We’re at a loss for words in finding the right phrases for the Changing of the Watch at the Royal Cork Yacht Club this week, with Denis Byrne taking over as Admiral - the 44th since the Club’s formation in 1720 - from Annamarie Fegan, the first woman to fill sailing’s most senior role.
For it seems absurd to talk of the outgoing Admiral as “retiring” in any way, as she is a warm-hearted bundle of energy and imagination, whose instincts for hospitality and the imaginative fulfilling of the potential of events ashore and afloat are a continuing inspiration to everyone. Equally, to talk of her standing down almost suggests some sort of surrender, even when it’s after totally and triumphantly filling the prescribed two year period in the top position with club-enhancing activities.
The view eastward over Crosshaven. The Royal Cork Yacht Club’s main clubhouse (which has been expanded several times from a pavilion built in 1923) is at the exact centre of this photo. In her second year in office, Admiral Fegan led the club in enhancing its facilities by purchasing the Salve Marine Boatyard and Marina immediately eastward of the club, with the hard standing and workshop now leased to DOD Marine, while the club runs the facilities afloat as the RCYC East Marina. Photo: Robert Bateman
Happily, it’s clear that many of her energies will continue to be deployed within sailing. Her family’s cruiser-racer, the Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo which she successfully campaigned inshore and offshore with husband Denis Murphy and their daughters Molly and Mia is currently on the market, as the Clan Murphy is re-focusing on cruising with an Oyster 53.
Nieulargo making a wellnigh perfect port tack Rolex Fastnet Race 2023 start right in under the RYS battery, and hitting the line on the gun. Photo: Rolex
TWENTY YEARS IN VOLUNTARY ROLES
Annamarie had served in various voluntary roles in the club for 20 years when she first came to prominent national notice back in 2017 through taking on the role of Honorary Secretary of the Irish Laser/ILCA Class, following Captaincy of the Laser Class in Cork after - as she modestly suggests - being drawn more deeply into the sailing which already interested her, thanks to the support role which parents have to provide for children who have been bitten by the Optimist bug.
The crew of Nieulargo at the finish after winning the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race of 2022, Annamarie third from right in back row. Photo: D2D
But only very few of Crosshaven’s Opty parents get recruited into the officer ranks made up from people of the high calibre that the senior club requires. And it’s only one, as each two year period comes round, who becomes Admiral. So how does it happen?
IF YOU HAVE TO ASK, YOU’LL NEVER KNOW
It may well be that if you have to ask that question, then you’ll never really understand the answer. Those in the line of command have a way of quietly keeping an eye out for possible successors from every area of club activity, and gradually the front runners emerge.
Think Conclave. Being Admiral of the Royal Cork YC involves being both a figure of global significance in world sailing, while at the same time being the senior officer in an organisation which is in tune with its membership and the local community in an exceptionally harmonious way.
History is made. Annamarie Fegan (centre) with the many RCYC sub-committees at her election as first woman Admiral in January 2024. The new Admiral of 2026, Denis Byrne, is standing at her left shoulder – at that time, while Vice Admiral, he was also fully involved with the Irish Cruiser-Racing Association, which he served as Commodore. Photo: Robert Bateman
ROYAL CORK’S HIGH STANDARDS OF ENTERTAINMENT
My own first full experience of this came back in October 1970, when the Royal Cork rounded out the two year celebration of its Quarter Millennium by hosting the Helmsman’s Championship of Ireland (won in National 18s by the 17-year-old Robert Dix of Malahide), and then combining the Helmsman’s Championship Awards Ceremony with its ultra-homely annual laying-up supper, at which each table is expected to provide a performer (or performers) of some entertainment value to do their party piece.
Royal Cork style – the climax of the Quarter Millennial Celebrations in 1970 was the Helmsmans Championship raced in National 18 at Crosshaven in October. Finalists were (left to right) Michael O’Rahilly (Royal St George YC), the late Somers Payne (Royal Cork YC), Harold Cudmore Jnr (RCYC), Owen Delany (RStGYC), Maurice Butler (Royal Ulster YC) and winner Robert Dix (Malahide SC). At 17, Dix was the youngest-ever winner, and would now be too young to qualify for the Senior Championship. Photo: John Fitzpatrick
CARDINAL ERROR
Some other clubs were known to do something similar, but Cork - with its rich tradition of music-hall and opera - sets an extremely high standard. Our table was definitely among the also-rans, as our self-selecting representative thought he was the world’s greatest at the ancient action joke of the One-Armed Flautist. This may have once made the normally serious German Frers laugh at a post-Fastnet Race dinner in Plymouth, but in Crosshaven it only got due acknowledgement, possible because our man though it hilarious and laughed throughout, a cardinal error in showbiz.
Be that as it may, that memorable night 56 years ago in Crosshaven provided an insight into what makes the Royal Cork what it is, with the sense of a relaxed community of real sailors being enhanced by knowing their boats were snugly on their moorings or in the dinghy park after an extraordinary 250th Anniversary season.
EXCEPTIONAL TALENTS, NERVES OF STEEL
It all underlined the realisation that being Admiral of this outstanding organisation requires exceptional talents and – let’s face it – nerves of steel. An active club with a 300-years-plus history is bound to have a membership whose opinions stretch all the way from demanding no change whatsoever, to those who think that the characterful club building – expanded several times from a pavilion built in 2023 – should be knocked entirely, and replaced with something complete and very new.
Today’s Royal Cork YC dining room was originally the central area of the 1923-built pavilion, with the ornate bulb light at centre being salvaged from the old 1854-built Royal Cork YC building (now the Sirius Arts Centre) in Cobh. Photo: Robert Bateman
The Clubhouse at the Quarter Millennium in 1970. Photo: W M Nixon
As a succession of effective Admirals has shown, it’s a position which has to be filled in a totally Cork style, so being the first woman in the role required extra skills that would be beyond the experience of most recruiting agencies. But happily, the two years of Admiral Fegan’s stewardship saw the Club was continuing on its own unique path, with the RORC/Fastnet Centenary Dinner in April 2025 in the RCYC – the first in the European programme of such events – revealing that the spirit of 1970, and indeed of 1720, was still heartily alive.
The launching of the European programme of RORC/Fastnet Race Centenary Celebrations in the Royal Cork YC on 12th April 2025 with (left to right) Janet Grosvenor (Admiral, RORC), Jeremy Wilton (CEO, RORC) and RCYC Admiral Annamarie Fegan. Photo: Robert Bateman
DEMANDING CHOICES
But equally, demanding executive choices have to be made from time to time, and while the decision in June 2025 to buy out Salve Marine immediately eastward of the Clubhouse may have seemed a big challenge for what is – in international terms – a small club by membership and resources, the Admiral vigorously led the decision. The new acquisition has now become a two-part operation, with the RCYC East Marina the former on-water operation of Salve, while the shoreside hard standing and workshop is now leased to and operated by Dan O’Donovan’s DOD Marine, ensuring the continuation of essential facilities for RCYC members and visitors alike, and in October 2025 the Admiral was recognized as Cork’s “Person of the Month”.
At the signing of the contract with DOD Marine are (left to right) RCYC General Manager Gavin Deane, RCYC Admiral Annamarie Fegan, and Dan O'Donovan of DOD Marine
INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS FOR WOMEN IN SAILING
Throughout all this smooth running and continuing development of the Club’s infrastructure, Royal Cork sailors have of course continued to make their mark in competition at home and abroad in dinghies and keelboats alike, but while this may be seen as part of Admiral Annamarie Fegan’s two years of success, another way of looking at it is that her second year has also become “The Year of Women in Sailing”.
Alex & Daria Blackwell of Clew Bay have made many ocean voyages and have administrative involvement with both the Irish Cruising Club and the Ocean Cruising Club.
At an administrative level in Ireland, in addition to providing an outstanding Admiral for the Royal Cork, we also have a woman President of Irish Sailing in the form of Sue Concannon of Killaloe SC, Daria Blackwell of Clew Bay plays a leading role in the Ocean Cruising Club, and just last night (Friday 30th Jan) in the National YC in Dun Laoghaire, high latitude sailor Maire Breathnach of Dungarvan presided over the inaugural dinner of the Irish Polar Institute, which has been brought into being for several purposes, a notable one being a structured reference list of the many Irish sailors who have been involved in polar sailing and exploration through the last thousand years and more.
Maire Breathnach, President of the newly-formed Irish Polar Institute, at the helm off Cape Horn. Photo: Andrew Wilkes
INTERNATIONAL LEVEL
At an international level, it was notable that even as Annamarie Fegan was handing or the levers of RCYC power to Denis Byrne, the first all-women crew to circumnavigate the world non-stop for the Jules Verne trophy were being led by skipper Alexia Barrier past Ushant in their enormous trimaran with the job done.
Arrival of Alexia Barrier and her crew of The Famous Project CIC with Dee Caffari, Annemieke Bes, Deborah Blair, Molly LaPointe, Támara Echegoyen, Stacey Jackson and Rebecca Gmür Hornell
As the crew relax after passing Ushant on Monday, we get to appreciate just what a mighty machine they were sailing.
Meanwhile back home in Ireland the only Olympic sailing medal brought home in this Century – of which we are now into Q2 – was the Silver won by Annalise Murphy in the ILCA at the Rio Olympiad of 2016, while among the super-talents rising through the ranks, it could be argued that women out-pace the men with stars like Eve McMahon and Sienna Wright setting a prodigious pace.
WOMEN IN WAGS
Then too we have frequently pointed out that in the ultra-venerable Dublin Bay Water Wags, woman sailors have competed successfully on equal terms with men for more than a hundred years. But beyond that, arguably the peak of “The Year of The Women In Sailing” came with that very male event, the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race 2025 at the end of December.
Overall winner Min River (Jiang Lin, Sydney), a JPK 10.30, was one of the smallest boats in the rugged 2025 Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race. Photo: Rolex
Yes, we know that Offaly-born Adrienne Cahalan has featured several times as top navigator in Hobart, but there’s no doubting the atmosphere of testosterone dominance in the usual before and after photos of this epic race. Yet in Hobart as 2025 drew to a close, there on the podium among the muscular males was the compact female figure of overall winner Jian Lin, whose immaculate preparation of her boat and timely signing-on of Alexis Loison as co-skipper led to one of the greatest achievements in world sailing in 2025.
In Hobart on 31st December 2025 are (left to right) Dr Sam Haynes (Commodore of organising Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race 2025 overall winning co-skippers Alexis Loison and Jiang Lin of the JPK 10.30 Min River, and Eduardo Maclean, MD Rolex Australia. Photo: Rolex
