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Vincent Delany

Vincent Delany

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Sailing historian Vincent Delany is a member of the Association of Yachting Historians, and an active sailor in Water Wag, SOD and Squib classes. He has written a thesis on 'Yachting and yachtsmen on the River Shannon 1830-1930.' He has lectured on the history of The Water Wag Club, Royal St.George Yacht Club, and the Killinure Yacht Club, He has written two sailing books 'The Water Wags 1887-2012' and 'The International 12 foot class in Ireland' both of which are available from blurb.com

The wind dropped to nothing during the Water Wag Race inside Dun Laoghaire Harbour
Heritage week runs from 19th to 27th August, and the Water Wags are part of Ireland’s heritage, and thus the race for 23rd. August was a Heritage Week event. The wind blew force four at the beginning, so, some of…
Hal Sisk and Sue Westrup in the Water Wag Good Hope depart from the Royal Irish Yacht Club slipway
For the second handicap race of the year, for The Buckingham Cup and The Wigham Trophy, the Dun Laoghaire Water Wags were discommoded by a 9,975 ton, 440ft long cruise liner, The Star Pride with her 208 passengers and 164…
The Water Wag is the oldest one design dinghy in existence, having been devised in 1886 and formalised as a one design class in Ireland in 1887
The Collen Cup is a new perpetual trophy which has been in the Collen family since 1907 and will be awarded to the overall winner of the Water Wag Class within the Classic section of this and subsequent Volvo Dun…
The size and variety of the Morbihan Festival fleet continued to amaze at todays picnic, but the style of the boats wasn’t quite matched by the style of the crews on the beach
When you’ve an inland sea well filled with islands, the tides running between them are bound to be quite strong from time to time writes W M Nixon. After the second day of the Morbihan Festival of Sail, the veteran…
Definitely not Glyndebourne style....In fact, these Dublin Bay Water Wags spotted on a beach in the Morbihan would probably be very offended at the suggestion that this is a picnic. They’re serious Picnic People in the Water Wags, and they’d regard this informal gathering as no more than a quick lunch stop. Photo: Judith Malcolm
It’s probably more than a little sacrilegious to suggest that, as some of the rituals of a global religion are built around The Last Supper, then it’s not at all unreasonable for the world’s oldest One-Design sailing class to have…
Water Wag No.44 Scallywag is one of nine heading to the traditional French yachting regatta at Morbihan
Over the next few days fourteen Water Wags will head by ferry to France to participate in one of the greatest classic boat regattas in Europe. As Afloat.ie reported previously, one thousand four hundred and forty two traditional workboats and…
At the time when the first boats started, there was almost no wind in that part of the harbour
Yesterday evening the Water Wags raced for the Buckingham Cup & Wigham Trophy with handicaps applied at the start, resulting in some boats starting five and a half minutes ahead of others. The handicaps were allocated on the basis of…
Water Wags had a 21-boat turnout at Dun Laoghaire last night
Within Dublin Bay there currently are twenty-one classes of racing yachts. It might come as a surprise to many, that currently the largest class is Dublin Bay is the Water Wag class with 33 boats entered for the 2017 season.…
The Starboard end of the line paid dividends for the Water Wags this week. Scroll down for the start line video
For the second week in a row, the wind in Dun Laoghaire blew from the north. This time the wind of 12 -15 knots kicked up quite a chop within the harbour, which some competitors found challenging. In the130th season…
Water Wags on Lough Boderg. There was a strong turnout of 22 for Wednesday's race in Dun Laoghaire Harbour
It wasn't only last night's Dublin Bay keelboats that were having a lively start to 2017 after the spell of north–easterlies. The DBSC Water Wags also had a pretty lively sail on Wednesday with 22 Wags out in force. Tim…
Con Murphy and Cathy MacAleavey toast the launching of the new Water Wag, Mariposa,  while fleet members including daughter Annalise Murphy (right) applaud. The launch will feature on RTE Nationwide on May 5
Olympic Silver Medalist Annalise Murphy was on hand last Saturday to help parents Con Murphy and Cathy MacAleavey launch the new family dinghy, a traditional clinker–built Water Wag dinghy, a class that celebrates its 130th season this year. The champagne…
There were 18 Water Wags competing in the first race for The Newsom Memorial Cup in Dun Laoghaire Harbour last night
Dun Laoghaire endured strong northerly winds for several days over the past week, so, there was a fear that many Water Wag owners would give the first race a miss. However, on 26th April, eighteen Water Wags competed in the…
The 2015 Boderg regatta for Waterwags
In 1903, the clinker built 14–foot 3 inch long Water Wag dinghies from Kingstown, travelled by rail to Dromod Station, from where they were offloaded by their owners, and wheeled on a flat trailer, pulled by a horse, to the…
The Water Wags starting 12 boat-lengths back along the line were able to start at speed
It was the Royal Irish Yacht Club Regatta. Unlike other classes the Water Wags compete in the regatta on Wednesday evening. At quarter to six, there was not a breath of wind on the harbour. Tom Hudson and his crew…
Each of the 40 Water Wags is allocated a starting handicap
24 Water Wags turned up on Wednesday 17th May for the first handicap race of the year. It is the first of three races for the Buckingham Cup for Division 1. Division 2 complete for the Wigham Trophy. When we…
Water Wag Eva II (33) leads Good Hope (18) in Wednesday's third and final race of the first mini-series at Dun Laoghaire
On Wednesday 11th May the Water Wags competed for the third and final race of the first mini-series. The air temperature was reasonably warm and the wind was light, about 6 knots. There was a 200mm high lop in the…
Michael and Jenny Donohoe in Water Wag No.12, Alfa, Paul and Anne Smith in Swallow No.40, and William and Linda Prentice in Tortoise No.42 approaching the start line.
With the air temperature in the afternoon of 4 degrees, it was looking like mid-winter. However, this did not deter twelve Water Wags from braving it on Wednesday evening in Dun Laoghaire Harbour writes Vincent Delany. The breeze was about…
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The arrangements for the Water Wags Walpole Prizes were modified to ensure that the results could contribute to the overall championship. The terms of presentation asked for two races, one race for those who had competed in more than six…
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The Water Wag fleet had one overriding objective for 2015, to achieve a race turnout of more than 25 Water Wags in a Wednesday evening club race writes Vincent Delany. It must be at least 20 years ago that the 25 boat…
Water Wags Compete for Sri Lanka Tankard During Heritage Week
On 29th. July the Water Wags competed in Dun Laoghaire in the second of three races for The Sri Lanka Tankard (div.1A) and Sri Lanka Mug (div.1B) and the Meldon Cup (div.2). It was a cool evening with a strong…
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