The Summer Solstice’s warm wave of good weather arrived neatly on cue for the eclectic fleet of classics which has gathered in Dun Laoghaire to begin the sailing celebrations for the Royal Irish YC’s 195th Anniverary yesterday (Saturday 20th), with the culmination in the Club’s Annual Regatta in a week’s time, on Saturday June 27th.
Ultra-senior classic. Hal Sisk’s award-winning 1894 John Hilditch-built G L Watson 37.5ft cutter Peggy Bawn has been based in Dublin Bay since 1919, and was so carefully cherished by longtime owner James McAsey that she can still - as seen here – set her last suit of cotton sails. When the inescapable Ringsend smokestacks were built, Peggy Bawn was already 80 years old. Photo: Afloat.ie
Government Minister and local TD Jennifer Carroll McNeill and RIYC Commodore Winifred Commodore launched the veteran yacht’s events with classic sailing mastermind Hal Sisk on Friday evening, sheltered from a spot of precipitation by the RIYC’s ingenious foldaway marquee setup. And then the fleet which blossomed with the sunshine on Saturday morning (June 20th) was revealed to be a remarkable representation of Irish sailing history.
Jackyard topsails earning their keep. Howth 17 “Class Father” Ian Malcolm at the helm of his 1898-built Aura, while close astern are Orla (No 21, built France 2019) and Rosemary (No 12, built Portrush 1907). Photo: Finn Goggin
MAIMIE DOYLE DESIGN
The Dublin Bay Water Wag ODs with their 1887 foundation may have been the senior class present, but as their original boats were replaced in 1900 by the larger Maimie Doyle-designed transom-sterned clinker built boats that are still in use (with new boats a-building), the honour of being the most senior boat present goes to Hal Sisk’s 37.5ft G L Watson-designed cutter Peggy Bawn of 1894 vintage, an award-winning restoration which, on special occasions such as this, still sets her beautiful last suit of cotton sails.
Most appropriately for a classics regatta hosted by a female Commodore, the senior class present – the Dublin Bay Water Wags – were female-designed in 1900 by Maimie Doyle, daughter of Dun Laoghaire boat-builder James Doyle. Photo: Afloat.ie
SENIORITY TO 1887 AND 1894
Peggy Bawn was built by John Hilditch of Carrickfergus, and in 1898 he built the first of the Walter Boyd-designed Howh 17s, which were present in some stylish jackyard topsail-setting strength, nine boats having come across Dublin Bay led by Ian Malcolm’s Aura, one of the 1898-built boats.
Hallalelujah! The born-again Dublin Bay 21s of 1902 reveal the exquisite beauty of their Alfred Mylne-designed hulls. Photo: Finn Goggin
In Dun Laoghaire they met up with the re-born Dublin Bay 21s, the 1902 Alfred Mylne-designed class brought back to life in an imaginative initiative organized by Hal Sisk and Fionan de Barra with Steve Morris of Kilrush Boatyard, a project which will soon see all seven DB21s sailing again, but for now there were five out sailing on the Bay.
Designed by John B Kearney in 1832, the 17ft Dublin Bay Mermaids are now found in their greatest numbers at Foynes, Skerries and Rush. Photo: Afloat.ie
The 1912-designed International 12 originally set a simple lug rig, and still does in its large fleets in Belgium and Italy. Ireland was one of the few nations to try and update with a Bermudan sloop rig, as seen with the two red-sailed boats here, but the class evaporated almost overnight in Ireland with the advent in the late 1940s of the IDRA 14. Meanwhile, it seems we have lost the art of setting a fine-tuned lug sail. Photo: Afloat.ie
VINTAGE DINGHIES OF VARIOUS SIZE AND TYPE
Dinghies of various size and types shared seniority, with the Water Wags sharing water with the International 12 (George Oakshott 1912), the 17ft Dublin Bay Mermaids (John B Kearney design, 1932) and the O’Brien Kennedy-designed IDRA 14s (1946).
The O’Brien Kennedy-designed IDRA swept all before her from the moment the new Dinghy Association adopted the design in 1946. Photo: Afloat.ie
HISTORIC CRUISERS
Historic cruisers taking part included Peggy Bawn, the rare Knud Reimers-designed yawl-rigged 8 Metre Cruiser/Racer Marian Maid, built by John Sisk Senr in his Dalkey Yacht Company yard in Dun Laoghaire, and the pretty Arthur Robb-designed 37ft yawl Verve.
The Howth 17s strut their stuff at Dun Laoghaire. They are the world’s oldest keelboat class still sailing as originally designed, and are believed to be the only One Designs still using jackyard topsails. Photo: Afloat.ie
Verve has a particular claim to distinction, as she was built in 1964 for Paul Campbell, one of the Irish Cruising Club’s most outstanding Commodores, construction being by Jack Tyrrell of Arklow as “The Special One” to celebrate the 1964 Centenary of the Tyrrell Boatyard in Arklow. Using the Arthur Rob Princess design, Jack Tyrell and Paul Campbell created a very appropriate Centenary Symbol which has since cruised very many miles inshore and offshore with considerable style, a highlight being the first time that a cruising yacht from anywhere managed to put crew ashore on Rockall.
Local girl with a touch of the classics. Designed by Knud Reimers of Sweden, the 8 Metre Cruiser/Racer Marian Maid was built by John Sisk Senr in 1954 at his boatyard, the Dalkey Yacht Company, which was based beside the Coal Harbour in Dun Laoghaire. She has since been completely restored by John Sisk’s sons George and Hal. Photo: Afloat.ie
SPLICING THE MAINBRACE
While there was racing - some of it even with an edge of competitiveness, events afloat were brought to conclusion in a timely manner to permit opportunities to inspect other people’s boats conveniently arrayed at the RIYC, and then Commodore Kelliher hosted a convivial supper in which crews from many classes leapt to the mainbrace, and great was the splicing thereof.
(Above and below) The classic setting for some traditional mainbrace splicing.
