Friday evening’s announcement of the Irish Sailor of the Year 2023 title for 19-year-old Eve McMahon at her sailing home of Howth Yacht Club well captures the zeitgeist of mid-2020s Ireland, not least in the fact that the title holder was away, wrapping up at the U21 Europeans in Mallorca.
Be that as it may, the announcement’s location was significant, for the geography of the Howth peninsula is such that Howth YC is willingly accepted as one of the semi-island’s main community centres. And in the bigger picture, gender equality has long been such a comfortably-accepted attitude in modern Irish sailing that it is no longer a matter of comment when female sailors win, whereas exceptional performance - from whatever quarter it may come - is always a package of fresh good news, to be celebrated with renewed enthusiasm.
It’s 2022, and Eve’s upward trajectory continues with Gold in the ILCA Youth Worlds
For after all, in the development of female sailing, it is eight years since Annalise Murphy of Dun Laoghaire won Ireland our first Olympic sailing medal in Rio in 2016. It is 90 years since Elizabeth Crimmins of Cork Harbour was the first female awardee in 1934 of the Irish Cruising Club’s premier trophy, the Faulkner Cup - introduced only three years earlier in 1931 - and it subsequently went to Daphne French in 1939, while the two most recent female awards have both been for Maire Breathnach of Dungarvan for a circumnavigation of South America in 2004, and Arctic voyaging in 2017.
DUBLIN BAY’S SKILLED HELMSWOMEN
And well beyond all that, all of 140 years ago, the skilled helmswomen racing against the men within the Dublin Bay Water Wag OD class achieved such success and fame that they featured in the top sailing magazines of the day.
Yet even putting aside any notion of possible gender bias in either direction, the adjudicators – aided but not entirely dictated by the voting patterns on the Afloat.ie website at year’s end – had to maintain a special discipline in adhering to the 12-month year, when the reality is that international sailors at the McMahon level are operating on a year-round schedule.
An exceptional sailing talent from a supportive and very talented family – Eve is welcomed home to Dublin Airport by herparents Vicky & Jim after another international success
Thus the decision was already clearly emerging even as the news came in on 10th January that she had qualified for the 2024 Paris/Marseille Olympics with her placing in the ILCA Worlds in Argentina. But the calendar reality is such that the deciding factor in Eve McMahon’s award of the Irish Sailor of the Year 2023 title came in October 2023 in a breezy Tangiers in Morocco for the ILCA U21 Worlds.
CLEAR WORLD TITLE
She was virtually out of sight in front on the leaderboard as the conclusion of the series approached when a capsize while in third place in the race of the day, approaching the line in extreme conditions, had the theoretical potential to lose the title. It was now that she fulfilled the Hemingway definition of courage as being “Grace Under Pressure”. She retrieved the situation in such smooth and unflustered style that she still finished eighth in a very demanding race, leading on to a remarkable clear overall win of the World Title by 14 points.
REVEALING THE BACKGROUND
This transcript of the interview with Cormac Farrelly, Hon. Communications Officer with Howth Yacht Club, gives some idea of the circumstances needed to support achievement at this level;
Putting it in context. HYC Communications Officer Cormac Farrelly interviewing Eve McMahon
Cormac HYC: I'm here with Eve McMahon in Howth Yacht club. Eve is the under 21 world champion for the ILCA6 class. Eve, let me dial you back to 2022. It started, I think, with you winning the Youth Europeans, then it was the youth worlds in The Hague, and then finally you were crowned ILCA 6 youth world champion in Texas. As far as I know, no other sailor, male or female, managed to do “The Triple”, winning all three championships in the one season. Tell us a little bit about what that was like.
Eve McMahon: Yes, it was an incredible year. There was a lot of hard work put into it and I suppose with support, a lot of people don't see the behind the scenes work that it takes to be on the podium and to be winning gold medals. And they don't really see the highs and the lows. So I just had to put my absolute all into the events. And I obviously had my Leaving Cert to sit, which was just a week before, but I just went into the events knowing that I did the most preparation that I could do. And I really just had to let the work, the hard work, kind of speak for itself. And to come out with three gold medals, it was absolutely incredible and a moment that will kind of always stick with me and it'll always make me very proud. But sport moves on and I'm coming up now with hopefully some bigger and better goals that I'm trying to work towards.
Cormac HYC: 2022 was obviously an amazing year, but then this year you had to step up a class. So you went from youth division up to senior division. And I know the expectations are huge and it's not an easy transition. So tell us a little bit about that.
Howth Yacht Club is very proud of its star sailor – this large poster has been up on the club’s West Wall since November 2023
Eve McMahon: Yes, so I have actually been competing in the youth, the under 21 and the senior division since I was 15. I did my first senior event in Australia. I went out to Australia for three months for the senior world championships. So I was really just trying to get all the experience that I can get from all the Olympic girls. So that was a huge stepping stone for me. But to be able to transition in and to be winning and being tipped as a known entity is really amazing
Cormac HYC: Many of us were watching you back in Tangiers in Morocco, and my recollection is that there were eight days of grueling racing. You're there on the last day, the last race, everything is up for grabs. You're very well positioned to become the ILCA 6 Under 21 World Champion, and then you capsize! What was going through your mind when that happened?
Eve McMahon: Listen, we're doing twelve races in a series and every race, it really can't be perfect when we're dealing with Mother Nature. So that's why we do so many training hours, to deal with those situations that go wrong and the adrenaline just kicks in and you just really had to get the boat back up quick. And I knew, although I wasn't looking at the results, I had somewhat of a comfortable lead, but there definitely was still a bit of panic. But that's sport. Things go wrong. So I really just had to get the boat back up quickly and finish right.
Cormac HYC: You're obviously very good at handling pressure! OK - I have to ask you about the Olympics. So I think it's no secret that your ambition was to get the nomination for Ireland, ILCA 6, for Los Angeles, 2028. But what about Paris 2024? Is that now a possibility?
Eve McMahon: Paris for sure. Listen, it's one of my ultimate goals to qualify for Paris. And as much as winning gold medals at youth and Under 21 are huge achievements for myself, they're for sure stepping stones for qualifying for Paris. So I'm heading off to Argentina. That's where I'll be while this whole awards (HYC Achiever’s awards) is taking place, and I'll be racing to the best of my ability and I'm loving absolutely every minute of it. And I'm really proud to be representing Howth.
Cormac HYC: Super. Just wrapping up on last year, you were Irish Sailor of the year. You were nominated twice by RTE for Young Sportsperson Of The Year… and now, which we're very proud of, you are the winner of the Howth Yacht Club 2023 Achiever Award for international sailing. I mean all of us in the club here are so proud of all your achievements to date, and you're such an inspiration, especially for the younger sailors. Can I ask you what it means to you to have won the Achievers award?
Eve McMahon: It really is huge to me and I really want to thank Howth Club for their continued support. I go out into international regattas and I really am proud to be representing Howth Yacht Club. This is where I grew up to sail with my two brothers when I was five or six, and it's just a fantastic club to represent while I'm away and I really want to thank everybody for their support. And, yes, I'm absolutely delighted to win and I'm really, really looking forward to hopefully representing Howth Yacht Club at the highest level.
OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION
That aspiration to make it to the highest level was fulfilled on 10th January, and as men’s ILCA Olympic-selected Finn Lynch has so pithily out it, securing the Olympic qualification is “like getting a monkey off your back”. The concentration pattern can be more comfortably re-focused, as Ireland now has three places in the Paris Olympics sailing events at Marseille from July 28th to August 8th this summer in the form of Eve McMahon (Howth YC, Women’s ILCA), Finn Lynch (National YC, Men’s ILCA), and Rob Dickson & Sean Waddilove (Howth YC, Lough Ree YC & Skerries SC, currently front-runners for Men’s 49er).
FINGAL OLYMPIC SAILING TEAM?
From that listing, it’s irresistible to avoid pointing out that the old Viking territory of Fingal – still often thought of by uncouth Southsiders as North Dublin - could comfortably mount its own Olympic Sailing Challenge if we so wished. But we’re generous folk up here in the old longship lands, and if you chuck in Finn Lynch from Bennekerry in the lovely lands of Carlow - though now sailing under the NYC flag - we’ll obligingly concede it’s the Irish Olympic Sailing Team, while reminding you that it was our own Laura Dillon who was the first female winner of the Helmsman’s Championship back in 1996, yet reassuring you that last night’s display of peak peninsular pride out Howth way was just a matter of TGIF gone mad.
Fingal County Hall in Swords. It’s beginning to look as though Fingal could mount it own Olympic Sailing Team, for in addition to the qualified Eve McMahon, the former Viking territory has Rob Dickson of Howth and Sean Waddilove of Skerries currently topping the rankings for the Irish slot in the Men’s 49er, having secured the position for Ireland in the first place
Since getting the Olympic OK, the finalisation of the ultimate goal sees fresh priorities and future prospects taking centre stage. Nevertheless it was timely to reflect on Eve McMahon’s extraordinary sailing ability as demonstrated during 2023, for it’s at such a level that you would think that the ILCA had been expressly designed for her to show her talents, which amount to genius.
Away from the glamour of national ceremonies, Eve McMahon continues her demanding output of world class performance
That she is doing this at age 19 is remarkable, but it reflects the fact that she is from a keen sailing and maritime-minded family with a mutually supportive attitude, within an environment where boats are a completely normal part of life and living. It’s a sea-minded world in Howth where this weekend is rightly a time for celebration. But on Monday, Marseille on Sunday, July 28th will resume its position as the ultimate target.
A major awards ceremony may have been scheduled for her home club, but Eve McMahon had to be in Mallorca for the ILCA 6 U21 Euros
