The Annual Dinner of the 1929-founded Irish Cruising Club has long been something of a moveable feast, and for 2026’s last weekend (March 21st), Commodore Alan Markey hosted a weekend-long action-packed event that had been organised by the Club’s Northern Committee – led by Vice Commodore Julie Chambers – and held in the heart of Fermanagh at the lakeside Lough Erne Resort Hotel.
Among the 171 enjoying the dinner was Michael Clarke, Admiral of the 1820-founded Lough Erne Yacht Club. He was elected an ICC member back in 1961, after he had crewed for Kevin and Colm MacLaverty as they cruised round Ireland in decidedly mixed weather with the 18ft Belfast Lough Waverley OD Durward.
Built by Bertie Slater at Bangor Shipyard in 1948, Durward is still - some 65 years after her circuit - the smallest keelboat to have cruised round Ireland. And yes, we know that smaller craft have sailed round Ireland, for most appropriately Admiral Clarke was at the table of Rob Henshall ICC, who first went round Ireland unaccompanied on a Windsurfer, and then in a Laser, and currently holds the ICC’s Round Ireland Cup for a 2025 solo circuit with his Contessa 32.
Mick Clarke with the late Colm MacLaverty on the helm in Sheephaven in Donegal aboard the 18ft Waverley Class Durward, in the latter stages of their clockwise circuit of Ireland from Carrickfergus in 1961. Photo: Kevin MacLaverty
The ICC’s international spread was underlined by the presence of Nick Chavasse, Commodore of the 1880-founded Royal Cruising Club, and Chace Anderson, Commodore of the Cruising Club of America, in addition to representation of the Ocean Cruising Club (founded 1954 by ICC member Humphrey Barton) and the Clyde Cruising Club.
FRIENDSHIP CUP FROM AMERICA
One of the highlights of the dinner is the annual presentation of the Friendship Cup, presented by the CCA for the ICC to highlight the sometimes unsung behind-the-scenes work put in by those who keep the wheels of interaction between the leading cruising clubs turning smoothly at an international level.
In 2023 it was awarded to Peter Haden of Ballyvaughan in County Clare, who has made the cruising of northwest Spain a personal speciality to such an extent that he has been able to organise international cruises-in-company in Galicia with a significant input of local knowledge and enthusiasm.
Then in 2024 it went to Hilary Keatinge, originally of Dun Laoghaire but long resident in Lymington in the ‘West Hampshire Gaeltacht’, where she has been co-ordinating everything from sailing directions to a history of the ICC from 1979 to 2004.
In Fermanagh, the Friendship Cup – most appropriately handed over by CCA Commodore Chace Anderson himself – was awarded to Alan Leonard of Strangford Lough. He has been an ICC member and former Flag Officer since 1964, and first cruised the East Coast of the United States in 1977 with his family’s 31ft Holman-designed Wishbone.
NEATLY TIMED ATLANTIC CROSSING
He has since cruised in America in other boats, building up friendships with the American cruising community and particularly with the CCA. He recalled how in 1977 they’d sailed Wishbone back across the Atlantic from Cape Cod in 1977, making such a smooth landfall at the Fastnet Rock that they simply continued along the south and east coasts comfortably offshore, and arrived off Strangford Narrows just as the flood was starting to carry them up to their mooring at Whiterock, ending the voyage at the very civilized time of 1.0pm.
The Leonard family’s Kim Holman-designed 31ft Wishbone made a perfectly-timed Transatlantic crossing from Cape Cod to Sketrick Island in Strangford Lough in 1977. Photo: ICC
Not all the Leonard family’s neighbours on Sketrick Island at Whiterock were into sailing, but Alan still wonders if the non-sailing Sketrick acquaintance was – as they say – taking the hand out of him when he enquired just how they knew so precisely when to leave Cape Cod in order to arrive at the mooring in Strangford Lough at such a convenient time
