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.
Galway-Bound Spanish-Built Research Vessel Tom Crean will Have Irish Cruising Well-Wishers to See Her on Her Way Tomorrow (Friday)
14th July 2022 RV Tom Crean
The new pride of the Marine Institute's Research Flotilla, the R/V Tom Crean, will depart her builders at Bouzas near Vigo in northwest Spain tomorrow (Friday), on her way to a deservedly warm welcome in Galway and the western-based Marine…
It is said that you have to be prepared to wait until the 15th July in the average season before you can contemplate a successful venture into the most heavily-iced parts of East Greenland. Whether or not global warming has…
Let’s face it, most classics need a bit of a breeze to give of their best, and there’s nothing more disagreeable than rolling about in windless frustration under a rig that rattles. Thus for exactly half of the Classics Division,…
Around mid-afternoon today (Wednesday) the anemometers at Sherkin Island, Cork Airport and Roche’s Point were all showing quite decent sailing breezes. Grand day for a spot of steady yacht racing all along the magic Cork coast, you might reasonably think.…
If you wondered how Harold Cudmore went to Saint-Tropez with the Royal Cork YC’s in-house Cork Harbour OD Jap last Autumn and duly came home with the glitziest classics prize, then the first two days of Volvo Cork Week 2022…
The Spirit of Conor O'Brien’s Pioneering Saoirse is Afloat Again in West Cork
12th July 2022 Conor O'Brien
Down in West Cork, they have a way of quietly getting on with things until a major waypoint is inevitably passed in the project, and then we’re into new territory. For two or three years now, Liam Hegarty and his…
Irish J/24s have won seven out of the eight races in the weekend's UK Nationals at Plymouth, with the all-Ireland-crewed Headcase taking six bullets and the overall title to add to her recent success in toppingthe class in Kiel in…
Shannon One Designs Accelerate Their Hundred Year Celebrations With “First Official Centenary Regatta” On Lough Derg
7th July 2022 Shannon One Design
This Centenary Year of the award-winning Shannon One Design Class seems to be a happening of infinite elasticity. For some of the keenest, it began with the raw weather of May, when there were regattas for a determined few at…
In an era when solo dinghy stars seem to get much of the glamour attention, Lough Ree YC's Double Ree Regatta for four leading two-handed classes on 16th-17th July is poised to meet a popular demand as the weather settles…
Vintage Dublin Yawl Ainmara Celebrates Centenary+Ten With Return To Ringsend Birthplace
6th July 2022 Historic Boats
The 36ft yawl Ainmara, designed and built in 1912 by the talented self-taught naval architect John B Kearney in Murphy’s Boatyard beside his family’s home in Ringsend, played a key role in Irish sailing north and south until 2018. She…
Shannon Estuary's Traditional Cutter Sally O'Keeffe Celebrates Ten Years Of Maritime Community Service
5th July 2022 Shannon Estuary
Sally O'Keeffe, the 25ft re-interpretation of the Shannon Estuary's traditional sail-driven cargo-carrying cutters which could usefully find their way into the smallest ports along both sides of the majestic waterway, is this year celebrating ten years of quietly useful service…
June’s Mixed Weather Created Intense Competition For “Sailor of the Month” Awards To Provide Four Winners
2nd July 2022 W M Nixon
With the almost melancholy passing of Mid-Summer’s Day, the sailing season is taking on a different look, a distinctly-changed mood and flavour. For in normal times – if anyone can remember when you could talk of such things – there…
Atlantic-Crossing Book “Long Lost Log” Is A Fascinating Story Within Many Stories
30th June 2022 Book Review
When Michael Chapman Pincher arrived into Howth Yacht Club yesterday for the launch of his sometimes raunchy book The Lost Log, there was a slight shadow clouding his normally sunny visage. The book is about how in 1974 he lost…
Resurgent 1720s Will Celebrate 30th Anniversary At Volvo Cork Week In July With Large Fleet
29th June 2022 Cork Week
When anybody asks how the concept of the Cork 1720 Sportsboat Class first came to see the light of day in Crosshaven in the early 1990s, the response these days tends to be “Which version of the story would you…
Round Ireland Oldest Boat Award Goes To American Classic In Cruising Club of America’s Centenary Year
27th June 2022 Round Ireland
The Cruising Club of America is celebrating its Centenary this year, and while the actual birth date may not fall until September, the Club is already in the midst of a busy special season which saw its recent biennial Newport-Bermuda…
Whatever excitements the Irish J/24 class may have been providing in home waters this past weekend, the current all-Ireland Champions (in every sense) with the not-inappropriately-named Headcase have succeeded brilliantly in keeping their heads above water and their noses in…
Round Ireland Detail Results As Sailing in Ireland heads For High Stool Days
25th June 2022 W M Nixon
We can only be wishing this morning that the traditional-type low pressure areas which march across the Atlantic from New England towards Old Ireland could take aboard some of the strict Sabbatarianism of the regions they’re passing through in their…
Round Ireland - the Race that Breaks Boats In The West, and Hearts In The East
24th June 2022 Round Ireland
Round Ireland Race Day Six (Thursday) 1700 hrs - In the end, it was just about two miles of the Wicklow coast that did for them. Mike and Richie Evans with the J/99 Snapshot knew they’d to be at the finish…
Final Battle Today In The Context For Supreme Position of IRC Overall Winner in Round Ireland Race at Wicklow
23rd June 2022 Round Ireland
Round Ireland Race Day Six (Thursday) 0900 hrs - Although the Swiss Cookson 50 Kuka 3 and the Volvo 70 Green Dragon took first and second in the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race 2022 in full daylight yesterday evening, an entire…
Round Ireland Race Day Five (Wednesday) 1830 hrs - The Cookson 50 Kuka3 (Franco Niggeler, Switzerland) took line honours in the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race 2022 at 18:09 hrs this evening off the Wicklow pierhead, after closing in on the…
