The recent spell of hyper-sunny weather was a reminder of the time we stumbled upon the “lost” Dublin Bay 24 Zephyra while searching for shade to walk our little dog around the back of a castle in Mayo. The elegant counter of a classic yacht was glimpsed above an overgrown wall around a small yard. And there - under an assortment of covers and in danger of becoming completely overgrown – was a classic beauty that could only be Zephyra.
For we knew that while almost all the Dublin Bays 24s - built to an Alfred Mylne design of 1938 and first raced as a class at Dun Laoghaire in 1947 - had been gathered for an ambitious restoration project, Zephyra had last been seen some years earlier headed west by road, her strong-minded owner having fallen out with Dublin Bay sailing in general, and the DB24 Class in particular.
The “lost” Zephyra as found in Mayo nearly twenty years ago. Photo: W M Nixon
So here she was, at last, hidden away on that day of unimaginably bright sunshine in Connacht. And here she stayed - but now closely if secretly monitored - until the Grim Reaper changed the dynamics of the situation, such that overnight - or so it seemed – Zephyra was back in Dublin with a minimum of fuss and fanfare.
But with the economic crash of 2009, ambitious plans for the re-birth of the DB24s as a smart restored class went by the board. However, in the long run, there’s very little about boats that doesn’t go completely to waste, and so long as you still have the original external ballast keel of lead or cast iron, what looks to a casual observer like the building of a new boat can be classified as a re-build or even – if some of the original timber remains – as a restoration.
Dublin Bay Water Wags in tight racing. With more than fifty boats registered as valid for racing, the use of the design as a boat-building training project is given extra purpose. Photo: W M Nixon
Either way, it’s grist to the mill of boat-building schools, and this is where the Dublin Bay One Designs hit the spot. As the birthplace of One Design Racing ever since the advent of the first Water Wags in 1887, it has brand recognition to die for. As a remarkably settled, long-established and cohesive sailing community, it has the continuity for the class rules, designs and specifications to be properly codified, and faithfully recorded and maintained such that – when a new build is being contemplated – the boat is validly re-created.
Thus, in historic international One-Design terms, appending that “Dublin Bay” tag is gold standard. You become acutely aware of this when some purchaser overseas of what is reputedly “a Dublin Bay OD” has to be told - as gently as possible - that she isn’t.
THE DUBLIN BAY PREMIUM
All this means that in today’s boat-building schools, where many courses are based on the process of un-building an old boat and then re-creating her anew on the original ballast keel, Dublin Bay ODs are at a premium, as they provide a comprehensive range of boat within a manageable size range.
Gold Standard. Steve Morris of Kilrush with the “impossibly beautiful” hull of the restored Dublin Bay 21 Geraldine. Photo: Mark Sweetnam
Another aspect is that in the smaller sizes, such as the Water Wags, the boats can be usefully built completely from new in order to join the Bay’s most active class, and they’ve been built in Europe by schools as far away as Bilbao. And from across the bay and beyond the Howth peninsula, the Howth 17s have provided the demand both for re-builds and new builds in schools in France as the class in its 125th Anniversary year is racing more keenly than ever.
But move up the size scale a little more, and thanks to Hal Sisk and Fionan de Barrra, the re-birth of the Dublin Bay 21 class has provided education in a different direction, with Steve Morris of Kilrush using these beautiful craft to teach a new generation of boat-builders how multi-skin epoxy construction looks even better in a classic hull.
As a very actively-raced class celebrating its 125th Anniversary in 2023, the Howth 17s have added attraction as a boat-build learning project. Photo: W M Nixon
Beyond that, however, the Dublin Bay 24 is getting into a size scale where manageability is more problematic, and so far, only David Espey’s Periwinkle has returned from France in fully restored form.
Yet there’s no getting away from the fact that a re-born Dublin Bay 24 provides perfect subject matter for a boat-building school. This is classic construction with the Alfred Mylne imprimatur. The hull is sufficiently large for several people to work at it at the same time without getting in each other’s way, yet it necessarily involves much useful and highly-educational team effort.
Zephyra in The Apprenticeshop. With suitable premises like this, the Dublin Bay 24 is of manageable size while being large enough to facilitate real teamwork
Zephyra’s planking progresses in Maine. It’s remarkable to think that this elegant and fine-lined hull design, just 24ft on the waterline, was overall winner of a RORC Race in 1963
Kevin Carney’s Apprenticeshop boat-building school at Rockland in Maine is where Zephyra has been in the key role. Although the pupils of all ages sign on for a two year course, they reckon that the fully-utilised re-building of a Dublin Bay 24 takes a little longer than that.
Either way, it means that people in distant places have now joined the many in Ireland who reckon that the Dublin Bay 24 was one of Alfred Mylne’s most beautiful creations. Yet in studying this elegant and fine-lined thoroughbred, it takes an effort to remember that it was a sister ship, the DB24 Fenestra, which in 1963 provided Alfred Mylne with his only overall win in a RORC event, the storm-tossed Irish Sea Race. The Dublin Bay 24 is a classic in every way.
Getting near the end of the line. Dublin Bay 24s in their Golden Jubilee Race in 1997. Within five years, they were thought of as sufficiently “worn out” for regular racing to cease. Photo: W M Nixon
