Sailing on Saturday with WM Nixon
National Yacht Club's Volvo Dun Laoghaire-Dingle Race 2021 Should Get Us Going Again
16th January 2021 W M Nixon
It's getting to be like a game of skittles in the planned lineup of high-profile 2021 events which everybody - way back in the dark depths of earlier pandemic lockdowns – thought would surely come to pass in the remote…
For sure, the pandemic-plagued year of 2020 - with its stop-start framework of activity afloat and ashore - was something beyond most sailors' experience. Yet ours is nothing if not a can-do sport. And while some sailing enthusiasts – particularly…
Dublin Bay Sailing Club's recognition today as the Mitsubishi Motors "Sailing Club of the Year" 2021 on the strength of achieving a remarkably full programme in 2020 when Pandemic Regulations permitted is well merited. Yet it's only the second time…
Happy Irish Sailing Days May Not Be Here Again For a While, But We Can Hope…
26th December 2020 W M Nixon
Our header photo is one whose use had not been anticipated for at least another month, and hopefully not at all. For it was optimistically expected that by late January, we'd have evidence the vaccines were beginning to work, with…
In normal times, the yearly Irish sailing fixtures list is a reasonably harmonious programme based around annual or biennial pillar events of various types and sizes, an ongoing succession of regattas and championships which slot together in a reasonably meaningful…
Irish Sailing Season of 2020? Despite Everything, There Definitely Was One
5th December 2020 W M Nixon
It would be needlessly painful to look back at the Afloat.ie features of a year and more ago anticipating the coming sailing season of 2020. They exuded optimism, anticipation, energy and enthusiasm for the approaching twelve months. They looked forward…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Ireland's High Performance & Olympic Sailors: The Ultimate Self-Isolating Bubble
24th October 2020 W M Nixon
The process of intense training, endlessly learning, and continually practising in the hope and expectation of improving your game does not come easily to many Irish sailors. The fact of our being an island nation, and having a very long…
High Profile Sailing Events like the Rolex Middle Sea Race Need to Become Invisible if Sailing is to Continue Through Pandemic
17th October 2020 Middle Sea Race
People have been unobtrusively getting on with sailing in many places during the pandemic, determinedly maintaining social distance afloat and ashore, reducing their interaction with outsiders to such a minimum it's almost non-existent, and doing it all thoughtfully, with properly-located…
Ireland's Coronavirus Cancellations? Healthy Club Sailors Have Had To Accept It With Good Grace
10th October 2020 W M Nixon
"I just want to go sailing and racing. Until we had to slam down the shutters this week, I didn't really realise just how much the ordinary club sailing programme and a special local annual series like the Autumn League…
Thank you, September. You did your best to provide us with good sailing as ingenious moves were implemented to run modified pandemic-compliant events which gave proper meaning to the season, and to our sailing traditions. It was neither your fault…
When solo star Tom Dolan was told last Saturday evening that the exceptionally calm condition of the inner Bay of Biscay meant that the proposed final fourth stage of the Solitaire du Figaro 2020 would not be sailed, among the…
