The concept of the Dublin Bay 24, envisaged as a 24ft waterline 37ft LOA Bermuda-rigged racer-cruiser, was first suggested in 1934 at a Committee Meeting of the innovative yet “homeless” Royal Alfred YC in Dun Laoghaire by the owner-skipper of the DB 21 Garavogue, Gordon Campbell aka Lord Glenavy. Yet by the time the idea began to gain traction in 1937, it had been taken under the wing of the Dublin Bay Sailing Club, as too – though much more recently - has the RAYC itself.
Dublin Bay 24s racing at their Golden Jubilee Regatta in 1997. The class continued racing – though in growing need of restoration – until September 2004. Photo: W M Nixon
But though the first of the DB24 boats – in all, eight were to be built in Scotland – came under construction at designer Alfred Mylne’s boatyard on the Isle of Bute in the Firth of Clyde by late 1938, the total leisure-boat construction shutdown of World War II (1939-1945) meant they didn’t finally race as the premier Dublin Bay OD class until 1947.
RORC OVERALL WIN
There were never more than seven of them racing in Dublin Bay, as Periwinkle stayed on in Scotland. But they gave great service in many areas, providing excellent inshore racing, and proving themselves in offshore racing in 1963 when Stephen O’Mara’s Fenestra RIYC, skippered by Arthur Odbert, won that year’s stormy RORC Irish Sea Race overall.
Party time – the DB24s celebrate their Golden Jubilee at the Royal Irish YC in 1997. Photo: W M Nixon
The modest skipper claimed that success came because the boat was so relatively narrow and heavy with low freeboard that she simply went straight through everything the Irish Sea in a Force 9 could throw at her, rather than trying to climb laboriously over it. And anyway, he and his notably bibulous crew - with himself setting the pace - had so indulged themselves at the pre-race party in the Royal St George that there wasn’t a shilling left in the ship’s kitty, so retiring into some other port – as several other boats were already doing - would have been pointless, when they knew fresh credit could soon be negotiated in their Dun Laoghaire club if they could just manage to batter their way back to the finish line there.
DB 24s at the RIYC in 1997 – Periwinkle is on left. Photo: W M Nixon
CRUISING ACHIEVEMENT
As for cruising, Rory O’Hanlon’s Harmony (RStGYC) and Ninian Falkiner’s Euphanzel (RIYC) were both awarded major trophies of the Irish Cruising Club, while many shorter ventures continued to reveal the boats’ versatility.
But by the time their Golden Jubilee came around in 1997, just five were regularly based in the bay. Vandra had been wrecked when driven ashore in a storm squall with sail and rigging failure. And the Connacht-based owner of Zephyra had fallen out with the DB24 class in particular, and Dublin Bay Sailing Club in general, to such an extent that he went off in a high dudgeon with the boat in tow on a road trailer, and had reputedly hidden her at his castle somewhere in far Mayo.
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
Nevertheless when the 50th Anniversary came up in 1997 with a Woodenboat Regatta in Dublin Bay, Periwinkle came south from Scotland to ensure that six boats were actively racing. But while the sport was great, it was clear that five decades of a very active life had taken their toll on the boats, and most of them needed major restorations with a dedicated classic boat builder.
In Dr Rory O’Hanlon’s ownership, the DB24 Harmony was noted as much for her cruising as her racing. Photo: Rex Roberts
Yet it was 25th September 2004 before the class had their last official race with Dublin Bay SC. And by this time, an ambitious scheme was starting to develop whereby one central organisation would buy up all the boats, including anything that remained of Vandra. The plan was to have them restored by recognized international classic specialists to become the Royal Alfred One Designs, available for fleet hire for racing as a special attraction with a new sailing-orientated resort hotel being planned on the French Riviera.
“FINDING ZEPHYRA”
In time, all the existing boats including Periwinkle had been bought up by the new grouping except for Zephyra, and were assembling in Dublin to be moved to classic yards, mainly in France. As for Zephyra, “she’s in Mayo” made for a very wide search area. But it so happened that I was walking our little dog out the back of a castle-hotel in Mayo early in the summer of 2007, and there in a corner, barely showing above an overgrown wall, was a tiny glimpse of a boat of interest which proved to be Zephyra, by now rapidly disappearing into the undergrowth.
The first glimpse of Zephyra in Mayo. Photo: W M Nixon
2007 being peak year for the Celtic Tiger, the Dublin team had her snapped up and with her sister-ships in Dublin just as quickly as possible. But the ultra-boom years of 2007-2008 were concluded with the global financial crash, and that made many dreams, especially those in the style of a restored Dublin Bay 24 class emerging re-born as the exquisite and highly fashionable Royal Alfred One Designs, into an unattainable ambition for the foreseeable future.
CLASSIC RESTORATION
Yet gradually use was made of the available boats on an individual basis, and the superbly-restored Perwinkle eventually returned from France to Dun Laoghaire and is now in the ownership of David Espey to provide a perfect example of what genuine classic restoration should be like.
The Dublin Bay 24 Zephyra as she was in 2007, “discovered” in an increasingly overgrown state in the corner of a castle yard in Mayo. Photo:W M Nixon
Arandora was also restored in Brittany and she is thought to be still in France, while somehow Zephyra found her way to the Apprenticeshop in Rockland on the mid-Maine coast in the US, where the word was that a properly-built Dublin Bay 24 is such a perfect example of the ideal size and type for teaching real boat-building that Zephyra’s fate might consist of a Groundhog Day existence of being re-built, and then un-built, and then re-built again and again for ever and ever.
“The ideal size to teach classic boat-building” – Zephyra being re-born in the Apprenticeshop in Maine
Not so. David Espey has just had word that the completely restored Zephyra is to be launched at Rockland on June 28th 2024. I’ve a feeling there’ll be an interesting selection of classic boat and Dublin Bay enthusiasts there to witness the next stage in this extraordinary journey from a Mayo castle’s overgrown backyard to the fascinating waters of Maine.
THE AUSTRALIAN SISTER
And the story of this remarkable design, to a concept well ahead of its time when Gordon Campbell first outlined it in 1934, has even more to it. A ninth Dublin Bay 24 was built in Sydney, Australia in 1948. Over the years, Wathara was updated even unto a cute little retroussé transom and a masthead rig. But a new owner, Damien Brassel, has taken her in hand, he is determined to restore her to true Dublin Bay 24 status, and there has been in close contact with David Espey to ensure he’s getting it right.
The “Southern Sister” – the modernized DB24 Wathara in Sydney Harbour. She is now in process of being restored to the original design
