Just get one good strange and distinctive word in your publicity material, and the news will spread like wildfire. Howth 17 Class Captain Dave O'Shea has discovered that the word for 125th Anniversary is Quasquicentennial, and he posted it this morning in the notice for the 125th Anniversary Race coming up this Thursday (May 4th). The magic word is spreading like wildfire in cyberspace, with a remarkable number of comments and fresh input from London, which suggests that life there is still far from emerging from the easy-going WFH mindset, but that's a problem for Mr Sunak and his mates.
Meanwhile, the problem in Howth is whether the present volatile weather will be providing reasonable conditions at 19:00 hrs on Thursday when two races will be sailed - one for the original five 1898 boats, and the other for "the others" - boats built between 1900 and 2017.
A reference to the June 1998 Afloat Magazine reveals that the Centenary Race was won by Norman Wilkinson's Leile, which also won the first race in 1898, so there's unreasonable pressure on current owner Roddy Cooper. Be that as it may, the Soundings column in the back page of that June 1998 edition includes further insights, notably the fact that Norman Wilkinson - then aged 81 - was so completely right-handed that even when sailing on port tack from the lee side in ancient Howth 17 style, he still used his right-hand thanks to being able to curl his long right arm in behind his back in what looked like excruciating discomfort.
Inside-back page from Afloat Magazine, June 1998. 81-year-old Norman Wilkinson wins the Howth 17s Centenary Race despite his odd helming technique on port tack. And in another story, mink make a meal of it in a sinking boat
We could only comment that if Norman - a truly great man - wished to race while standing on his head and holding the tiller with his feet, then that was fine by us. Which in turn, reminded us of the late great Dave FitzGerald of Galway Bay Sailing Club, who was the first western Commodore of the Irish Cruising Club. Dave was boss of Tynagh Mines in Loughrea, and though very much the boss, he was also so totally immersed in mining culture that sometimes in the middle of a club dinner, he would stand up and give an excellent a capella rendition of the rebel miners' anthem, The Ballad of Joe Hill.
At the recent ICC Dinnner in Sligo, his old shipmate Peter Fernis told me this was only the way he did it at polite parties. At a real heavy-going miners or sailors party, Dave's speciality was singing Joe Hill while standing on his head and smoking a large cigar. It's beyond imagination. There's also a little tailpiece in that Soundings column which is a memory of another time. Apparently, a very leaky old wooden boat was waiting to get into the local dry-dock on the Shannon for re-caulking, but was delayed as the boat already being worked on in the dock was running late. But the wooden-boat owner wasn't unduly worried, as his automatic bilge pump kept things under control. However, one weekend he turned up to find the vintage craft had sunk. It seems the electric cables had been knawed through, but not by rats. Mink were the guilty party.
All of which is a long way from Howth on Thursday evening, when Leila has the hand of history on her helm, as she also won the 75th Anniversary Race in 1972 when the class Honorary Secretary, mathematics obsessive Gerald FitzGibbon, insisted that class organisations had no Year Zero. Thus the 75th Birthday Season was 1972. But you'll note that Gerald - having long since gone to the Great Algorithm in the Sky - has left the Class clear to revert to old-fashioned notions of when birthdays occur, and they'll be carrying this with them when they move en masse for their Quasquicentennial Regatta Week in Baltimore and its West Cork environs in the last week of June.
Conor & Brian Turvey's Howth 17 Isobel (no 19, built at Howth Castle in 1988) gleaming in the Spring sunshine as she launches at Howth Yacht Club on Bank Holiday Monday. Photo: Brian Turvey
