Sailing on Saturday with WM Nixon

Stars of the Show – the 1994-founded International Cork 1720 Sportsboats found a new lease of life in 2022, and mustered 42 boats for their European Championship within Volvo Cork Week in July

2022 – An Irish Sailing Season Like No Other

12th November 2022 W M Nixon

Sailing sport has previously been halted within personal memory, both by world wars and more locally-based hostilities. And we don’t have to go very far beyond living individual recollection to gauge how the lingering effects of Spanish Flu in 1919…

That was then……Julius Price’s classic late Victorian portrayal of a female helm adorned the walls of the snooker room in many traditional yacht clubs. Courtesy RUYC

Ireland’s Women On Water Are Doing Fine – It’s The Men Who Need Help

5th November 2022 W M Nixon

Anyone with a basic knowledge of the development of sailing in Ireland – particularly from 1890 onwards – will be aware that women sailors played an active role afloat in this country’s sailing boat sport for a long time. For…

The view eastward over modern Ringsend. At first glance it seems totally tamed, with the formerly anarchic waterfront along the banks of the River Dodder (running left to right across photo foreground) now neatly tidied, while the south bank of the Liffey is kept in order by the dual carriageway accessing the Eastlink Bridge. But a “magic maritime space” has been preserved to provide room for Poolbeg Y&BC with its marina and mooring area, while there’s waterfront access and pontoons for the thriving Stella Maris and St Patrick’s Rowing Club

Dublin Port Encourages Ringsend’s Sense Of Itself As A Historic Maritime Community

29th October 2022 W M Nixon

When the multi-talented John B Kearney (1879-1967) retired from a distinguished career in Dublin Port in 1944, he re-focused most of his attention on his parallel interest as a yacht designer and builder. It was an enduring passion that went…

“If you like your work, then work is the best fun that you can have”. 25 years on, and going stronger than ever at MGM Boats’ Silver Jubilee Celebration in Dun Laoghaire are (left to right), Ross O’Leary, John O’Kane (Belfast Lough Office), Gerry Salmon and Martin Salmon

MGM Boats: After 25 Years, Dun Laoghaire’s Top Marine Business Has Busy International Footprint

22nd October 2022 W M Nixon

For most sailors in what is Ireland’s largest and busiest pier-enclosed recreational harbour, MGM Boats of Dun Laoghaire are, first and foremost, the people who provide the essential service of one of Ireland’s largest and most versatile travel hoists. For…

The last hurrah. Ted Crosbie’s X302 No Excuse on her way to victory by one point in the Royal Cork YC IRC Winter League 2017. Just as Ted had encouraged his own father Tom to keep sailing until well into advanced old age, so Ted’s son Tom encouraged his father to keep racing until he was eighty-seven

Ted Crosbie 1931-2022

15th October 2022 W M Nixon

Ted Crosbie combined so many of the strongest threads of Cork life that he embodied an entire Munster universe of personal positivity. Family was everything to him, but so too was the unique and bustling maritime city of Cork and…

A thoughtful and friendly introduction to sailing. Instead of the rough and tumble of Optimist racing, the RS Feva can provide a sociable and encouraging route into fun afloat

Is The Popularity Of Solo Classes Making Sailing Unpopular?

8th October 2022 W M Nixon

The Olympic authorities see the Laser as the floating equivalent of the pole-vaulter’s vaulting pole, thereby making Laser sailors into proper individual athletes, and very worthy of Olympic inclusion.But meanwhile, some in the upper echelons of Olympic decision-making see two-person…

Fireballs in preliminary Worlds racing at Dromineer on Lough Derg, where the indispensable Andy Thompson of Larne won yet another Gold

Afloat.ie’s September “Sailors of the Month” Listings Mark The Turn Of The Seasons

1st October 2022 W M Nixon

September is a month of harvests afloat as it is ashore, and as we reach October with its inescapable sense of the change in the seasons, our bountiful new monthly list of no less than six different and distinctive September…

Home-from-home. Hoteliers John & Gwen Brennan took their Redbay Stormforce 1450 Dromquinna to Brittany, expecting to book into a hotel now and again, yet they spent every night on board in complete comfort. Thanks to John’s skills in manoeuvring, here at Saint-Marine in Benodet they have managed to get berthed beside the smaller craft with a minimal walk to the marina bridge

High Speed RIB To Brittany On Cruising Business

24th September 2022 W M Nixon

The Kenmare River where Kerry verges into Cork is one of Ireland’s cruising gems – it’s pure gold and then some. But we weren’t exactly cruising when the Nixon Tribe descended on the area precisely a year ago for a…

GP14s racing at Sutton DC, the class and venue for the new-look Champions’ Cup on October 8th & 9th

Champions’ Cup at Sutton Will Continue 75-Year Golden Thread Of Helmsman’s Championship

17th September 2022 W M Nixon

The Helmsman’s Championship? Crazy name. Surely it should at least have been The Helmsmen’s Championship? Yet in its quirkiness, it achieved brand recognition to die for. Everyone knew what it meant, so much so it could even be shortened to…

Some Irish coastal towns almost ignore it. Others simply face it. But Kinsale embraces the sea

Kinsale’s Pace-Setting In Nurturing Ireland’s Young Sailing Talent

10th September 2022 W M Nixon

Where other Irish harbours face the sea, Kinsale embraces it. And this generous geographical reality helps to provide a genuine sense of community interaction when any initiative at the hospitable south Cork port is put together to help get young…

Putting the “sport” into Sportsboat…..SB20s revelling in a real breeze as other boats scuttle back to port

SB20s Will Come Of Age At World Championship With Royal Irish YC in Dun Laoghaire

3rd September 2022 W M Nixon

In 2002, the ingenious Laser SB3 was unleashed on an unsuspecting world by Performance Sailcraft as one of several innovative craft that enabled the leading Laser builders to offer loyal Laser sailors – already in their several thousands with the…

A global phenomenon? The icon of an international nautical cult? The J/24 is all that and more

J/24 Europeans At Howth Is Latest Stage In A Long Story Of Continuous Renewal

27th August 2022 W M Nixon

The International J/24 European Championship getting under way this weekend in Howth leads inevitably to thoughts of a special drama afloat two months ago. The crunch finish period of the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race 2022 at Wicklow on Friday,…

When Irish sailing conditions are good, they’re very good indeed. Aboard the successful J/99 Snapshot during the Fastnet Race in the recent Calves Week at Schull, with Des Flood on the trim, Richie Evans on the helm, and Mike Evans keeping things in order

Ireland’s Volatile Late Season Weather Increases Challenge For Race Officers

20th August 2022 W M Nixon

So where are they? The hurricanes, we mean. Or more accurately, the “decaying tropical storms” which occasionally make their ominous and often unpredictable way towards Ireland as the Summer progresses and morphs into Autumn. For as it happens, back in…

A heart-stirring sight – Grace O’Malley under full sail

Tall Ship Grace O’Malley’s Stately Inaugural Progress Along Irish Coast Promises Worthwhile Maritime Future

13th August 2022 W M Nixon

In recent days, we’ve seen celebrations honouring the super-star young sailors who have brought major international sailing medals of gold, silver and bronze home to Ireland and their rightfully-delighted families and cheering local clubs. These are sailors whose special talent…

HYC Commodore Paddy Judge welcomes the Howth squad home from the ILCA6 Youth Worlds in Texas with (left to right) Luke Turvey, Eve McMahon (Gold) and Rocco Wright (Bronze in U17). A carnival-style welcome home celebration will be staged at Howth YC next Friday (August 12th), starting 4 pm

Eve and Rocco’s Youthful Gold Medal Success Invigorates Howth Yacht Club’s Vision of Itself

6th August 2022 W M Nixon

In some ways, Howth Yacht Club has it easy. It isn’t hampered by being the senior sailing centre in Ireland. That particular burden has been carried since 1720 by Cork. Nor is it sailing’s premier centre. Since the active first…

The Charge of the Centenary Brigade – Shannon ODs (of all ages) in full flight on Lough Ree with (left to right): 99 (Peter Mulvihill, built 1975); 37 Kiwi (Mags Delany, 1923), 176 (Harman Murtagh Jnr, 2008); 138 (DJ Algeo, 1987); 142 Frank Guy (overall winner LRYC SOD Centenary Regatta and Combined LDYC/LRYC Centenary Regattas, 1990); 71 (Oonagh Reid, 1960); 73 (David Dickson (6th LRYC SOD Centenary Regatta, 1961); 151 (Graham McMullin 5th LRYC Cent. Reg, 1995); 155 (Cathal Breen, 4th LRYC and 2nd Combined LDYC/LRYC Regattas, 1999); 32 (Mary Cox (formally Syd Shine's boat) built 1922

Shannon One Designs Emerge Refreshed From Their Action-Packed Twin Centenary Regattas

30th July 2022 W M Nixon

The unique 18ft Shannon One-Designs have lived through some decidedly mixed times in Ireland during their hundred years of setting the sailing pace on the great lakes of our lordly river. And the two special Centenary Regattas at their main…