The new-look Championship of Champions is taking place during this and next weekend, with the Dinghy Championship starting this morning for two days at Royal St George YC in Dun Laoghaire racing Melges 15s with GP14 ace Ger Owens of Wicklow SC the defending champion, while the keelboats take place in J/80s in a week’s time. They’ll be nearby along the waterfront at the Royal Irish YC, with J/24 multiple-champion Cillian Dickson of Lough Ree YC the current title-holder.

The Cork Harbour National 18s in their Ultra version were used last year in the Dinghy Division

ALL TOGETHER FOR THE 80th?

The two-event format seems to have bedded in well after being introduced a year ago, when the National 18s at Royal Cork were used for the dinghies, while the ever-useful J/80s in Dun Laoghaire handled the keelboat challenge. With the 80th next year, it has been good management to get this re-fresh in place to raise the event’s profile, though it does hold out the possibility that for next year, someone will almost inevitably suggest that the two classifications should be staged together at one venue for a proper 80th Anniversary Regatta, even though many venues have rather run out of steam by October, particularly when they’ve experienced a hyper-active sailing season like 2026.

Annalise Murphy, winner of the Silver Medal in Rio in August 2016, very sportingly raced a National 18 in the Helmsman’s Championship in October 2016, and she’ll be racing a Melges 15 in this weekend’s championship.

GETTING THE STORY RIGHT

There was a long period of many years when everybody assumed that Douglas Heard was the “onlie begetter” of what was called the Helmsman’s Championship and everything to do with it, but in 2022 when we were all still getting sailing back on an even keel after Covid, Andy Johnston of Sutton Dinghy Club took on the task of organising the Championship of Champions, and being Andy, he decided to delve into the back-story.

WE NEED MORE ANDY JOHNSTONS

Quite where Irish sport, and indeed Irish life generally, would be without volunteers of the calibre of Andy Johnston is beyond gloomy imagining. He brought the enthusiasm he’d poured into the exemplary Irish GP14 Dinghy association to become Commodore at Sutton Dinghy Club. And then, with the 2022 Championship of Champions successfully done and dusted, his focus of attention settled on another of his interests, Suttonians Rugby Club, where he served as President during its hyper-successful Centenary Season of 2024-2025.

He takes photos too. A memorable image of Andy Johnston’s beloved GP14s racing at Sutton with the Sugarloaf Mountain in the Wicklow Hills dominating the background. Photo: Andy Johnston

ESTABLISHING THE HELMSMAN’S CHAMPIONSHIP

Douglas Heard, the founding father of much that is central to modern sailing in Ireland, was there or thereabouts at the meetings - often chairing them - when so many of the fresh ideas for our sport were being developed in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Thus from time to time he receives credit for some notion that had actually been the bright idea of someone else.

As the old saying has it, failure is an orphan but success has many fathers. Thus after the concept of the Helmsman’s Championship was unveiled in 1947 and gained in prestige each year thereafter, the fact that it was one of the ideas emanating from the ever-busy Heard brain and the minds of those close about him meant that after a very few years, it was thought that everything to do with it – including the impressive silver salver that almost immediately became the instantly-recognisable symbol of the event – had come directly from the Heard stable.

Great men who made many things happen in sailing in Ireland – Denis Doyle, Joe FitzGerald, and Douglas Heard during a cruise-in-company on the Shannon. Photo: W M Nixon

Not so. And Andy Johnston’s research back in 2021-22 into the origins of the Helmsman’s Championship and its singular trophy came up with forgotten facts in a story so redolent of it time that it deserves reproduction in full:

The First Helmsmans

With only days to go to the Champions Cup, an event synonymous with the end of the competitive sailing season, one might be forgiven for thinking it has been a constant, particularly when the event is in its 75th year.

However, it is not what it seems. The event, formerly and probably best known as the Helmsmans Championship, has had a number of names, many formats, has not always been run at the end of the season, but throughout its 75 years has always been recognized as a major honour amongst the best Irish sailors and within Irish Sailing, with the winner lifting that now famous silver salver.

The 'Irish Open Championship' as it was first coined, was just one of a number of events held within the inaugural IDRA Championship week in July 1947 under the burgee of the Royal St. George Yacht Club. The event was organised by the recently formed Irish Dinghy Racing Association and was to include the International 12ft and IDRA 14ft Nationals Championships, Mermaid, Snipe & Water Wag races, an overseas Team Racing event with teams from England & Northern Ireland invited and a Juvenile Championship sailed in 12ft Dinghies. The 'Open Championship' would be sailed by helms competing at Dinghy Week or nominated by sailing clubs around the country.

SPEEDY DECISIONS

Considering the IDRA had only been formed in late 1945, the week’s racing in 1947 was ver impressive, with an entry of over 150 with the innovative Helmsman’s Open Championship attracting 45 helms representing more than 24 Clubs, and culminated in a final raced in Fireflies with Douglas Heard, IDRA President, emerging as the winner against R W Morris (Royal Alfred YC).

The Firefly Class being used for team racing in Dun Laoghaire. The Uffa Foxe-designed class – now built in GRP - continues to see numbers topped-up for multiple uses, and a new batch for Trinity College has recently been delivered

The format, using 3 borrowed Fireflies, saw a series of 37 elimination races run throughout the week till there were only 4 helms remaining. The 2 semi-finals saw Heard & Morris beat W R McFerran (Water Wags) & T E Philips (Antrim Sailing Club) respectively. Despite the fact they were not yet an established Class in Ireland, the Fireflies were selected because they were to be used at the London Olympics the following year and the Irish Dinghy Racing Association were already planning to hold Olympic trials in Fireflies before the end of the year.

What is quite incredible is that the idea for a Dinghy Week was not raised at an IDRA meeting till the 24th January 1947. It was proposed and approved at the 2nd IDRA Annual General Meeting on 7th March and the event took place the week ending 5th July 1947. The era before email, mobile phones and the internet was certainly pretty efficient when it needed to be.

The final IDRA meeting before the event dealt with a number of issues that could impact the event itself. Firstly, the situation where an owner nominated a helmsman, the question was whose name would go on the trophy of a Championship winner at Dinghy Week. Strangely it was agreed that the ‘owners name should be engraved on the cup or prize as the winner and if possible the H’mans name after the owners’. While a number of owner/Helmsman combinations entered the weeks racing, thankfully the issue never arose for the Helmsmans Open Championship as the Fireflies were all borrowed boats.
Contrary to popular belief, the famous silver salver was not donated by Douglas Heard but by another well known Dublin Bay yachtsman of the day, Hugh Doran. That IDRA meeting before the event agreed that in the absence of a suitable trophy for the Open Championship, that a tankard would be provided for First with the promise of a trophy in the future. One option to be considered was a model based on a photo of a Firefly or an IDRA 14.

Step forward Mr Hugh Doran, who volunteered to provide a far more fitting trophy and one that greatly lends itself to being held aloft in both hands. While his name would not become synonymous with the event, his trophy has certainly become the most iconic prize in Irish sailing.

Andrew Johnston, Sutton 2022

FAST-MOVING AGE?

Andy rightly makes the point that we delude ourselves into thinking that we live in a fast-moving age with swiftly-made and rapidly-implemented decisions. For another of his interests is sailing Howth 17s, and he’ll point out that the totally new design for this class was signed off by a small sub-committee in Howth House on October 22nd 1897, and the class had its first race at Howth on May 4th 1898, having been sailed by their owners down from the builders at Carrickfergus on Belfast Lough in April.

Nowadays, choked by our clutter of communication, we’d still be carrying out market research on details of the boat’s design long after May 4th. Yet on January 24th and March 7th 1947, those two meetings put the entire concept of Dinghy Week and the Helmsman’s Championship in place, and thanks to Hugh Doran there was a more-than-appropriate trophy all ready to go by Dinghy Week on 5th July.

WHO WAS HUGH DORAN

We know little of Hugh Doran other than that he was a member of the Royal St George YC, and according to class records, in 1946 he had IDRA 14 No 3 Dixie built for himself by Jem Kearney of East Wall, Dublin. Dixie has been through several ownerships since, but has been inactive since 1996, and was last reported as being “in storage in Enfield, Co Meath”, a situation which usually ends in only one sad way.

The restored IDRA14 Dusk, No 4. Hugh Doran, donor of the championship salver, was the commissioning owner for IDRA14 Dixie, No 3. Photo: W M Nixon

Doubtless if we can get the word out we’ll learn more about Hugh Doran. But for now his memory should be honoured for presenting sailing in Ireland with the very identifiable symbol for an event which – when it was founded – was globally unique, as it was 1962 before Beecher Moore and Robin Judah came up with the notion of the arguably comparable Endeavour Trophy in England.

WEEKEND PROSPECTS FOR CHAMPIONSHIP OF CHAMPIONS

The Autumn nature of the annual staging of Championship of Champions often means the weather is volatile, but today (Saturday) looks set to be fine and may even have a light wind problem. However, if this happens there’s every opportunity to complete the full programme with increasing winds tomorrow.

Championship choice – the Melges 15 class racing on Dublin Bay

The entry list is truly all-Ireland, all classes, and only Sean Donnelly of the National YC and Tim Norwood of of the Royal Irish YC come to the event with proper experience of Melges 15 racing, but with fleet competition of this calibre, most boat familiarity advantage has disappeared by the end of the first race.

Dinghy Champions' Cup Competitors 2026