It was 1988 when the Patriarch of the family, the late Liam Shanahan, put the already successful sailing family firmly among the brightest lights by his win in the Round Ireland Race with the db2s Lightning. With the next generation, Liam Jnr added the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race and other overall wins to the family's offshore racing Roll of Honour.
Generation 3 have continued with the J/109 Ruth, one of the last to be built to a very successful J/Boat design that serves Dublin Bay's inshore and offshore racing needs very well indeed.
Ruth had a mixed offshore season in the early races of the 2024 programme. But connoisseurs particularly savoured the way she and her crew always seemed to be winning at the crucial stages of the historic K2Q Race in July, especially at the end when she emerged out of difficult conditions to be overall winner.
To win the historic re-sailing of a classic offshore race first sailed in 1860 from Dublin Bay to Cork Harbour (Kingstown to Queenstown) showed they'd the mettle for the big events. And when the ISORA Championship 2024 came down to a special series in Dublin Bay in the last weekend of September, it might have been created with the Shanahan/Ruth mindset in mind. They showed it with the win and the championship.
