The first international sailing win for Ireland as an independent state in 1924 will be celebrated in the Royal Cork Yacht Club at Crosshaven on the evening of Thursday 19th November. The presentation will feature a newly-digitised historic film of the successes of Captain James Payne and his wife Aileen in the World Dinghy Championship in Belgium 102 years ago. It is being brought to the club by Eithne Payne, widow of their son the late Somers Payne, who was himself an Olympic sailor in the Finn Class at the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games.
Busy Year
1923 was a busy year in the history of the 1872-established Royal Munster Yacht Club, which was not to amalgamate with the 1720-founded Royal Cork YC until 1966. Back in 1923, the RMYC was itself in process of an amalgamation/takeover process. This was with the Cork Harbour Motor-Boat Club, which had built a new clubhouse at Crosshaven, and found its resources decidedly stretched.
But the Royal Munster, in those days based up-harbour at Monkstown, was in need of more space afloat and ashore. The takeover move to Crosshaven was thus a no-brainer, and it was achieved so smoothly that the swallowing-up of the Motor-Boat Club soon faded from memory.
Forgotten Motor-Boat Club
So much so, in fact, that it wasn’t until the publication of the monumental History of the Royal Cork Yacht Club by Alicia St Leger in 2005 that many of today’s RCYC members realised their revered and venerable club is housed at Crosshaven in a building which had started life as a motor-boat pavilion.
Complete with fashionable cloche hat, Aileen Payne is hiking so effectively on International 12 No 4 racing on Cork Harbour that her almost-invisible husband Jimmy is comfortably reclining on the floorboards, and giving full concentration to helming. Photo: RCYC
In the spirit of the move, the Royal Munster had upped its game by adopting the rapidly-growing International 12ft dinghy class in 1923, and soon the outstanding Cork Harbour team in the new class were Captain James Payne and his wife Aileen.
International Standard Highlighted By Vincent Delany
Jimmy & Aileen Payne were clearly of international standard, and noted Yachting Historian Vincent Delany of Dun Laoghaire has made an impressive study of how it had been hoped that they would represent the new Irish Free State at sailing in the Paris Olympics of 1924.
But it was not to be, as sailing in Ireland was still under the overall administration of the Yacht Racing Association in Britain, and the French Olympic authorities refused to entertain the idea of a separate Irish entry.
The full story is outlined in Afloat’s report on Delany’s analysis, “World Dinghy Championships – Ireland’s Brilliant Victory”, which he presented to a seminar of the British Society of Sport History at Ulster University.
Further reading: Download Vincent Delany's Ireland's Brilliant Victory (PDF) below.
World Dinghy Championship
Briefly, the outcome was that the visionary peacemaking Joules Bouriez of the Brussels Royal Yacht Club suggested that, as so many of the world’s top dinghy sailors were in northern Europe for the Olympics, the opportunity should be taken to stage a World Dinghy Championship. This championship would be raced in boats selected from Belgium’s rapidly-growing International 12 fleet, the competition to be spectator-friendly as a sailing area had been identified on the broad Brussels-Antwerp Ship Canal in Belgium.
It went right to the wire in the sixth and final race, which Jimmy Payne won by one second (repeat, one second) from Britain’s Ricardo Watney. It was the Free State’s first international sailing win, and mighty were the celebrations in Brussels, and even more so in Cork when Jimmy and Aileen Payne came home, a great occasion fortunately recorded on news film.
Winning Partnership: Jimmy and Aileen Payne, whose victory at the 1924 World Dinghy Championship in Belgium marked a landmark achievement for Irish sailing. The Royal Cork Yacht Club will celebrate their success with a presentation and historic film screening on 19 November.
Ireland’s Quarter Century With International 12
Subsequently, Aileen Payne showed that she was Jimmy’s match in sailing, as she won a silver cup presented by George Crosbie for women helms in the International 12s, while half the time in club racing she seems to have been the one steering Number 4 to success.
International 12s as they are today, raced in large fleets in Belgium and Italy. Note the grab line attached to the foot of the gaff boom to ensure that it can always be pulled into the most efficient leeward position, making a “one flick” dipping lug out of what was originally a standing lug rig. Photo: Int 12 Class
The popularity of the International 12 in Ireland lasted for almost exactly a quarter of a century, as they disappeared like snow off a ditch in the late 1940s and early 1950s, swept away by the advance of Fireflies, IDRA 14s, Mermaids and National 18s.
Very Much Alive In Belgium And Italy
Yet in Belgium and Italy, they continue to be raced flat out in large fleets, with new boats costing a figure light years away from the £47 2s.6d. that James Payne was charged in 1923 by boatbuilder James Pluck of Cobh for the all-conquering No 4.
