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Dublin Bay 21s’ Restoration Will See the Sleeping Beauties Awake Again In Dun Laoghaire on July 30th

22nd June 2021
Secret sailing in the Shannon Estuary. The restored Dublin Bay 21 Garavogue (originally built Portrush 1903) on her 2021 maiden sail in the Shannon Estuary. All being well, she’ll be sailing from the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire for the first time in 35 years on Friday July 30th.
Secret sailing in the Shannon Estuary. The restored Dublin Bay 21 Garavogue (originally built Portrush 1903) on her 2021 maiden sail in the Shannon Estuary. All being well, she’ll be sailing from the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire for the first time in 35 years on Friday July 30th. Scroll down for video below

Although the more energetic clubs managed successful if very compressed programmes in the brief permitted sailing season of 2020, the pandemic shut-down was so all-encompassing for life in general that it’s taking quite some time to get a proper feeling that the programme for 2021 really has the potential to develop as the season makes on.

The fact that today we’re in the mild melancholy which comes on for the day or two after the Summer Solstice contributes to the mood, with some sailors peering muzzily out at the horizon like Rip van Winkle after his twenty years of sleep.

Garavogue in her heyday under her original rig in Dun Laoghaire Harbour sixty years ago.Garavogue in her heyday under her original rig in Dun Laoghaire Harbour sixty years ago. 

But their challenge of adjustment is as nothing compared to those whose ideal vision of a sailing boat is the Dublin Bay 21. This 1902 Alfred Mylne-designed class last raced out of Dun Laoghaire in August 1986. So when the first three newly-restored boats re-appear at the National Yacht Club on Friday July 30th, we’ll be thinking in terms of the Sleeping Beauty and her century of zizz, rather than Rip van Winkle and his afternoon nap of twenty years.

Naneen pre-restoration in Kilrush with (left to right) Fionan de Barra, Steve Morris, design consultant Paul Spooner, and Hal SiskNaneen pre-restoration in Kilrush with (left to right) Fionan de Barra, Steve Morris, design consultant Paul Spooner, and Hal Sisk

Admittedly it’s “only” 35 years since they last raced, but it sometimes does seem like a hundred, and many people had resigned themselves to the permanent disappearance of the class. It is only thanks to Fionan de Barra keeping the faith with the major solution-finding input of Hal Sisk - allied to the remarkable skills of boatbuilder Steve Morris of Kilrush – that we can now admire Naneen and Garavogue already sailing in the Shannon Estuary, while their sister-ship Estelle – originally built by Hollwey of Ringsend in 1903 for Herbert Wright, who in 1929 became founding Commodore of the Irish Cruising Club – will soon also be afloat.

For their final decades, the Twenty-Ones were almost completely focused on the National Yacht Club, so at the moment – for who can say if any proposed date is a fixture these days - the date of Friday July 30th 2021 has been set for the Twenty-one Foot Class’s sleeping beauties Naneen, Garavogue and Estelle to be re-awakened at the National Yacht Club. It will only a need a kiss from the most appropriate neighbourhood prince, but there’s no word yet as to whether auditions are planned for that special role……

Naneen - Dun Laghaire-built in 1905 - demonstrates her timeless elegance on her maiden sail in restored form Naneen - Dun Laghaire-built in 1905 - demonstrates her timeless elegance on her maiden sail in restored form

Published in Dublin Bay 21
WM Nixon

About The Author

WM Nixon

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William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland for many years in print and online, and his work has appeared internationally in magazines and books. His own experience ranges from club sailing to international offshore events, and he has cruised extensively under sail, often in his own boats which have ranged in size from an 11ft dinghy to a 35ft cruiser-racer. He has also been involved in the administration of several sailing organisations.

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Dublin Bay 21s

An exciting new project to breathe life into six defunct 120-year-old Irish yachts that happen to be the oldest intact one-design keelboat class in the world has captured the imagination of sailors at Ireland's biggest sailing centre. The birthplace of the original Dublin Bay 21 class is getting ready to welcome home the six restored craft after 40 years thanks to an ambitious boat building project was completed on the Shannon Estuary that saved them from completely rotting away.

Dublin Bay 21 FAQs

The Dublin Bay 21 is a vintage one-design wooden yacht designed for sailing in Dublin Bay.

Seven were built between 1903 and 1906.

As of 2020, the yachts are 117 years old.

Alfred Mylne designed the seven yachts.

The total voting population in the Republic's inhabited islands is just over 2,600 people, according to the Department of Housing.

Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) commissioned the boat to encourage inexpensive one-design racing to recognise the success of the Water Wag one-design dinghy of 1887 and the Colleen keelboat class of 1897.

Estelle built by Hollwey, 1903; Garavogue built by Kelly, 1903; Innisfallen built by Hollwey, 1903.; Maureen built by Hollwey, 1903.; Oola built by Kelly, 1905; Naneen built by Clancy, 1905.

Overall length- 32'-6', Beam- 7'-6", Keel lead- 2 tons Sail area - 600sq.ft

The first race took place on 19 June 1903 in Dublin Bay.

They may be the oldest intact class of racing keelboat yacht in the world. Sailing together in a fleet, they are one of the loveliest sights to be seen on any sailing waters in the world, according to many Dublin Bay aficionados.

In 1964, some of the owners thought that the boats were outdated, and needed a new breath of fresh air. After extensive discussions between all the owners, the gaff rig and timber mast was abandoned in favour of a more fashionable Bermudan rig with an aluminium mast. Unfortunately, this rig put previously unseen loads on the hulls, resulting in some permanent damage.

The fleet was taken out of the water in 1986 after Hurricane Charlie ruined active Dublin Bay 21 fleet racing in August of that year. Two 21s sank in the storm, suffering the same fate as their sister ship Estelle four years earlier. The class then became defunct. In 1988, master shipwright Jack Tyrrell of Arklow inspected the fleet and considered the state of the hulls as vulnerable, describing them as 'still restorable even if some would need a virtual rebuild'. The fleet then lay rotting in a farmyard in Arklow until 2019 and the pioneering project of Dun Laoghaire sailors Fionan De Barra and Hal Sisk who decided to bring them back to their former glory.

Hurricane Charlie finally ruined active Dublin Bay 21 fleet racing in August 1986. Two 21s sank in the storm, suffering the same fate as a sister ship four years earlier; Estelle sank twice, once on her moorings and once in a near-tragic downwind capsize. Despite their collective salvage from the sea bed, the class decided the ancient boats should not be allowed suffer anymore. To avoid further deterioration and risk to the rare craft all seven 21s were put into storage in 1989 under the direction of the naval architect Jack Tyrrell at his yard in Arklow.

While two of the fleet, Garavogue and Geraldine sailed to their current home, the other five, in various states of disrepair, were carried the 50-odd miles to Arklow by road.

To revive the legendary Dublin Bay 21 class, the famous Mylne design of 1902-03. Hal Sisk and Fionan de Barra are developing ideas to retain the class's spirit while making the boats more appropriate to today's needs in Dun Laoghaire harbour, with its many other rival sailing attractions. The Dublin Bay 21-foot class's fate represents far more than the loss of a single class; it is bad news for the Bay's yachting heritage at large. Although Dún Laoghaire turned a blind eye to the plight of the oldest intact one-design keelboat fleet in the world for 30 years or more they are now fully restored.

The Dublin Bay 21 Restoration team includes Steve Morris, James Madigan, Hal Sisk, Fionan de Barra, Fintan Ryan and Dan Mill.

Retaining the pure Mylne-designed hull was essential, but the project has new laminated cold-moulded hulls which are being built inverted but will, when finished and upright, be fitted on the original ballast keels, thereby maintaining the boat’s continuity of existence, the presence of the true spirit of the ship.

It will be a gunter-rigged sloop. It was decided a simpler yet clearly vintage rig was needed for the time-constrained sailors of the 21st Century. So, far from bringing the original and almost-mythical gaff cutter rig with jackyard topsail back to life above a traditionally-constructed hull, the project is content to have an attractive gunter-rigged sloop – “American gaff” some would call it.

The first DB 21 to get the treatment was Naneen, originally built in 1905 by Clancy of Dun Laoghaire for T. Cosby Burrowes, a serial boat owner from Cavan.

On Dublin Bay. Dublin Bay Sailing Club granted a racing start for 2020 Tuesday evening racing starting in 2020, but it was deferred due to COVID-19.
Initially, two Dublin Bay 21s will race then three as the boat building project based in Kilrush on the Shannon Estuary completes the six-boat project.
The restored boats will be welcomed back to the Bay in a special DBSC gun salute from committee boat Mac Lir at the start of the season.
In a recollection for Afloat, well known Dun Laoghaire one-design sailor Roger Bannon said: "They were complete bitches of boats to sail, over-canvassed and fundamentally badly balanced. Their construction and design was also seriously flawed which meant that they constantly leaked and required endless expensive maintenance. They suffered from unbelievable lee helm which led to regular swamping's and indeed several sinkings.

©Afloat 2020