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Ruffian 23 Sailing News
The 'South' winners celebrate victory at the 2024 All Ireland Ruffian 23 Team Racing Championship at the DMYC in Dun Laoghaire Harbour
The All Ireland Ruffian 23 Team Racing Championship 2024 took place under the burgee of the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club (DMYC) on the weekend of September 7th-8th. Four teams (North, South, East and West) took part in a closely…
Heather Kennedy, daughter of Ruffian 23 designer Billy Brown of Portaferry, with National Yacht Club Commodore Peter Sherry at the presentation of the shared MG Motor “Sailing Club of the Year 2024” award
Friendship, family and sailing enjoyment expressed enthusiastically through quietly efficient organisations - that was the warm theme which dominated Thursday evening’s convivial gathering in the National Yacht Club on Dun Laoghaire waterfront. The successful hosting club and the Golden Jubilee-celebrating…
The MG Sailing Club of the Year Award 2024 - Michael Cutliffe, Heather Kennedy, Eoin O’hEochaidh, Ann Kirwan of the Ruffian 213 class with  Brian Keane, Director MG Cars Peter Sherry, Commodore National Yacht Club, Andrew Johnson, National Sales Manager MG Cars, Eline De Vries, Digital Marketing Exec and Gerard Rice, MD MG Cars
The prestigious MG Sailing Club of the Year Ship's Wheel was awarded to both the National Yacht Club and the Ruffian Association at a presentation ceremony at Dun Laoghaire Harbour on Thursday evening, February 29th. As Afloat's WM Nixon announced…
Summertime at the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire, with an International ILCA event under way and former Commodore Conor O'Regan's world-girdling Rival 38 Panima alongside
It is not unprecedented for leading clubs and one of the key class organisations within their ambit to share the MG Motor Sailing Club of the Year Award. It began with an added convention (the informal contest has been based…
Ann Kirwan racing her co-owned Ruffian 23 Bandit in Dublin Bay
The Golden Jubilee of the much-loved Ruffian 23 Class was well celebrated in 2023 at all its main centres in an enjoyable moveable feast, mostly in Ireland but culminating in Hong Kong in October with the triennial Inter-Port Championship in…
Close racing for Ruffian 23s in the second stage of the Golden Jubilee Inter-Port at the Royal Hong Kong YC’s Shelter Island base. A feature of the event was sponsored Golden Jubilee sails for all boats
A highlight throughout our 2023 sailing season has been the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the much-loved Billy Brown-designed Ruffian 23, which became an almost continuous and very friendly party of shared enthusiasm, friendship, racing and cruising-in-company. It began on Strangford…
Optimal record-breaking conditions for a circuit course like Ireland – Tom Dolan in his Figaro 3 Smurfit-Kappa Kingspan on a full sail reach with enough speed to make the foils earn their keep
As solo star Tom Dolan said when he arrived this week in Greystones to position himself on stand-by for his waiting-game round Ireland record challenge from the Kish Lighthouse, the current increasingly Autumnal weather pattern is much more encouragingly dynamic…
Carrickfergus rules okay…Stephen Penney’s champion Ruffian 23 Hot Orange making a classic pin end start in the Ruffian 23 Golden Jubilee Nationals 2023 in Dublin Bay at the end of July
You never really know when you’re experiencing history in the making. It was early in March 1973 when we were invited to Portaferry, along the east side of the Narrows going into Strangford Lough, on a Saturday morning. The idea…
The Ruffian Golden Jubilee calendar All Ireland Team Racing Championship was hosted by Mayo Sailing Club in the first weekend of September
Following the success of the Ruffian 23 50th anniversary celebrations in Portaferry in June, the next major event in the Ruffian Golden Jubilee calendar was the All Ireland Team Racing Championship hosted by Mayo Sailing Club on Saturday and Sunday,…
Stephen Penney's Hot Orange from Carrickfergus Sailing Club is the 2023 Ruffian 23 National Champion
Two second places in the final races of the 2023 Ruffian 23 National Championships at the National Yacht Club handed overall victory to Stephen Penney's Hot Orange from Carrickfergus Sailing Club on Belfast Lough. Royal St. George's Shannagh (S. Gill & P. MacDiarmada)…
Carrickfergus Sailing Club's Stephen Penney sailing Hot Orange leads the Ruffian 23 National Championships on Dublin Bay
After five races sailed at a breezy Ruffian 23 National Championships at Dun Laoghaire Harbour, Carrickfergus Sailing Club's Stephen Penney leads the fleet counting three race wins on his scoresheet. The Belfast Lough 'Hot Orange' crew are two points clear of Royal St.…
Frank Bradley's Ripples from the DMYC was the top Ruffian 23 at the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta
Frank Bradley's Ripples from the DMYC had seven results in the top two to take the Ruffian 23 Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta prize on Sunday afternoon. Bradley had three race wins on his scoresheet to be five points clear of clubmate…
Ruffian 23 keelboats competing in the class Golden Jubilee regatta on Strangford Lough
Friday’s post-sailing festivities at the Ruffian 23 Golden Jubilee on Strangford Lough kicked off with an evening with the Brown family, Michael Cutliffe, and Weatherly Yachts craftsmen. Michael Cutliffe gave a short presentation on the history of the Ruffian 23s…
A view of the 17-boat Ruffian 23 golden jubilee fleet taken through the Hawsehole of the old lightship Petrel on Strangford Lough
The Ruffian 23s are congregating in Portaferry on Strangford Lough to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Irish-designed and built one-design class this weekend.  As Afloat reported earlier, Heather Kennedy, the late boat designer Billy Brown’s daughter, is one of the…
Heather Kennedy (right) daughter of Billy Brown, with Karen Brown (daughter of Dickie Brown) and John McAlea Portaferry Sailing Club Race Officer for the event with the new trophy
Shipbuilding was a major industry in Portaferry on Strangford Lough in the 1800s. Jump forward until 1973 when the Ruffian 23 was designed by the late William P Brown in 1972/73 and primarily built by his brother, the late Dickie…
Lambay Race perfection – the Howth 17s Aura and Pauline enjoying idyllic sailing conditions off the north coast of Lambay
First staged in 1904, Howth YC’s annual Lambay Race claims to be unique in offering keelboats of all types a taste of the offshore racing experience while remaining within safe coastal limits. It could be argued that the race round…