National Yacht Club Honours Junior Sailing Achievements

25th January 2026

Thomas Chaix

NYC’s Rosemary Cadogan, Alex Walsh, Aoife Hofler, and Nicola Ferguson present junior sailing awards at the club’s annual celebration Credit: Thomas Chaix

After Dinner and a bit of fun, Rosemary Cadogan, National YC Vice Commodore and Junior Organiser Alex Walsh, with his team of Aoife Hofler and Nicola Ferguson, presented the awaited yearly awards. The NYC prides itself on being a family-oriented club, where fun and growing the love of a sport for life remain at the forefront of its ethos. The night started with a recognition of our summer course's most committed and always-improving young sailors. Our senior instructor, Nicola Ferguson, ran a brilliant summer for all with leadership and positive energy. She presented the various awards to young sailors, ranging from "Start Sailing" to our new "go Keelboat" courses. It was brilliant to see smiles as names were called to the stage.

Two cups are dedicated to our summer courses, with Izzy O'Regan taking home the Shanahan cup as the most helpful assistant of the summer, whilst Senan Ryan took home the McDonald cup as the most helpful young sailor over the summer. It's all about attitude, willingness to help, and making the experience better for everyone, and these two young sailors delivered just that, with a smile!

One of NYC's trademarks is encouraging young sailors to sail and race in different classes, developing helming and crewing skills, sailing single-handed, yet learning teamwork in crewed boats. Head coach Thomas Chaix presented his special awards to junior sailors who represented the club in different classes over the course of the season, some with great successes.

Thomas also took the opportunity to acknowledge the growth in the U25 group, a keen cohort of young sailors enjoying the club activities, including racing the club J80S in the various DBSC series, as well as participation in the Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta and the Turkey shoot. The group is looking forward to continuing to grow and compete in the local racing scene.

The night then progressed to the presentation of the main trophies and cups for each of the classes sailed at the club. The club had great successes, including 2 national champions (Mirror U15 and 29er), 2 national ranking winners (29er and Mirror U19), the ILCA4 Leinsters winner, runner-up at the Elmo Cup (team Racing), and multiple podiums at Mirror, 29er, and Topper events... Not to forget a Silver medal at the Junior All-Ireland.

Main class awards:

Cullen cup: Best-ranked Optimist Junior: Louis Tricket
Ferguson Cup: Best-ranked Optimist Senior: Michael Hanley
Cooney Cup: Best-ranked Topper sailor: John Kenny
Donal O Sullivan cup: Best ranked ILCA4 sailor: Seb Wright
Lynch cup: Best-ranked ILCA6 sailor: James Gorman
NYC Mirror model: Best-ranked Mirror sailors: Michael Hanley and Ben Chaix
Jim Brown Memorial plaque: Best-ranked RS Feva sailors: Liam Beirne and Fionn Crowley
Van Steenberge cup: Best ranked 29er sailors: Theo Madigan and Daniel McDaid
Simon Coate trophy: Best ILCA performance at Youth nationals: Peter Kenny

Best performance of the year award: The Cathy McAleavey award

William Walsh and Eoin Byrne (29er national champion)

The junior Organiser's choice: The Rickard cup

Freddy Hofler ( Optimist) for winning all 3 summer Juniors Regattas in Optimist Harbour ( RIYC, NYC and RstGYC)

The night was also an opportunity to fundraise for the RNLI through a raffle (750 EUR collected), and everyone went home having enjoyed a good night and looking eagerly towards 2026 and more sailing, fun afloat, competitive events, and new challenges.

Published in National YC, Youth Sailing

Published in National YC

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About The Author

Thomas Chaix

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Thomas Chaix is Head Coach at the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin. He currently sails the 49er dinghy (for fun) but raced the Laser for 25 years and has been a member of French and Irish teams

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National Yacht Club Facilities

Facilities include a slipway directly accessing Dun Laoghaire Harbour, over eighty club moorings, platform parking, pontoons, fuelling, watering and crane-lifting ensure that the NYC is excellently equipped to cater for all the needs of the contemporary sailor. Berths with diesel, water, power and overnight facilities are available to cruising yachtsmen with shopping facilities being a short walk away. The club is active throughout the year with full dining and bar facilities and winter activities include bridge, snooker, quiz nights, wine tasting and special events.

National Yacht Club History

Although there are references to an active “club” prior to 1870, history records that the present clubhouse was erected in 1870 at a cost of £4,000 to a design by William Sterling and the Kingstown Royal Harbour Boat Club was registered with Lloyds in the same year. By 1872 the name had been changed to the Kingston Harbour Boat Club and this change was registered at Lloyds.

In 1881. the premises were purchased by a Captain Peacocke and others who formed a proprietary club called the Kingstown Harbour Yacht Club again registered at Lloyds. Some six years later in 1877 the building again changed hands being bought by a Mr Charles Barrington. and between 1877 and 1901 the club was very active and operated for a while as the “Absolute Club” although this change of name was never registered.

In 1901, the lease was purchased by three trustees who registered it as the Edward Yacht Club. In 1930 at a time when the Edward Yacht Club was relatively inactive, a committee including The Earl of Granard approached the trustees with a proposition to form the National Yacht Club. The Earl of Granard had been Commodore of the North Shannon Y.C. and was a senator in the W.T.Cosgrave government. An agreement was reached, the National Yacht Club was registered at Lloyds. The club burgee was created, red cross of Saint George with blue and white quarters being sky cloud, sea and surf. The Earl of Granard became the first Commodore.

In July of 1950, a warrant was issued to the National Yacht Club by the Government under the Merchant Shipping Act authorising members to hoist a club ensign in lieu of the National Flag. The new ensign to include a representation of the harp. This privilege is unique and specific to members of the National Yacht Club. Sterling’s design for the exterior of the club was a hybrid French Chateau and eighteenth century Garden Pavilion and today as a Class A restricted building it continues to provide elegant dining and bar facilities.

An early drawing of the building shows viewing balconies on the roof and the waterfront façade. Subsequent additions of platforms and a new slip to the seaward side and most recently the construction of new changing rooms, offices and boathouse provide state of the art facilities, capable of coping with major international and world championship events. The club provides a wide range of sailing facilities, from Junior training to family cruising, dinghy sailing to offshore racing and caters for most major classes of dinghies, one design keelboats, sports boats and cruiser racers. It provides training facilities within the ISA Youth Sailing Scheme and National Power Boat Schemes.

Past Commodores

1931 – 42 Earl of Granard 1942 – 45 T.J. Hamilton 1945 – 47 P.M. Purcell 1947 – 50 J.J. O’Leary 1950 – 55 A.A. Murphy 1955 – 60 J.J. O’Leary 1960 – 64 F. Lemass 1964 – 69 J.C. McConnell 1969 – 72 P.J. Johnston 1972 – 74 L. Boyd 1974 – 76 F.C. Winkelmann 1976 – 79 P.A. Browne 1979 – 83 W.A. Maguire 1983 – 87 F.J. Cooney 1987 – 88 J.J. Byrne 1988 – 91 M.F. Muldoon 1991 – 94 B.D. Barry 1994 – 97 M.P.B. Horgan 1997 – 00 B. MacNeaney 2000 – 02 I.E. Kiernan 2002 – 05 C.N.I. Moore 2005 – 08 C.J. Murphy 2008 – 11 P.D. Ryan 2011 – P. Barrington 2011-2014 Larry Power 2014-2017 Ronan Beirne 2017 – 2019