming coastline of Galicia, and now the possibility of developing the Azores as another "out-station" is taking shape with Dermot Cronin of Malahide with the First 40 Encore pioneering the possibilities of the Archipelago.
Encore of Malahide (Dermot Cronin) has now shifted attention from the Mediterranean to the Azores
Dermot and his son Paddy are best known for winning the two-handed division in the Middle Sea Race some years, and racing experience was put to good use in 2024 in the Azores, as the only way Encore cud be sure of a berth at some of the smaller island harbours was through participation in an inter-island race-rally.
They won, of course, but now Encore has unrivalled on-the-ground experience of the Azores and its many ports gained at high speed, so the adjudicator reckoned their multi-purpose venture merited the Fortnight Cup.
ROUND IRELAND CRUISING
The Round Ireland Cup is another of the ICC's pillar awards, and 2024's recipient is encouraging for the Club's future, as it goes to young member Matthew Wright whose final task before departure from Strangford Lough on a clockwise circuit with the family's Sweden Yacht 390 was the completion of his Leaving Cert exams. In a real family venture, they visited many places of special interest, and developed such skill in drone operation that an aerial image of Blue Way at the Fastnet Rock provided this excellent Annual's cover pic.
Cover girl. The Wright family's Sweden 390 at the Fastnet Rock during their award-winning Round Ireland cruise. Photo: Matthew Wright
Other awards included:
Wybrants Cup (best cruise to Scotland): Harry & Liz Whelehan (Sea Dancer)
Perry Greer Cup: Mark Sweetnam (Don Carlos) Norwegian cruise taking full advantage of the better summer weather in the north.
Marie Trophy (Best cruise boat under 30ft): Conor O'Byrne (Calico Jack) Galway Bay to southwest Ireland.
CONOR O'BRIEN COMPLETION CENTENARY
The Irish Cruising Club is in a particularly busy period, as a cruise-in-company in June 2025 eastward from Baltimore will conclude in Dun Laoghaire on June 20th with the celebration of the Centenary of the completion Conor O'Brien's voyage around the world south of the Great Capes, following which various shared ventures with other cruising clubs in the Hebrides in July will carry everyone who wishes to be sociable well into August.
But of course there are many who prefer to cruise in their own little one-boat world, and accurate sailing directions as more than ever, and the ICC's Sailing Directions duo of Norman Kean and Geraldine Heneghan of Courtmacsherry have this down to a fine art after 20 years-plus in the job, with the 16th Edition of the South & West Directions due shortly, and greatly benefitting since 2022 from input from INFOMAR surveys.
"Heineken pilotage" – Norman Kean & Geraldine Hennigan's Coire Uisce on sailing directions research, reaching the places the others don't. In this case, it's Blind Harbour on Waterford's Copper Coast, as recommended by Donal Walsh. Photo: Geraldine Hennigan
And finally, one of the giants of the early years of the Irish Cruising Club was the great Harry Donegan of Cork, who had also been a founder of the RORC through racing in the inaugural 1925 Fastnet Race with his cutter Gull. Offshore racing has ben hived off from the official ICC agenda since 1989, but nevertheless there are many members who still go in for it.
Thus the concluding gem of this remarkable Annual is Harry Donegan's own log from the 1925 Fastnet Race, now safely in the keeping of the Royal Cork Yacht Club, but published in its entirety for the first time through this latest ICC Annual.
2025 will see an unprecedented number of major sailing Centenaries. Nevertheless it is entirely appropriate that the first of the "Fastnet Centenary Countdown Dinners" on this side of the Atlantic will be at the Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven on Saturday April 12th when the benign presence of Harry Donegan, Father Figure of both the Royal Ocean Racing Club and the Irish Cruising Club, will undoubtedly bless the event.
A benign presence. The spirit of Harry Donegan and the Gull (seen here at the start of the first Fastnet Race in 1925) will be present at the Fastnet Race Centenary Dinner in the RCYC.
