The Howth 17 is a type of keelboat. It is a 3-man single-design keelboat designed to race in the waters off Howth and Dublin Bay.

How long is a Howth 17?

The Howth Seventeen is just 22ft 6ins in hull length.

Why are Howth 17s so famous?

The boat is the oldest one-design keelboat racing class in the world and it is still racing today to its original design exclusively at Howth Yacht club. It has important historical and heritage value keep alive by a vibrant class of members who race and cruise the boats.

How many Howth 17s are racing today?

Although 21 boats are in existence, a full fleet rarely sails buy turnouts for the annual championships are regularly in the high teens.

Who designed the Howth 17?

The plans of the Howth 17 were originally drawn by Walter Herbert Boyd in 1897 for Howth Sailing Club. The boat was launched in Ireland in 1898.

Who built the original Howth 17s?

They were originally built by John Hilditch at Carrickfergus, County Down. Initially, five boats were constructed by him and sailed the 90-mile passage to Howth in the spring of 1898. The latest Number 21 was built in France in 2017.

Why were the Howth 17s designed and built?

The Howth 17s were designed to combat local conditions in Howth that many of the keel-less boats of that era such as the 'Half-Rater' would have found difficult.

How many Howth 17s were built?

The original fleet of five, Rita, Leila, Silver Moon, Aura and Hera, was increased in 1900 with the addition of Pauline, Zaida and Anita. By 1913 the class had increased to fourteen boats. The extra nine were commissioned by Dublin Bay Sailing Club for racing from Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire) - Echo, Sylvia, Mimosa, Deilginis, Rosemary, Gladys, Bobolink, Eileen and Nautilus. Gradually the boats found their way to Howth from various places, including the Solent and by the latter part of the 20th century they were all based there. The class, however, was reduced to 15 due to mishaps and storm damage for a few short years but in May 1988 Isobel and Erica were launched at Howth Yacht Club, the boats having been built in a shed at Howth Castle - the first of the class actually built in Howth.

What are Howth 17s constructed of?

The basic wooden Howth 17 specification was for a stem and keel of oak and elm, deadwood and frames of oak, planking of yellow pine above the waterline and red pine below, a shelf of pitch pine and a topstrake of teak, larch deck-beams and yellow pine planking and Baltic spruce spars with a keel of lead. Other than the inclusion of teak, the boats were designed to be built of materials which at that time were readily available. However today yellow pine and pitch pine are scarce, their properties of endurance and longevity much appreciated and very much in evidence on the original five boats.

How many races do the Howth 17s sail in any given year?

It is always a busy 60-race season of regular midweek evening and Saturday afternoon contests plus regattas and the Howth Autumn League

Name a famous Howth 17?

The 1907-built Deiliginis have recently made it four in a row for the national title that Deilginis has won at least six times in all.

What are some big recent events in the Howth 17 class?

In 2017, a new Howth 17 Orla, No 21, was built for Ian Malcolm. The construction of Orla began in September 2016 at Skol ar Mor, the boat-building school run by American Mike Newmeyer and his dedicated team of instructor-craftsmen at Mesquer in southern Brittany. In 2018, Storm Emma wrought extensive destruction through the seven Howth Seventeens stored in their much-damaged shed on Howth’s East Pier at the beginning of March 2018, it was feared that several of the boats – which since 1898 have been the very heart of Howth sailing – would be written off. But in the end only one – David O’Connell’s Anita built in 1900 by James Clancy of Dun Laoghaire – was assessed as needing a complete re-build. Anita was rebuilt by Paul Robert and his team at Les Ateliers de l’Enfer in Douarnenez in Brittany in 2019 and Brought home to Howth.

What is the sail area of a Howth 17?

The total sail area is 305 sq ft (28.3 m2)

Howth 17s Get Perfect Topsail Weather For Annual Championship

11th August 2026

WM Nixon

Portrush Rush: Howth 17 Rosemary puts the ‘rush’ into Portrush at the Howth 17 Nationals in Howth. Built by James Kelly of Portrush in 1907, Rosemary was the last of the class to be Dun Laoghaire-based, first with Buddy Thompson and later Fred Espey of the Royal Irish YC. She is now owned by David Jones, on the helm here, in partnership with David Potter and Mary Curley, and won Race 3 of the four-race championship. In the background, the long white Portmarnock Hotel was formerly St Marnoch’s, home of John Jameson of Irex fame and later his brother Willie Jameson, Royal Sailing Master on the Prince of Wales’ cutter Britannia from 1893-1897 Credit: Jim McCormack

At most gatherings of classic yachts, it would be thought quite an achievement to muster a dozen boats setting proper two-yard jackyard topsails. But as in everything they do, the 1898-vintage Howth 17s are different. They simply have to signal the start of a race in reasonable conditions, and with the click of a finger they’ve a dozen and one foreby of “perfect little yachts” setting old-style topsails.

New girl on the block. Gerry Comferford’s own-built Anna is class certified as 2026

When sent aloft properly by experienced crews, it all looks easy enough. But the late great Pat Murphy, multiple dinghy champion, successful offshore racer and veteran of an exemplary nine year global circumnavigation under sail with his wife Olivia on the 42ft cutter Aldebaran, had to admit that the topsail defeated him on a season-long basis when he chartered one of the boats for a year after a year, in order to get back in the heart of the local sailing scene following his remarkable voyage.

HOWTH 17 WORLDS?

Keeping the class in one place has guaranteed its thriving survival. thus when some mischief-maker pointed that, as all the Howth 17s were based in Howth after 1973 thanks to the efforts of Nick Massey and others, they could call their annual championship the Howth 17 Worlds if they so wished.

When aloft and properly set, the jackyard topsails look like a straightforward proposition

However, they later outwardly complied with an official request to down-grade this to their Nationals, as Howth Yacht Club acquired some respectability with its Centenary in 1995. But within the class, the Annual Championship – early August, one race on Friday evening and three races on the Saturday with Sunday in reserve – is called the Intergalactics by some of the more cussed class members, and the powers-that-be have the sense to leave well alone provided it doesn’t appear on any official document.

Only a seasoned member of the class is permitted to refer to this event as the “Howth 17 Intergalactics”

NO NUMBER 13

In all, despite best efforts, just 13 boats raced out of a fleet of 21 in which there’s no Number 13, and they ranged from three of the five originals built by John Hilditch of Carrickfergus in 1898 to the newest, Anna No 22, lovingly and superbly self-built by retired airline captain Gerry Comerford, and new-launched in May this year.

The Friday evening race was as-your-were, being won by the defending champions, the Massey, Toomey & Kenny syndicate in the 1907-built Deilginis, which was found in a very moth-balled state in Dolphin’s Barn by Nick Massey in 1972, and showing every sign that her latter years afloat had been spent as a sea-angling boat.

Roddy Cooper’s Leila (built 1898) and defending champion Deilginis neck and neck. From 1927 until 1948, Leila was owned and raced at Howth by Billy McBride, founding Honorary Treasurer of the Irish Cruising Club in 1929, and a noted artist working in the Harry Clarke stained glass studios

EXTRA LUMBER OF LAID TEAK DECK

But years of patient up-grading topped by a new teak-laid deck by Rui Ferreira of Ballydehob has Deilginis in probably her best-ever condition, while carrying the extra lumber of the teak deck has in no way slowed her, as they showed by winning the first race on Friday evening from one of the newest boat, No 21 Orla owned by Marc FitzGibbon and Donal Gallagher, and built by Skol ar Mor in southern Brittany in 2018 under the guidance of Ian Malcolm.

Orla (2019, Marc FitzGibbon & Donal Gallagher) was third OA on scratch and second on HPH. She was built as a teaching project by Skol ar Mor in Brittany in an arrangement negotiated by Howtj 17 senior Ian Malcolm

OFF THE GRASS

Saturday promised well, with gentle early morning conditions slowly giving way to a brisk breeze “off the grass” as they say in Irish Lights, with much sunshine. Deilginis won again, but this time with the 1988-vintage Howth-built Isobel (Conor & Brian Turvey) taking second and Gerry Comerford’s new Anna making one of her first visits to the podium in third.

The seeming inevitability of Deilginis’s progress had a rude shock in Race 3, Saturday’s second race, when Davy Jones helmed Rosemary, our header-pic girl, to a win by one minute and 26 seconds ahead of Isobel, which in turn was just five seconds ahead of mountainy man Shane O’Doherty and co in the 1900-vintage Dun Laoghaire-built Pauline.

Rosemary emerges with a clear lead in Saturday’s second race Rosemary emerges wit a clear lead in Saturday’s second race

However, anybody who pushes a stick into the wasp’s nest that is the Deilginis squad is liable to get stung, and Luke Massey helmed the defender to a winning blinder in the final race, albeit by just 55 seconds from Isobel but it looked like more, while Isobel in turn was 53 seconds ahead of Pauline getting her second third.

WELL SPREAD OVER THE YEARS

Overall on scratch, it was well spread over the years, with Deilginis (1907) first on 3 points, Isobel (1988) second on 6, Orla (2019) third on 11, and Rosemary (1907) fourth on 12 in a tie-breaker with Pauline (1900).

A trim little fleet, and very much part of their community. Having celebrated their 125th Anniversary with a cruise-in-company in West Cork in 2023, the Howth 17s are making plans for something unusual for their 130th in 2028

Even the HPH Performance Handicaps couldn’t keep up with Deilginis’s speed, and she won that overall o 7 points with Orla second on 8, Pauline third on 11, and Ian Malcolm’s Aura (1898) fourth on 13 fourth.

In a league of their own – Luke Massey helms Deilginis to the clinching win in the final race

Being Class Captain of the Howth 17s is such a challenge – herding cats isn’t in it – that at the moment they find it works best by having a non-owner, thus David “Daisy” O’Shea with his showbiz background is filling the role, and he crews with Peter Courtney aboard the Oona, whch was built in 1909, and that means the Courtney family with their Howth 17 involvement since 1907 have been longer in the class than the boat they currently sail, but that’s the way it is in this remarkable class.

All the usual suspects – the winning Deilginis crew with Mikey Toomey on the left and wall-to-wall Masseys thereafter

Vive La France! Marc FitzGibbon, helm of Orla, the class’s only French-built boat, receives his prizes from Class Captain David “Daisy” O’Shea (left)

Class captain O’Shea and the prizes for Conor Turvey of the Howth-built Isobel of 1988 vintage

Results can be found here.

Photos by Jim McCormack, Judith Malcolm and Brian Turvey

Published in Howth 17

Tagged under

About The Author

WM Nixon

Email The Author

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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