When the brief notice of the death of Brian Murphy at the age of 77 was posted on the Howth YC Facebook page recently, the response from members said everything about a remarkable - indeed a unique - sailing enthusiast and man of many parts. Within a day or two, 33 sad but very fond and favourable responses were made public, each one giving an extra insight into why his decidedly offbeat approach to life had provided an entertaining and rewarding - if sometimes maddening - input into the experiences of those with whose lives his own sometimes erratic existence became beneficially intertwined.
In national sailing terms, he is still best remembered – after 43 years – as a leading member of that special group which sailed in the first Round Ireland Race from Wicklow in 1980. Typically of Brian Murphy, his David Thomas-designed Hydro 28 Crazy Jane – which he’d completed himself from a bare hull – was the smallest boat to finish the course. And equally typical of the man, although he never finished another Round Ireland Race in a boat of his own, such was the impact of his engaging personality back in 1980 that for decades afterwards he was thought of as “Brian Murphy of Howth, the Round Ireland veteran”.
Brian Murphy at the helm of his own-finished Hydro 28 Crazy Jane preparing for the start of the first Round Ireland Race from Wicklow in 1980. Photo: W M Nixon
The first Round Ireland Race start at Wicklow in 1980 was the first time offshore racers from elsewhere (the 16 entries came from all over Ireland and North Wales) began to learn about the power of the south-going ebb off Wicklow pierhead. But the quick-thinking Brian Murphy was in control, and the little Crazy Jane had the best of a rather ragged start. Photo: W M Nixon
As for Crazy Jane, his propensity for innovation soon had her changed. He lengthened the boat considerably and frequently – the amounts could vary from year to year – while you could never be too sure which style of rig he might appear with each season. Show most people a collection of broken International Dragon class masts, and they would see a heap of scrap metal. But show Brian Murphy that same heap of scrap, and he would see the basics of a very innovative needle spar rig for Crazy Jane.
This photo of Crazy Jane manoeuvring before the Round Ireland start in 1980 is a last glimpse of her in her original form. Before that season was out, Brian Murphy had made several modifications which continued throughout his long and successful ownership. Photo: W M Nixon
He and fellow can-do types at Howth such as the great Neville Maguire quietly operated a world-class action group in alloy spar re-purposing, while any bigger boat offshore racing campaign which had seemingly been completely de-railed by a broken mast knew that, in Brian Murphy, they could find salvation for their plans when the professional spar-makers were quoting hopelessly long replacement times.
Inevitably this taste for emergency engineering meant that he was easily distracted from one of the many aspects of his varied career, when at one stage he was running his own highly innovative engineering company, which at its peak employed 18 people. Inevitably they were drawn by their charismatic leader into precision challenges which few other engineering companies would undertake, and none with Brian Murphy’s flashes of pure genius.
Needless to say he was way ahead of everyone else in comprehending computers and their full potential, so much so that at times he was speaking a different language. Yet if there was something to do with sailing he would happily adapt himself to the technical expertise of the “client”, and over the years one of his contributions to Howth sailing was his willingness to listen to race officers and fabricate some peculiar and specialist pieces of kit in order to facilitate their work aboard the Club’s Committee Boats, with the effective flagship Star Point becoming a classic case of “handsome is as handsome does”.
HYC’s Senior Committee Boat Star Point has become a very successful race organization platform thanks in part to Brian Murphy’s willingness to implement sometimes decidedly quirky changes requested by Race Officers. Photo: Annraoi Blaney
Brian Murphy’s intellectual and cultural interests were many and varied, and when he was engagingly talking or explaining about something which had newly attracted his attention, he was a magnetic and sometimes wildly funny conversationalist, with a wicked line in concluding put-down lines.
The late Brian Murphy, long past retirement age but with his quizzical and amused brain as sharp as ever
His latter life was partly dominated by a struggle to keep his weight under control. Yet when he really cared about something, somehow the weight fell away, and the sparkling-eyed and charismatic younger Brian re-emerged.
Roger Cagney, Howth Yacht Club Commodore 2011-2012, as painted by Brian Murphy
Art became a passion for much of his later life, and having taught himself to paint, he set up an art group within HYC in which his aptitude for instruction and example inspired many, while he himself continued to hone his skills with a speciality in deft portraits which - apparently effortlessly – captured the spirit of the individual portrayed, while his landscape and event paintings of life along the East Coast reminded his fellow members that it isn’t essential to go to the mighty Atlantic seaboard in order to get the full flavour of life in Ireland.
Now this astonishing and always interesting man – often dubbed “the mad professor” – is gone from among us. But he leaves an extraordinary array of memories and achievements. Our thoughts are with his family and his many close friends and colleagues.
WMN
The spirit of the East Coast – the special excitement of Laytown Races captured by the late Brian Murphy
