The Royal Irish Yacht Club's seemingly effortless ability to live comfortably with its long and remarkable history, while providing contemporary major national and international sailing events with the necessary modern facilities afloat and ashore during 2024, has been a key factor in today's announcement that this senior organisation goes into the new season as the MG Motor "Sailing Club of the Year 2025".
The Club last received the accolade of topping this informal annual competition – which has been running for 46 years – back in 2016. Nine years ago, the then RIYC Commodore, Professor James Horan, outlined in his acceptance speech the policies that he and his committee had been implementing to improve the club's overall health and impressive sailing achievements. At the same time, they were continuing to play a fruitful role in the larger community, yet also placing a proper importance on meeting all of their members' diverse maritime and social needs.
At the presentation of the 2016 "Club of the Year" award to the Royal Irish YC were (left to right) David Lovegrove (President Irish Sailing), W M Nixon (Adjudicators' Co-ordinator), Professor James Horan (Commodore RIYC), and Billy Riordan and Frank Keane of sponsors FKH.
It was a thoughtful and inspiring analysis which provides a very useful template for running clubs of all kinds, large and small, but particularly a multi-facetted club like the RIYC.
COMPLEX CHALLENGE
For it's a complex challenge simply being the Royal Irish Yacht Club. The very fact that it is Dun Laoghaire's most senior club, with a foundation date of 1831, would be enough for starters. But on top of that, the initial membership list from 194 years ago seemed almost exclusively drawn from the ranks of the great, the good and the plain powerful. These were the movers and shakers in the turbulent times in Ireland following the Act of Catholic Emancipation in 1829, such that as Irish history developed, the RIYC story seemed to be developing ahead of it.
Thus in 1831, the founding Commodore was the Viceroy, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Henry William Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey and the one-legged hero of the victory over Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815 led by the Duke of Wellington.
Pace-setter. The RIYC's founding Commodore, Waterloo veteran the Marquess of Anglesey was noted for his racing successes with his cutter Pearl, which he brought to Ireland
The Iron Duke, as a Wellesley of Meath, was of course also on the early RIYC membership lists. Meanwhile, much of Anglesey's national administrative energy in Ireland was taken up in ensuring that another pioneer yachtsman, Daniel O'Connell of the 1828-founded Royal Western of Ireland Yacht Cub at Kilrush and Tralee, was kept under reasonable control without actually being arrested, as had been ordered by London.
The bustle of waterfront activity which is the RIYC today, with the Vendee Globe IMOCA 60 Hugo Boss alongside at the club, while the numerous club-based Water Wags are being brought ashore after their evening race
This drastic demand from London was because O'Connell the Liberator was stepping up the nationwide agitation to gain further rights after Emancipation. Somehow a direct confrontation was avoided, and a peace of sorts was maintained. Then Anglesey was moved on in 1833, and concentrated his sailing interests elsewhere. In the late 1840s, he quietly worked on restoring the strife-torn Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes with the presentation in 1848 of a £100 silver cup which, three years later, was to begin the process of becoming the America's Cup to give the RYS a new international status that offset the impact of the troubled 1840s.
The America's Cup was originally donated to the Royal Yacht Squadron by the RIYC's founding Commodore in 1848 for open competition, and in 1851 it began its career as the world's oldest international sporting trophy when the schooner America won a race round the Isle of Wight
Coming home? After the San Diego Yacht Club team led by Dennis Conner won back the America's Cup for America from Australia and then retained it in the next challenge, it was taken on a world tour in 1994 by the SDYC with the Royal Irish YC a significant port of call. "The Auld Mug" is being celebrated here at the Club by future Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and American Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith.
By that time there'd been a further power shift in Ireland, and symbolically on July 4th 1846, American Independence Day, a group of sailing enthusiasts met in Dublin to revive the ailing Royal Irish Yacht Club, and among them was Daniel O'Connell.
STATEMENT CLUBHOUSE
One of their decisions was to build a statement clubhouse, on what was then known as the Kingstown waterfront, to symbolise Ireland's slow recovery from the horrors of the Great Famine of 1845-47, and in 1850 the distinctive John Skipton Mulvany-designed building emerged. It was already in what was to become the enduring external entirety that we know today, as any subsequent internal development for additional space in a listed building has had to be done through lower floors, leaving the RIYC members with the world's oldest complete purpose-designed yacht club building, a fine example of Neoclassicism.
Early morning sunshine on the RIYC's 1850 clubhouse, before the ensign has gone aloft. The club's revival in the late 1840s resulted in a listed building which is now of considerable historical and architectural significance
But it does mean that modern sailing demands have to be met through an actively-protected building that is effectively a museum in itself. Yet at the same time it must provide meaningful contemporary waterfront and racing facilities (including dry-sailing for larger craft) for a keen sailing membership that shares the club with another membership sector.
This is mostly more senior folk who see its historic purpose-built clubhouse – unchanged in its outward appearance since being constructed in 1850 – as being a hospitable venue well worth visiting and enjoyed in its own rare location and significance.
GENEROUS AMBIT
But while the club's generous ambit embraces several non-nautical activities and interests, there is no doubting the central role of sailing at all levels as the heart and soul of the RIYC, and with that has come involvement in a number of important administrative changes in our sport.
Thus when the Dublin Bay 21 class came into being in 1902, one of the founding owners was RIYC member Herbert Wright, a Dublin stockbroker, who was first owner of the DB21 Estelle. Estelle is one of the boats which has already been re-built in the modern restoration of the class by Hal Sisk and Fionan de Barra, but back in the early 1900s her interest was heightened by the fact that Wright used her for cruising in addition to racing. In time, he moved up to the 15-ton cutter Espanola which so expanded his cruising that in 1929 he was invited by promoters Harry Donegan of Cork and Billy Mooney of Howth to be the founding Commodore of their new project, the Irish Cruising Club.
The restored Dublin Bay 21s Garavogue (left) and Estelle racing in Dublin Bay in July 2024. Estelle's first owner in 1902 was Herbert Wright of the RIYC, and in 1929 he came the founding Commodore of the Irish Cruising Club. Photo: Jonathan O'Rourke
The RIYC already had recognition within serious cruising circles for being the start point on June 20th 1923 of Conor O'Brien's round the world voyage south of the Great Capes in Saoirse, which sailed her pioneering route as a yacht of the RIYC, and it was to the Clubhouse that O'Brien returned on June 20th 1925.
The Centenary of his departure was celebrated at the Royal Irish on June 20th 2023, and most recently the Irish Cruising Club was hosted by the RIYC to celebrate the Centenary of Saoirse's arrival in Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands on December 6th 1924. It was the first intimation that he had achieved his goal of rounding Cape Horn, as nothing had been heard of the little 42ft Saoirse and her crew since they'd departed Auckland 46 days previously.
In 1923-25, Conor O'Brien sailed the 42ft Saoirse round the world south of the Great Capes flying the burgee of the Royal Irish YC, with the Centenaries of his departure and his rounding of Cape Horn being marked at the RIYC clubhouse in conjunction with the Irish Cruising Club. This is the new build of Saoirse to Conor O'Brien's own plans as created by master-boatbuilder Liam Hegarty of Baltimore for Fred Kinmonth. Photo: Kevin O'Farrell
DIVERSITY OF SAILING
But it says much about the diversity of sailing in the RIYC at all levels of membership that the recent much-mourned death of Terry Johnson, RIYC Commodore 1983-86, was a reminder that in 1987 he was manager of the Irish Admiral's Cup team, our most successful ever as another leading RIYC figure, Tim Goodbody, was lead helm on the top scoring boat and Fastnet Race overall winner, the Dubois 40 Irish Independent.
Tim Goodbody, lead helm of the 1987 Fastnet Race overall winner, racing his family's J/109 White Mischief in Dublin Bay. Photo: Afloat.ie
COMMITMENT TO 2025 ADMIRAL'S CUP
As RIYC member Ken Rohan's Holland 40 Regardless had been the star boat of the entire Admiral's Cup circus of 1979 until that year's Fastnet storm brought chaos to the final results, clearly the honourable duty of providing serious Irish involvement in the Admiral's Cup is in the DNA of the RIYC. Thus it was not a total surprise in April when, after the new two-boat team Admirals Cup format was announced for the Fastnet Race Centenary in 2025, the Royal Irish Yacht Club committed itself to providing one of those two-boat teams.
The special one. Ken Rohan's Holland 40 Regardless RIYC (seen here weathering the rocks at Roche's Point at the entrance to Cork Harbour) may have been knocked off her supreme pinnacle by the Fastnet Race 1979 storm, but she returned for the 1981 Fastnet and won Class 1. Photo: W M Nixon
April 2024 was also when the senior roles for the coming season were confirmed at the RIYC AGM, with some positions over-lapping from 2023 to provide the continuity essential to running a corporate structure of this magnitude.
Change of the Watch. The RIYC's new officer board elected in April 2024 were (left to right) Rear Commodore (Sailing) Colin Galavan, Vice Commodore Winifred Kelliher, Commodore Tim Carpenter, and Rear Commodore (house) Hugh Kelly.
Tim Carpenter was confirmed as Commodore in succession to Jerry Dowling, while Winifred Kelliher became Vice Commodore, with the two Rear Commodore positions being filled by Colin Galavan (Sailing) and Hugh Kelly (House).
SPECIAL EVENTS
An additional voluntary administrative role already filled was Chair of a special events committee in the person of former Flag Officer Patrick Burke, whose work was most certainly cut out for 2024, as those special events developed to a climax in the late season with the Irish J-Cup, the ICRA Nationals, and finally the IRC Europeans in mid-September, with an experienced group of voluntary race administrators such as Fintain Carins - a member for many years - providing invaluable advice and active support.
The man who ensures the RIYC waterfront machine runs smoothly is Sailing Services Manager Mark McGibney, who is also cox'n of the Dun Laoghaire lifeboat.
Keeping up this intensifying pace relied on smooth co-operation between a corps of volunteers of appropriate size for each event, but always with RIYC Sailing Services Manager Mark McGibney at the centre of things, supported by Club Bos'un Miguel Walker.
The RIYC's interaction with the rest of the Dun Laoghaire waterfront and the larger maritime community is underlined by the fact that the multi-talented Mark McGibney is also the cox'n of the Dun Laoghaire lifeboat, and has been so since 2011, but somehow it's in the spirit of the RIYC that service at this level is taken in its team's stride.
SUCCESS IN WOMEN AT THE HELM
As for the member's sailing and administration performances across the board, it started well in May with the RIYC team of Joan Sheffield, Katherine Sheehan and Catherine Day winning the Roy Family Trophy for the Women at the Helm contest.
The Royal Irish YC team of (left to right) Joan Sheffield, Katherine Sheehan and Catherine Day receiving the NYC's Roy Family Trophy for Women at the Helm, with donor Rosemary Roy and NYC Vice Commodore Rosemary Cadogan. Photo: Michael Chester
TOP IRISH IN ROUND IRELAND
It continued with Pete Smyth's Ker 46 Searcher RIYC being second overall and first Irish boat in the 2024 SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race from Wicklow in June, then as the peak championship season at the RIYC got into full power as September approached, they emerged from it with their own Michael Tyrrell being appointed in the Autumn by World Sailing as an International Race Officer.
Speed machine. Pete Smyth's Searcher RIYC was second overall and best Irish in the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race 2024 from Wicklow.
GENTLER PACE
The breadth of RIYC activity to include gentler forms of sailing was further emphasized by the news from Maine that David Espey's vintage Dublin Bay 24 Zephyra had emerged reborn from The Apprenticeshop, and has been seen at classic events in Maine proudly flying the RIYC ensign.
RIYC ensign across The Pond – the Apprenticeshop re-build of the DB24 Zephyra proudy announces her RIYC link. Photo: The Apprenticeshop
THE SPIRIT OF SAILING
And finally, when the vast hoard of Dublin Bay Sailing Club silverware for 2024 was distributed in the Autumn at the annual prize-giving in the National Maritime Museum in Dun Laoghaire, the keenly-anticipated new holders of the Brendan Ebril Memorial Cup for the boat and crew best displaying the spirit of Dublin Bay sailing were the Royal Irish YC's Rod and Sally Martin with their beautifully-presented Sun Odyssey 32 Gemini.
They've more than done their duty in the hard-driving big boat racing in past seasons, now with an able, modern and very comfortable cruiser-racer they have shown that great sport can be had with the right attitude, an approach which has made the Royal Irish Yacht Club the very worthy new MG Motor Sailing Club of the Year 2025.
The spirit of the bay – Rod and Sally Martin with Gemini. Photo: Afloat.ie
