When the intriguingly varied fleet of the Old Gaffers Association visited Dublin Bay in 2013 during their Golden Jubilee Cruise-in-Company Round Britain and Ireland, an interesting cultural divide emerged when they interacted with the 1887-founded Water Wags in Dun Laoghaire, and the very classic jackyard-topsail-toting Seventeen Footers of 1898 vintage from Howth.
The home crowd savoured the racing of the old boats as genuine sport, regardless of the vessel's age. Yet some of the visitors, having been at first impressed with the numbers in active use and their quality, then turned things on their heads by sniffily dismissing it all with the comment: "But they're racing".
The power and the glory. Paddy O'Regan of Cobh races seaward through the mouth of the Harbour in his 1896-vintage Cork Harbour OD Imp sme time around 1952. Despite the mighty press of sail, Imp remains light on the helm. Photo: Tom Barker
SACRED ENTITIES
For it seems that though the various branches of the OGA organise at least one race annually, it is seen not so much as sport, but rather as the most effective way to get a respectful Parade of Sailing together for vintage and classic boats, ancient craft that are lovingly maintained primarily as sacred entities in themselves.
Mid-week racing for the Howth 17s, when they are not permitted to use their topsails
Topsail display by the Howth 17s after they've raced to a finish at Lambay
But in Ireland when local gaff-rigged boats race, it's serious sport first, and classic yacht adoration second. Sometimes a very long way second. Yet - perhaps because we're in the middle of it all - we don't really realise just how pervasive sport is in nearly every aspect of life in this country.
MUCH OF IRELAND IS SEEN THROUGH LENS OF SPORT
Certainly other countries may be better – sometimes much better – in several sports. By where else, other than in Ireland, does everyone readily understand the meaning of the comment "It'll be great sport", when applied to some activity which has otherwise no connection whatever to sport as recognised elsewhere?
In fact, this sporting angle to everything in Ireland is so pervasive, as is our obsession with sporting events and results, that we no longer think of it as anything other than completely normal. So we tend to rely on outsiders to put it in context. We can be disappointed.
Squeezing every last minute of racing out of the summer. Sunset finish for Water Wags in Dun Laoghaire Harbour, their home since 1887
COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF IRELAND?
A quarter of a century ago, one of the world's leading university publishers brought out their Book of Ireland, with their distinguished editor compiling writings which a noted international critic described as "eloquent….a wonderful tour of writing about Ireland".
The Flying Fifteens function successfully both as a local One Design and a national class. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O'Brien
It was a hefty tome. But in browsing it in the slumbrous world of a venerable bookshop, I could find nothing of significance about sport or feasting in Ireland. Writing may indeed be a vocation of unhappiness, but surely this crowd of noted pen-persons cannot have led lives of such misery that the central role of these two admittedly boisterous Irish activities had entirely passed them by? And that in what was a considerable book?
JACK YEATS ON TARGET
After all, one of our greatest painters, Jack Yeats, has creatively recognised the centrality of sport in Ireland. Yet these delicate writing flowers seemed to ignore it completely. Dorothy Parker once said of a book that deeply disappointed her that it was not a book to be cast lightly aside. On the contrary, it should be thrown with the greatest possible vigour. In this case, it took heroic restraint not to take her advice.
The Squib is one of the smallest keelboats that can function successfully as a family day cruiser in addition to being a local and national one design, with its current strongest centre of growth in Kinsale.
We seem to have gone rather deeply down this line of thought, but there are times when we need to step well back just to realise how much the almost unconscious Irish sporting imperative keeps so many old, and very old, boats alive - and racing. In this context, I particularly remember coming up the gangway after evening racing, and finding myself beside the helm of a 117-year-old One-Design boat that had just recorded a notable win.
KEEPING HISTORY VIVIDLY ALIVE?
His expression was beatific. But when I assumed this was because of the many and complex emotions aroused by keeping history so vividly alive, he brought me back to earth with the dreamy comment: "I like winning. I just love winning." And that was all he had to say.
We wouldn't suggest that all classic boat racers have this intensely-focused attitude. But when it produces the beneficial result of so many classics continuing with an active life, it enables us to set the parameters of what is needed for classic boat racing to thrive. And in any Ireland-wide ranking, Strangford Lough Yacht Club at Whiterock in County Down scores very well.
The Strangford Lough YC anchorage at Whiterock as seen from the clubhouse. Photo: W M Nixon
PERFECTION OF STRANGFORD LOUGH'S WHITEROCK AS CLASSIC OD BASE
Classics yachts work best when they lie to a swinging mooring in a reasonably sheltered anchorage with a good club ferry service. And they need quick and easy access to steady-breezed and spacious, yet not overly-exposed, sailing water. Whiterock and Strangford Lough tick all these boxes, and add an extra one through being easily reached from large centres of population, yet somehow retaining a reasonably rural air.
Another important consideration is maintenance and repair. At Whiterock, Kenny Smyth and his siblings with their traditional boatyard are classic one design sailors themselves, and in conjunction with other marine businesses in the neighbourhood, or in easy reach, they provide exactly the level of service provided.
The River Class racing in the heart of County Down, as they have done for more than a hundred years. Photo: W M Nixon
DISTANT SERVICES
But in Dun Laoghaire and Howth, Dublin-plus property values prevail on the waterfronts, and thus the main provision of services, up to full classic boat-building level, come from Steve Morris and his team at Kilrush Boatyard on the other side of the country, and from the equally-distant master craftsmen of West Cork.
Yet although Whiterock leads the way in now being home to three classic keelboats - the 28ft 6ins Mylne-designed Rivers of 1921 vintage, the also Mylne-designed 25ft Glens from 1947 which can also be found in Dun Laoghaire, and the 18ft John Wylie-designed Belfast Lough-originating Waverley from 1902 – other centres emphasize the "local" in local one-designs.
The restored 1902-built 18ft Waverley Class Lilias at the Titanic Memorial in Belfast Harbour. Photo: W M Nixon
Thus the 1902 Linton Hope-designed Fairy Class at Royal North of Ireland YC on Belfast Lough is finding new life as "The Conscience of Cultra", so much so that the Cultra people were snaffling up moth-balled boats from the declining sister class on Lough Erne to strengthen their own fleet, though the word is that this was enough to stir some Fermanagh skippers and crews back to life.
This way to Sunset Boulevard? The RNIYC Fairy Class visit neighbouring Holywood near high water in Belfast Lough. Founded 1862, Holywood YC is the oldest club in the lough.
The Lough Erne Fairy Class have continued to sail with the original gunter rig
SOARING THROUGH A CENTENARY
Down the Shannon, the 1922 18ft Shannon One Designs soared through their busy award-winnin Centenary in 2022 with a magnificent though very privately published book that devoted two pages – one a photo - to each boat and the many invariably larger-than-life sailors who raced them.
Still going strong. The Centenary-plus Shannon One Designs in hot racing at Lough Ree YC
As for the 17ft Dublin Bay Mermaids of 1932, they may no longer race regularly in Dublin Bay, but you'll find fine examples and active classes of these clinker-built character boats in Wexford, Fingal and Foynes.
In West Cork, the 16ft clinker-built gunter-rigged Ette Class with their distinctive little bowsprits focus their season almost entirely on August in lovely Castletownshend, and thanks to the exceptional skills of master-boatbuilder Rui Ferreira just up the road in Ballydehob, new boats have brought the class strength up to 14 boats and better.
The 16ft Castletownshend Ette Class Couchette as brought superbly to life by Rui Ferreira
Racing the family's classic furniture….Ette class in action at Glandore.
CORK HARBOUR
And in Cork itself, although the William Fife-designed Cork Harbour One Designs of 1896-vintage are Queens of Cork Harbour with the Royal Cork YC's own Duncan Walker-restored Jap the flagship of the fleet, the fact that their numbers are small, with their home anchorages spread around the Harbour, means that the Rankin glued-clinker dinghies, originating from Cobh, are much the largest class numerically, and make their own significant impact when gathered together.
Unmistakable. The distinctive bow flare and glued-clinker planking of Cork Harbour's Rankin dinghies makes them stand out from any crowd. Photo: Robert Bateman
Of course, if we spread the net to include GRP production boats that race at Irish centres as One Designs and in some cases are already at or near their Golden Jubilee, we're overwhelmed with IDRA 14s, Squibs, Flying Fifteens, Puppeteer 22s, Ruffian 23s, Shipman 28s, Dragons and Beneteau 31.7s and their like, racing as One Designs.
At the other end of the One Design/GRP Production Boat continuum, we have Hal Sisk & Fionan de Barra with their inspired revival of the 1902-Dublin Bay 21s, while further up the size scale of the impressive historic Dublin Bay One Design array, the handsome Dublin Bay 24s - starting with an idea in 1934 and finally racing as a class in 1947 - have seen the re-build of Periwinkle in Brittany and Zephyra and Maine as highly-educational exercises by boat-building school, and the favourable impact they've made will surely inspire the re-building of other DB24s.
Inspirational. The fully-restored Dublin Bay 24 Zephyra sailing in Maine, summer 2024. Photo: Apprenticeshop.
BRINGING TRUTH TO RESTORATION
And in the end, the outcome of all this good work by boat-building schools, and devoted classicists, results in floating works of art whose origins are found in the need to create boats to race. Being works of art is secondary. They need to race – and race seriously though responsibly – to bring truth to their restoration.
