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Final Decision on Irish Commodore's Cup Team Due in a Fortnight

3rd June 2012
Final Decision on Irish Commodore's Cup Team Due in a Fortnight

#SATURDAYSAILING – Eternal optimists among the cruiser-racer community had hoped that the success of the ICRA Championship might make the final difference to the emergence of enough enthusiasm to generate a team to defend the Commodores Cup in July. But ICRA Commodore Barry Rose of Cork – no stranger to optimism himself – reckons that the economic realities militate against it.

A final decision will have to be made within the next fortnight, but with even the top global sailing events showing the harsh effects of economic slowdown, perhaps the sensible thing is to accept that it's a non-runner, and instead we should be building towards getting back in the hunt in 2014.

As it is, with events like the ICRA Championship, the revived ISORA programme, and the round Ireland race in three weeks time providing Irish skippers and crews with excellent value for money and time, those who are keen to go sailing should have no complaints. Nevertheless, with seventeen boats nominated for the British trials this month, even if they muster four three-boat teams out of the lineup, there'll still be five boats going spare. But after the decisive Irish campaigns of the past decade, who would go with some sort of last-minute lash up?

W M Nixon's sailing column is in the Irish Independent on Saturdays

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WM Nixon

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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.

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William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago