Even by the antique standards of many local one design classes in Ireland, the 125th (Quasquicentennial) Celebrations last year of the 1898-founded jackyard-topsail-setting Howth 17s were quite something, with the class's Event Captain Dave O'Shea seeing through a busy and imaginative programme. In it, a highlight was the Cruise-In-Company in West Cork in the final week of June, with its peak moment in turn being a rounding of the Fastnet Rock during a hyper-fast passage from Crookhaven to North Harbour, Cape Clear.
Little boat, big rock – Ian Malcolm's 1898-vintage Howth 17 Aura at the Fastnet during last year's 125th Anniversary Cruise-in-Company to West Cork. Photo: Trish Nixon
The problem is that after such an exceptional year, how do you keep up the buzz through an "ordinary" season? Well, under 2024 Class Captain Philip Tracy of Silver Moon (one of the five original Hilditch-built boats from 1898), it seems that there is no such thing as an ordinary year with such an ancient class.
Occasionally, analogies may of course be drawn with something that happened in the past – sometimes in the very distant past. But with the class well on track in 2024 to provide the 60 well-supported races that are expected each year before things draw to a close with the final race of the annual Howth Autumn League in October, the interest is on the race of the moment, and the next one along.
In order to save time for crews getting to the start after a day's work, the regular Tuesday evening races preclude the use of topsails………..
….yet sometimes the sunset is near as the Howth Seventeens race on for the Tuesday night finish. Photo: H17 Assoc..
TURVEYS WIN LAMBAY RACE
Thus it is already history that Conor and Brian Turvey's Isobel was class winner in a good breeze in the Lambay Race, with the Massey, Toomey and Kenny team in Deilginis coming second, while Peter Courtney's Oona was third.
NATIONAL YC REGATTA
Then in the annual outing across Dublin Bay to the National Yacht Club regatta, conditions looked unpromising as regards a steady wind, but Race Officer Con Murphy impressed the peninsula people by providing two good races, with Davie Nixon on Erica emerging as overall leader ahead of Ian Malcolm's Aura.
The National Yacht Club's 2024 Regatta at Dun Laoghaire provided excellent racing with top contenders including (left to right) Oona (Peter Courtney), Sheila (Andy Mulligan), Isobel (Conor & Brian Turvey) and overall winner Erica (Davie Nixon). Photo: Con Murphy
What is particularly impressive about these two pillar events is how well the top places are spread across the class, a clear indication of the health of the highly competitive racing. The names that emerge during the high-numbers weekly Tuesday evening and Saturday afternoon races may seem to feature half a dozen boats at the top, but everyone seems to get a shout at some stage.
ASSIDUOUSLY-MAINTAINED HANDICAPS
Then too, the assiduously-maintained handicap scoring keeps an alternative awards list well-filled to ensure the class's many trophies find a home at season's end at the class's Annual Dinner and prize-giving, which is one of the HYC's social programme's hottest tickets.
Summer Saturday afternoon, with full sail set to race through Howth Sound inside Ireland's Eye with (left to right) Oona (Peter Courtney), Deilginis (Toomey, Massey & Kenny) and Aura (Ian Malcolm). Photo: Howth 17 Assoc.
But there's plenty of sailing to be getting through in 2024 before anyone even thinks of the annual mega-bash. For in addition to he busy regular programme, three up-coming specials spice the mix, with the Gibney Classic run in conjunction with the popular pub in Malahide celebrating the Fingal sailing scene this Saturday (July 13th) with several classes including the Howth 17s involved. Then on the weekend of August 2nd to 4th, the class have their National Championship hosted by HYC.
RACING ROUND THE BAILY TO CLONTARF
Beyond that. in mid-August they venture round the Baily again and on into the inner reaches of Dublin Bay for the Clontarf Yacht & Boat Club At Home, a time-honoured even that goes back to soon after CY&BC's founding in 1875, and has involved the Seventeens since their earliest days in the late 1890s, providing a fascinating passage race from Howth to Clontarf through sea conditions of many different types.
Clontarf Yacht & Boat Club At Home, with Howth 17 crews relaxing after racing to Clontarf through some very varied waters from their home port of Howth.
DEFENDING CHAMPION
Andy Mulligan is the defending title-holder for the National Championship at the beginning of August, sailing Sheila. Even by Howth 17 standards, Sheila's story is convoluted, as she is one of the newer boats, with her construction beginning in the Wicklow Hills above Avoca and finally, after various diversions, being completed by master boatwright Dougal Mac Mahon of Athlone.
Andy Mulligan's Sheila leads in the special Friday evening race that started the 2023 Howth 17 National Championship, which she went on to win overall. Photo: HYC 17 Assoc
CHAMPIONSHIP SHARED WITH MERMAIDS
The Howth 17s are generous souls. As they will have their full national championship set-up in place from the 2nd to 4th August at HYC, they are sharing it all with the Mermaids. In fact, although the Howth 17s keep the Sunday in reserve and hope to have everything wrapped up by Saturday evening thanks to having a first race on the Friday evening, the Mermaids are planning to keep going into Sunday with two extra races scheduled to see if they can match the fierce competition of 2023, when the Skerries trio of Darrach Dineen crewed by Sean Pecknam and Breda Magner on Endeavour achieved overall victory at Foynes, thanks to winning the final race by three seconds.
TWO NEW HOWTH 17s UNDER CONSTRUCTION
As for future prospects, the twenty-strong Howth 17 class will be augmented by two news boats next year, with retired airline captain Gerry Comerford in Howth working meticulously towards the completion of his boat Anna, while across in Kilrush on the Shannon Estuary, that renowned boat-building polymath Steve Morris and his team are in the early stages of building a new boat for Donal Gallagher.
Gerry Comerford's own-built Howth 17 Anna at an early stage of construction. Photo: Ian Malcolm
IRISH CRUISING CLUB CONNECTIONS
Donal Gallagher is best known as Honorary Secretary of the Irish Cruising Club, continuing a link between the ICC and the Howth 17s that goes right back to the ICC's founding in 1929, when the first Honorary Treasurer was Howth 17 owner-skipper Billy McBride, whose day job was as an artist in the legendary Harry Clarke Stained Glass Studio.
Additionally, one of the leading figures in the ICC's founding, Billy Mooney, had extensive (and successful) Howth 17 racing in his CV, and another regular Howth 17 sailor today is Alan Markey, current Commodore of the ICC, who recently led a fleet of his club members in a Cruise-in-Company with their varied cruising boats in South Brittany.
ROUND IRELAND RACING
They say if you can successfully sail a Howth 17 then you can sail anything - inshore or offshore – and this year's Round Ireland Race saw Howth 17s sailors active in several boats, most notably on Simon Knowles' J/109 Indian where Rima Macken of the Howth 17s was on the crew strength in a steadily improving performance that saw Indian finish at the top of the fleet, with 3rdin IRC4 and first in Corinthian Division.
The J/109 Indian (Simon Knowles, Howth YC) had Howth 17 crewing input during a successful SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race 2024. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O'Brien
CLASSIC BOAT LINKS
Not surprisingly, the class has several links across the classic boat movement, the most active being through Ian and Judith Malcolm of Aura, one of the "first five" of 1898. It was through Ian's patience and negotiating skills that two boats were built/re-built in boat-building schools in Brittany, he also was "negotiator-in-chief" in securing the services of boat-building ace Larry Archer in restoring boats that were damaged in shore storage during Storm Emma in March 2018, and he and Judith also sail the Dublin Bay Water Wag Barbara, built in 1915, which they took with the Water Wag Class to the Morbihan Festival in South Brittany.
"It's behind you!" Ian & Judith Malcolm in their Water Wag Barbara with some interesting company at the Morbihan Festival. Photo: Con Murphy
The Howth Seventeens have also been to the Morbihan, where they renewed their friendship with the famous Cork Harbour-built 43ft Fife cutter Pen Duick of shared 1898 vintage. The links go back to the 1970s, when two Howth 17s got themselves to the Brest Festival, and were immediately recognised for what they were by the late great Eric Tabarly himself, leading the fleet with his beloved Pen Duick.
So although the Howth 17s tend to be specifically associated with one very particular peninsular port, even a cursory look at their activities and connections seems to suggest that they're at the heart of a semi-secret universe which can only really be understood by other genuine classic boat enthusiasts, a world unto itself.
Howth 17s with Pen Duick at the Morbihan Festival. With a shared vintage of 1898, the Howth 17s first met up with Pen Duick - with the late Eric Tabarly on board - at the Brest Festival in the 1970s
