For more than fifty years now, the 1898-founded Howth 17s have all been located at their port of origin, and the class has been thriving, so much so that serious damage to seven of the boats in winter storage in Storm Emma in March 2018 now seems like no more than a hiccup. The class recovered, with boats repaired or re-built and new ones added, such that assigned sail numbers have gone through the twenty mark. This may not seem such a big deal when international classes run into the thousands. But by local standards at any sailing centre, it's more than healthy, and the intriguing thing is how many locations internationally have contributed to this Howth growth.
With the port having only a limited local boat-building tradition - although two boats were built by the great John O'Reilly in a shed at Howth Castle in 1988 - the class's seemingly inexhaustible movers and shakers such as Nick Massey and Ian Malcolm have since had to cast the net wide for quality work, and this has used talent in Irish counties as diverse as Wicklow, Offaly, Meath, Fingal and West Cork in addition to availing of the subsidised boat-building schools of France.
Thus although they may be a one-place one-design, they've an international and forward-looking outlook. So it was an intriguing experience for eleven of the boat to go across to Dun Laoghaire last weekend to welcome home the first three restored Dublin Bay 21s to the National Yacht Club, and be greeted by some very senior sailors as "the Dublin Bay 17s from the noted northside club at Howth".
Fact is, DBSC had the use of the design for a sub-section of the class only from 1907 to 1964, by which time their crews had mostly moved into Glens, while the Dun Laoghaire Seventeens were all brought home to Howth and the TLC which has been lavished on them to varying degrees ever since.
As to Howth itself being northside Dublin, the reality is it is all actually east of the entire capital, and the sandy link (tombolo if you prefer) to Dublin's associated landmass is so tenuous that it's thought of as being "nearby Ireland".
But not to worry. The Howth-folk are generous of spirit, and in 2021 they've already visited Clontarf for the annual At Home – involving a sporty rounding of the Baily against a north-going tide with the race won by Deilginis – while going to Dun Laoghaire seemed right and proper even if some of the denizens thereof were confused about the type of boats they'd arrived in, and equally confused about points of the compass and relative geography.
This weekend it's back to local reality for the Howth 17 National Championship. It's officially designated as Friday, August 6th to Sunday, August 8th, but in time-honoured style, Sunday is very much the reserve day, they race on Friday evening and then pile on the races throughout Saturday until the quota is reached so that everything can be done and dusted by the Saturday night prize-giving dinner which - even in semi-socially-distanced times - will not be an event for shrinking violets.
As to results, the defending champions are the Shane O'Doherty team with the 1900-built Pauline. She is usually to be found in the middle of the fleet, but in the 2020 Championship, there were so many private battles going on between the more noted hotshots that Pauline was able to slip through the gaps into a popular overall win.
This year a noted pace-setter in club racing has been Isobel (Brian & Conor Turvey), while other names featuring at the front of the fleet have included Deilginis (Massey, Toomey, Kenny), Rita (Marcus Lynch & John Curley), Orla (Marc Fitzgibbon/Gallagher), Sheila (Dave Mulligan & Andy Johnston), Oona (Peter Courtney) and Aura (Ian Malcolm), which is the most recent top scorer as she won on Tuesday evening.
But with a turnout this weekend pushing towards fifteen of these unique boats, if the private battles for which the Howth 17s are renowned develop in their usual way, who knows what new name might come to the fore by nipping through the gaps, like the hero in Jurassic Park……..