Two classic Irish yachts are turning heads in the perfect sailing conditions of the first two days of racing at the Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup Regatta off Kinsale. 

The immaculately restored O'Keeffe family's gaff cutter Lady Min of 1902 vintage and the Sisk family's Marian Maid, built in 1954, are both racing in the White Sails Two division.

Re-born. The restored Lady Min raced at Cork Week 2022 and is racing this week at the 2023 Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup off Kinsale Photo: Bob Bateman

Designed and built in Schull by Maurice O'Keeffe in 1902, Lady Min was acclaimed as the Best Restoration Under 40ft by Classic Boat Magazine in April in celebration of the meticulous work carried out by Tiernan Roe of Roe Boats of Ballydehob for Simon O'Keeffe, who is at the heart of a four-generation family involvement with this very special boat.

The O'Keeffe family's gaff cutter Lady Min of 1902 is racing at the 2023 Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup off Kinsale Photo: Bob Bateman

Marian Maid at Kinsale

The vanished-hulled Marian Maid is racing again and has recently travelled from her home port of Dun Laoghaire back to the south coast to compete at this week's biennial Sovereign's Cup. 

It's easy to see why the Knud Reimers designed Marian Maid made something of a splash in the Yachting World Annual of 1954 Photo: Bob Bateman

As Afloat reported recently, the eight-metre cruiser-racer is owned by George and Hal Sisk and Hal's son Owen and immaculately restored by Jimmy Murphy and Peter Sweetman and Sisk boat specialist Ian Squire with the team at Rossbrin Boatyard in West Cork, where the up-dating mods have included the installation of an electric auxiliary engine.

The yawl-rigged Marian Maid was built in the Marian Year of 1954 for John Sisk by Dalkey Shipyard on Dublin Bay Photo: Bob Bateman

Marian Maid was spotted at Crosshaven Tradfest in Cork Harbour last Sunday evening, as Afloat reported here, before the yawl began racing this week in White Sails Two Division.

Designed with the 1954 RORC rule  in mind, Marian Maid’s rig leads to no less than six headsails, two jibs, a boom foresail with a reef, a working foresail, and a foresail for reaching Photo: Bob Bateman

There’ll be celebrating in West Cork this Easter, and rightly so, as the 1902-vintage cutter Lady Min – designed, built and sailed in Schull by the O’Keeffe family during 120 years – has been garlanded with honours at this week’s International Classic Boat Awards in London.

Painstakingly restored to pristine condition by Tiernan Roe of Ballydehob for current “curator” Simon O’Keeffe, it has been a remarkable project in every way. For although Lady Min sets a standard gaff cutter rig which is very much of its time, underneath it the original designer-builder-owner Maurice O’Keeffe put a hull of such advanced type that it still looks modern today.

Lady Min at Volvo Cork Week 2022. Don’t be fooled by that old-style gaff cutter rig. It’s set above a hull whose basic shape still looks modern today. Photo: Bob Bateman

Inevitably with the speed such a hull provides, Lady Min made considerable demands over the years on the engineering soundness of her construction. But thanks to some major maintenance jobs from time to time, when Tiernan Roe of Roe Boats began the complete revival project in 2014 there was enough of the original boat in good order to enable him to bring her up to “better-than-new” condition in an authentic restoration for a debut in 2022, a debut which saw her winning major trophies at regattas all along the South Cork Coast from Crookhaven to Crosshaven.

Tiernan Roe analysing Lady Min’s condition at an early stage of the restoration. When Maurice O’Keeffe designed and built her in Schull in 1902, he was pushing the limits (successfully too) in terms of advanced yet seaworthy hull shape and light weight of construction. Photo: Roe Boats

With the Awards Ceremony in the Royal Thames Yacht Club and follow-up Lady Min gatherings in both the Irish Embassy and the Royal Ocean Racing Club, a bright cloud of stardust from London now floats over a project which, at its most demanding stages, saw Tiernan Roe painstakingly deciding what needed restoring and what needed renewing in order to bring Lady Min to a condition which properly honoured the memory of Maurice O’Keeffe.

Maurice was his own Project Manager in Schull back in 1902 when – having created the preliminary drawings – he retained a talented local boat-builder to be his foreman in a neighbourhood boat-building project which - in due course – saw the new Lady Min in Lloyd’s Register officially recognised and named as having been built in Schull in 1902, with Maurice O’Keeffe as Designer and Builder.

There are very few – if any – 120-year-old boats sailing today that could claim this rare distinction, and then carry off an international award as a bonus. But further rare interest with an Irish dimension in the London announcements was to be found in the fact that the boat which probably most closely ran Lady Min for the overall Under 40ft Award was one that originally sailed from Howth, and made her debut afloat at the East Coast port eight years before Lady Min appeared in Schull.

The 1895-built Loch Fyne-type cutter Marishka off Howth in 1896. Photo: W H Boyd

Although a gaff cutter of comparable size, Marishka provides a remarkable contrast with Lady Min, as she is of Scotland’s very traditional Loch Fyne type, which can also be seen to perfection in Stephen Hyde’s restored Cruachan of 1896 vintage in Crosshaven.

As for Marishka, she was originally built for Noel “Pa” Guinness of Howth, who was a busy man around boats in 1895, for in addition to adding Marishka to the local fleet, he was a founding member of Howth Sailing Club (now Howth Yacht Club), serving as Vice Commodore until 1948 when founding Commodore Walter Boyd finally departed the scene, leaving Pa Guinness as the top man for another dozen years until he too made his last voyage.

Victorian sportsmen par excellence. Noel Guinness (left) helming his Howth 17 Rita in Howth Sound in 1898. Photo: W N Stokes

He’d kept Marishka (which had been designed by David Fyfe of Great Cumbrae Island and built by Morris & Lorimer of the Holy Loch) for maybe a dozen years, and found that a month’s cruising with a regular shipmate to Scotland each July worked wonders for his marriage, a domestic harmony additionally helped by his becoming one of the first owners of a Howth 17 in 1898. His boat Rita was first into port, sailed under his own command down from builders Hilditch of Carrickergus in April 1898 in challenging weather, and consequently she became No 1, and still sails and wins, now owned by Marcus Lynch and John Curley.

Meanwhile, Marishka went through various owners (including apparently Tom Cunliffe at one stage) until in 1996, having finished and published the Howth YC Centenary History in which Marishka featured, I got word that she’d be in the Falmouth Classics that summer. So we arranged to meet up as Falmouth would be on our way as we sailed from Schull (don’t ask) to St Malo to see a cruising boat built by James Kelly of Portrush in 1896.

Marishka in Falmouth, 1996. Photo: W M Nixon

All the pieces came together, and there was Marishka in Falmouth, looking the absolute thrice-distilled essence of the Loch Fyne type, with owner David Reay looking the ultimate personification of the classic yacht devotee, as he knew that – having celebrated Marishka’s Centenary the previous year - now was the time for a bit of a restoration, and he expected her to be out of commission “for a little while”.

Restorer at the ready – David Reay aboard Marishka in Falmouth in July 1996. Photo: W M Nixon

Well, the “little while” has become 25 years. But the result is very impressive. Marishka is even more authentic than when new, as the original nondescript chainplates have been replaced with the traditional channel system, which looks very well, as does everything else. Indeed, it has to be said that Lady Min has certainly achieved quite something, to come in a nose ahead of this very special Howth boat in the International Classic Boat Awards 2023.

Sailing again after a 25-year restoration – Marishka steps out in style in 2022. Typical of the painstaking attention to detail are the “more authentic” shroud-supporting chainplates on channels

Yet again, Ireland's classic boat restorers have found themselves on the peak of the podium, this time at last night's International Classic Boat Awards 2023 in London.

The O'Keeffe family's gaff cutter Lady Min, designed and built in Schull by Maurice O'Keeffe in 1902, was acclaimed as the Best Restoration Under 40ft in celebration of the meticulous work carried out by Tiernan Roe of Roe Boats of Ballydehob for Simon O'Keeffe, who is at the heart of a four-generation family involvement with this very special boat.

Afloat will carry more photos of the story and ceremony in due course; meanwhile, West Cork can continue to celebrate its unique national and international place in classic and traditional boat restoration and re-build.

A year ago, the world of classic boats in Ireland was on a high with the news that maritime polymath Hal Sisk of Dun Laoghaire had been acclaimed as International Classic Boater of the Year, while Steve Morris of Kilush Boatyard was also a major trophy winner for his work in restoring the Dublin Bay 21 Class, which originated in 1902.

This year, another Irish boat from 1902, the Lady Min designed and built by Maurice O'Keeffe in Schull, is very much in the running in the Under 40ft Class, after a complete restoration for Simon O'Keeffe (great-grandson of the original owner) by Tiernan Roe of Ballydehob,

Votes close on March 20th - vote here 

Irish boat restoration projects are no strangers to the annual International Classic Boat Awards, the most recent being April 2022's accolade for Stephen Morris of Kilrush and his work on the Dublin Bay 21s for Fionan de Barra and Hal Sisk of Dun Laoghaire, with the multi-tasking Hal Sisk receiving the ultimate recognition as Classic Boater of the Year 2022.

This time round, our leading representative is the 1902-vintage cutter Lady Min, designed and built in Schull, West Cork by Maurice O'Keeffe. Since 2014, the original owner-designer-builder's great-grandson Simon O'Keeffe had been running a holding operation with this remarkable and notably speedy boat, waiting until the time was right to give master craftsman Tiernan Roe of Roeboats near Ballydehob the go-ahead for a complete restoration.

The work - a major project - eventually got under way for completion in time for the 2022 season, and during the summer Lady Min became a much-admired prize-winning competitor at regattas all along the south coast. Now she is a high-profile nominee for a Classic Boat award, and all voting support is welcome for this happy conclusion to a remarkable story, details here

An early stage of the Lady Min restoration, with Tiernan Roe carefully removing material

It’s a mixed blessing being the curator-owner of a boat designed and built by a direct ancestor in your home-port town 120 years ago. But Simon O’Keeffe of Schull has turned a challenge into a triumph by commissioning classic boat-builder Tiernan Roe of Ballydehob to breathe fresh life into the family’s 1902-vintage gaff cutter Lady Min, and then rounding out the “beautiful project” by winning his class in Calves Week at Schull in August after notching successes at regattas all along the South Coast.

The 30ft gaff-rigged Lady Min - designed and built for his own use by Maurice O’Keeffe of Schull in 1902 - was re-launched for his descendant Simon O’Keeffe at the weekend by restorer Tiernan Roe of Ballydehob, and a flotilla of four traditional and classic craft associated with West Cork were there to greet her on Sunday when she took her first sail in a squally northerly. The “welcoming committee” included Nigel Towse's sailing oyster boat Hanorah from Heir Island and Cormac Levis’s Saoirse Muirrean from Ballydehob, plus two Baltimore boats, Ivan Wolfe’s Rose of Baltimore and Brian Marten’s cruising cutter Guillemot.

While Lady Min was originally gaff-rigged, her hull in many ways was very modern in type, and at 119 years old it needed some very skilled craftsmanship to bring it back to full seagoing order.

This has been successfully achieved, and the abiding memory of Sunday’s first outing is not only of how beautifully she sailed, but also how remarkably fast.

She was always fast - Lady Min in the 1950s.

Lady Min after an upgrade in the 1970s. Gently does it….Tiernan Roe in the midst of the stripping-back stage in the restoration of Lady Min Photo:Kevin O'Farrell