WM Nixon
William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland for many years in print and online, and his work has appeared internationally in magazines and books. His own experience ranges from club sailing to international offshore events, and he has cruised extensively under sail, often in his own boats which have ranged in size from an 11ft dinghy to a 35ft cruiser-racer. He has also been involved in the administration of several sailing organisations.
Schull Harbour Hotel Calves Week 40th is 140th Anniversary of Schull Regatta
22nd July 2024 Calves Week
Is it that time already? The 40th staging of Calves Week? For it seems like only twenty years ago that we planned our annual cruise to take in southwest Wales, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, before shaping the course…
"Never mind the weather, have we a good racing breeze?" That became the mantra for Volvo Cork Week 2024. And the eclectic fleet competing had a busy time of it, with the Race Officers putting through a remarkably complete programme.…
It would be stretching it a bit, and then some, to say that the J/109 has taken more than twenty years to become an overnight national success in Ireland. Nevertheless the versatile Rod Johnstone design – which first appeared in…
The 1963 classic S&S 43 Clarion of Wight, well-known in Ireland for her offshore racing successes and long-distance cruises (including the Arctic) while under the ownership of Rory O'Hanlon of Dun Laoghaire in the early 1970s, is in a bad way.…
"Forgotten" Dublin Bay To Cork Race Reveals Vitality Of First Post War Year Of 1946
17th July 2024 Fastnet 450 Race
In last weekend's Sailing on Saturday (July 13th) we tried to interweave the story of offshore racing development with the long history of racing offshore along the 160 miles from Dublin Bay to Cork. It's an event which has been…
President Michael D Higgins has led the tributes to the late Padraic de Bhalraithe, "The Boatman of Barna", whose natural talents as a teacher and mentor went far beyond the classrooms of Galway and Connemara. These talents enabled him to…
Kilrush's Sally O'Keeffe Flies The Traditional Flag For Ireland In Brittany
15th July 2024 Historic Boats
The 25ft community-built Shannon hooker Sally O'Keeffe of Querrin and Kilrush in County Clare has successfully completed three long open sea passages to join the huge traditional fleets taking part in the current Festivals of Sail & the Sea at…
National YC's Ruth Takes Back Lead And Keeps It In Fresher Finish For K2Q At Cork Harbour
13th July 2024 Fastnet 450 Race
K2Q Day Two (Saturday) 1830 hrs - The sea breeze in Cork works by its own rules, but it doesn't necessarily suit the home fleet when it does so. In closing our earlier update on the Dublin Bay to Cork…
K2Q Day Two 1600 hrs Frank Whelan's impressive Elliott 57 Opal took line honours in the K2Q at the entrance to Cork Harbour at 15.43 hrs this (Saturday) afternoon, and it was a slow conclusion to an often slow 160-mile…
K2Q Day Two Saturday 13:30 hrs: The Shanahan family's J/109 Ruth (National YC) has seldom been out of contention for a podium place in this stop-go Dublin Bay to Cork Harbour Race. And now, with the line honours leader, Frank…
K2Q Race Well On Move Again as Welsh J/97 Jac Y Do Holds Handicap Lead
13th July 2024 Fastnet 450 Race
K2Q Day Two, Saturday at 08:30 hrs: After spending more time than they might have wished in the Tuskar Rock area during a dead period in the small hours, struggling with adverse tide and light winds, the K2Q fleet got…
Greystones Sailing Club's 'Opal' is Half Way There in K2Q Race To Cork
12th July 2024 Fastnet 450 Race
K2Q Day 1 21:30 hrs: Frank Whelan's Elliott 57 Opal is at the Tuskar Rock, leading the K2Q on the water at the halfway stage. But the fact that the big boat from Greystones is making only 3.6 knots over…
The idea of an offshore race from Dublin Bay to Cork Harbour around the middle of July seems a no-brainer when you look at how sailing types spend their summers. Many cruiser-racers appear to move along that Leinster-to-Munster axis around…
J125 Jackknife Leads Early Stage of K2Q Race With Fair Winds To Cork
12th July 2024 Fastnet 450 Race
K2Q Day 1 - Ireland's East Coast may have had grey skies late this morning, but the word is of sunshine in Cork. And as those Dublin Bay grey skies were driven on by a good working nor'east to north…
Even by the antique standards of many local one design classes in Ireland, the 125th (Quasquicentennial) Celebrations last year of the 1898-founded jackyard-topsail-setting Howth 17s were quite something, with the class's Event Captain Dave O'Shea seeing through a busy and…
Experienced West Coast sailors know that their Atlantic seaboard's rainy reputation is only part of the story, as the conspicuous mainland mountains tend to draw down two or three times as much rain as the less elevated offshore islands. The…
Dublin Bay 24 Zephyra Flies Royal Irish Yacht Club Ensign After Restoration In Maine
7th July 2024 Historic Boats
Re-building the classic Mylne-designed Dublin Bay 24 Zephyra at The Apprenticeshop in Maine has been so educationally rewarding that they took five years to do the job. This was in order to allow as manytrainees as possible to be involved…
Ireland’s Inland Waterways Association Takes 70th Anniversary Comfortably In Its Stride
6th July 2024 W M Nixon
The Inland Waterways Association of Ireland (IWAI) has to be one of the most successful organisations in the country. They have long since achieved their core objective of changing official perceptions to such a degree that the saving, maintenance and…
Last Boat 'Fulmar Fever' Finishes Round Ireland 2024 in Seven Days, 20 Hours, Four minutes and 20 seconds
30th June 2024 Round Ireland
After riding out the southwest to west gales on the North Coast on Friday night and early Saturday morning by finding shelter at Rathmulllan in Lough Swilly, Robert Marchant's Fulmar 32 Fulmar Fever from Dunmore East resumed racing, and finished…
SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race Shares Global Camaraderie Of Classic Distance Races
29th June 2024 W M Nixon
Our header photo really says it all. It was 2011 when Rives Potts' now four times Bermuda Race winner Carina rounded the Fastnet Rock in conditions a whole world away from the murky early morning eleven hours earlier, when George…
