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.
Dublin Old Gaffers Will Learn of How Not to Sail Round Britain & Ireland, & of Three Significant Boats
2nd December 2020 Dublin Bay Old Gaffers
Frances Edwards & Ed Maggs are clearly the most incompetent cruisers, as Ed says himself, for they have completely failed in their modest ambition of a circumnavigation of the British Isles by stalling on the West Coast of Ireland, and…
Traditional Boats Come Centre Stage as Galway 2020 Draws to a Close
2nd December 2020 Historic Boats
Although the much-anticipated Galway 2020 Festival was one of the many aspects of 2020 which has been severely curtailed by the pandemic, the spirit of the great western city and its maritime traditions lives vibrantly on. A recent ceremony in…
Crosshaven Regeneration of Classic Yacht Northele is a Special Mission for Family, Friends & Shipmates
28th November 2020 W M Nixon
When Anthony and Sally O'Leary of Crosshaven quietly decided that some day they were going to make the classic 50ft 1949-vintage sloop Northele a member of their extended sailing family, it was a sort of Breakfast Epiphany. The boat had…
Vendee Globe Record Possibilities Challenged by South Atlantic's Cussed Moods
24th November 2020 Vendee Globe
Before the 33 boats went off from les Sables-d'Olonne on November 8th to start the Vendee Globe, there'd been much talk of the possibility of reducing Armel le Cleac'h's notable record of 74 days established in the 2016-2017 event. It…
Howth's November Sunshine Plays Tricks with Aoife Hopkins Laser Coaching Course
24th November 2020 Howth YC
November sunshine plays tricks with how we see things. Maybe it's because it's so rare. But at the weekend at Howth – with just a month to go to the shortest day of the year – a special coaching course…
Thinking Inside the Box is Theme of New Ilen Marine School Project in Limerick
24th November 2020 Ilen
The restored 1926-built 56ft Limerick trading ketch Ilen's project of education through action and involvement continues to be developed with the Ilen Marine School's Community and Cargo 2020-21 Programme. Transportation of cargo to coastal communities was the original purpose of…
Richard Brydges-Beechey was one of those multi-talented people that the 19th Century produced in droves. Maybe they’d the time to be multi-talented because they didn’t have to spend time watching TV or using mobile phones or commuting or whatever, but…
Howth RNLI to Benefit from Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Zoom Session On Building Bray Droleen Dinghy
22nd November 2020 Dublin Bay Old Gaffers
The Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association winter talks series on Zoom continues on Thursday (November 26th) with a deeper insight into a classic boat-building story that has featured recently on Afloat.ie DBOGA member and a graduate of the Boat Building…
National Yacht Club's History is the Story of 150 Years of Ireland Through a Special Perspective
21st November 2020 W M Nixon
Most yacht and sailing clubs begin with a group of like-minded friends sailing and racing - sometimes together, sometimes against each other - until activity reaches such a level that some sort of organisation is required, and in time it's…
Thomas Ruyant's Advens Cybersecurity-sponsored IMOCA 60 LinkedOut is steadily whittling away at Alex Thomson's lead with Hugo Boss in the Vendee Globe 2020 as the front runners cross the Equator through Wednesday and Thursday. On Tuesday, LinkedIn became the first…
Water Wags, Dublin Bay 21s & Howth 17s: Classic Irish Boatbuilding is Pandemic Panacea
18th November 2020 Historic Boats
In times of stress like this, there is nowhere more soothing than a well-organised but not unduly fussy timber workshop where each day's harmonious effort shows a tangible result. And of all such workshops, there's nowhere so healthily absorbing –…
It says everything about the iconic nature of the Royal Ocean Racing Club's Fastnet Race that a General Meeting about the route for the race, which should be a private matter among the admittedly many members of the RORC, has…
Round Ireland Sailing Record by Pamela Lee & Catherine Hunt Just Gets Better & Better
14th November 2020 Pamela Lee
The Round Ireland Sailing Record is a bit like Ireland herself. It's complicated by Partition. It's a case of there being not one but two sets of records, two elephants in two rooms. But for interested parties, the relevant elephant…
Crosshaven & Kinsale Battle for Vendee Lead as Enda O'Coineen's Former Boat Slips From Top Slot
13th November 2020 Vendee Globe
The Vendee Globe Race has finally started to get serious after several days of faffing around in flukey winds off northwest Spain and Portugal in conditions so volatile that last night they'd a messy frontal system going through to provide…
Electric Power Adds a New Element to Kilrush-Built Traditional Galway Bay Gleoiteog
12th November 2020 Electric Outboard Engines
Steve Morris of Kilrush Boatyard and his lead boat-builder Dan Mill are busy these days, as their team have two further Dublin Bay 21s under construction for the Hal Sisk/Fionan de Barra project, and this week they launched the new…
The recent 2020 Annual General Meeting of the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association was a successful exchange of proposals and decision-making among enthusiasts who share a delight in classic and traditional craft which set rigs of the most ancient style.…
Will it Be Just 60 Days for Flying New IMOCA 60s in Vendee Globe Circuit?
7th November 2020 W M Nixon
Make no splash, leave no trace, tame the turbulence, and THEN JUST FLY…..That's the thinking which underlines the very latest manifestations of the IMOCA 60, which are expected to lead the fleet of 33 sailing machines in the 24,296 miles…
Environmentally-Friendly Boat Construction? Are Aluminium Boats an Answer?
6th November 2020 Boatyards
When glassfibre boat construction started becoming mainstream, there were those who said it would never last as a manufacturing trend, for in those days plastic and longevity somehow weren't associated concepts. But then, as the builders overcame problems such as…
You can take the boy out of West Cork, but you can't take West Cork - and its boats and sailing - out of the boy. That's especially so if he's one of the O'Keeffes, whose great names in sailing…
Marcus Hutchinson of Kinsale & Howth in the Thick of it in Vendee Globe Management
31st October 2020 W M Nixon
Marcus Hutchinson has been having a good Autumn in his role as a sort of benign marine Svengali with an Irish flavour, operating largely behind the scenes at the sharp end of the French big-time offshore racing scene. But it…
