Life coming full circle is always a moment marked by both happiness and quiet excitement. After spending my youth—and well into my twenties—on the water more than on land, returning to my club years later felt deeply significant. Back then, my days were filled with training, racing, instructing and managing sailing courses myself in Skerries and Dun Laoghaire. Coming back now, with my own children enrolled in ISA courses and optimist training, was a powerful reminder of just how much sailing had shaped my life.
Friends often asked when I would get back on the water myself. It was never a conscious plan. At that stage, watching my children enjoy sailing felt like enough. My own sailing journey had been extensive: from optimist and mirror racing to university team racing, crewing with my dad in Mermaids, a stint in GP’s and generally competing across multiple fleets. Eventually, career demands and the start of family life pulled me away from sailing for a long time.
During that absence, the national Mirror fleet, which we had been heavily involved in, declined, and sadly, the last Mirrors left Skerries Sailing Club. It always felt like a real loss. The Mirror is such a special boat—small, versatile, and three-sailed—offering young sailors invaluable double-handed skills. In its heyday in Skerries, we had at times up to 15 Mirrors locally, while national events regularly saw fleets of over 100 boats.
Rigging Up – Young sailor prepares Mirror dinghy ashore
The Mirror class gave us far more than racing. It took us around the world, with team trips to South Africa, Holland, Sweden, and the UK, and to events all over Ireland, for the World and European Championships. The friendships formed during those years have lasted a lifetime, and it was common to meet familiar faces again when racing in other fleets. One of the great strengths of the Mirror fleet was its ability to regenerate itself: helms always needed crews, crews brought their families, families became involved, and before long, those crews were training up to helm their own boats. The junior section thrived as a result.
In recent years, I have been hearing that the Mirror fleet is growing again nationwide. I had toyed with getting one myself. I thought to myself that if it is a way to get back out sailing myself again and to teach my own children, it is a perfect boat to do so. We began to hear that the Mirror fleet was growing, and once more involved some of the sailors we had raced against 20 years ago, returning with their own children as crew—the idea became even more exciting.
After a couple of years of discussion, I bought myself a wooden hull in January 2026. With two other boats also acquired by club members, it marks the start of a rebirth and the making of a Mirror fleet again at SSC.
Article written by Caragh Shiels.
