The Howth 17 is a type of keelboat. It is a 3-man single-design keelboat designed to race in the waters off Howth and Dublin Bay.

How long is a Howth 17?

The Howth Seventeen is just 22ft 6ins in hull length.

Why are Howth 17s so famous?

The boat is the oldest one-design keelboat racing class in the world and it is still racing today to its original design exclusively at Howth Yacht club. It has important historical and heritage value keep alive by a vibrant class of members who race and cruise the boats.

How many Howth 17s are racing today?

Although 21 boats are in existence, a full fleet rarely sails buy turnouts for the annual championships are regularly in the high teens.

Who designed the Howth 17?

The plans of the Howth 17 were originally drawn by Walter Herbert Boyd in 1897 for Howth Sailing Club. The boat was launched in Ireland in 1898.

Who built the original Howth 17s?

They were originally built by John Hilditch at Carrickfergus, County Down. Initially, five boats were constructed by him and sailed the 90-mile passage to Howth in the spring of 1898. The latest Number 21 was built in France in 2017.

Why were the Howth 17s designed and built?

The Howth 17s were designed to combat local conditions in Howth that many of the keel-less boats of that era such as the 'Half-Rater' would have found difficult.

How many Howth 17s were built?

The original fleet of five, Rita, Leila, Silver Moon, Aura and Hera, was increased in 1900 with the addition of Pauline, Zaida and Anita. By 1913 the class had increased to fourteen boats. The extra nine were commissioned by Dublin Bay Sailing Club for racing from Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire) - Echo, Sylvia, Mimosa, Deilginis, Rosemary, Gladys, Bobolink, Eileen and Nautilus. Gradually the boats found their way to Howth from various places, including the Solent and by the latter part of the 20th century they were all based there. The class, however, was reduced to 15 due to mishaps and storm damage for a few short years but in May 1988 Isobel and Erica were launched at Howth Yacht Club, the boats having been built in a shed at Howth Castle - the first of the class actually built in Howth.

What are Howth 17s constructed of?

The basic wooden Howth 17 specification was for a stem and keel of oak and elm, deadwood and frames of oak, planking of yellow pine above the waterline and red pine below, a shelf of pitch pine and a topstrake of teak, larch deck-beams and yellow pine planking and Baltic spruce spars with a keel of lead. Other than the inclusion of teak, the boats were designed to be built of materials which at that time were readily available. However today yellow pine and pitch pine are scarce, their properties of endurance and longevity much appreciated and very much in evidence on the original five boats.

How many races do the Howth 17s sail in any given year?

It is always a busy 60-race season of regular midweek evening and Saturday afternoon contests plus regattas and the Howth Autumn League

Name a famous Howth 17?

The 1907-built Deiliginis have recently made it four in a row for the national title that Deilginis has won at least six times in all.

What are some big recent events in the Howth 17 class?

In 2017, a new Howth 17 Orla, No 21, was built for Ian Malcolm. The construction of Orla began in September 2016 at Skol ar Mor, the boat-building school run by American Mike Newmeyer and his dedicated team of instructor-craftsmen at Mesquer in southern Brittany. In 2018, Storm Emma wrought extensive destruction through the seven Howth Seventeens stored in their much-damaged shed on Howth’s East Pier at the beginning of March 2018, it was feared that several of the boats – which since 1898 have been the very heart of Howth sailing – would be written off. But in the end only one – David O’Connell’s Anita built in 1900 by James Clancy of Dun Laoghaire – was assessed as needing a complete re-build. Anita was rebuilt by Paul Robert and his team at Les Ateliers de l’Enfer in Douarnenez in Brittany in 2019 and Brought home to Howth.

What is the sail area of a Howth 17?

The total sail area is 305 sq ft (28.3 m2)

Oppy

23rd July 2018

Irish Sailors Dominate In 2018 Optimist French Nationals

Ireland’s best boy and girl Fiachra McDonnell and Clementine van Steenberge with coach Dara O’Shea after the French Nationals in Bordeaux

#Oppy - Fiachra McDonnell of the National Yacht Club and the IDT France team won the Optimist French Nationals after a fantastic week of sailing against some of the best sailors in Europe.

Fellow NYC and IDT Team France sailor Clementine van Steenberge won best girl at the event in Carcans, Bordeaux that saw some 200 young sailors taking part.

Continuing Ireland’s winning ways, Afloat’s Sailor of the Month for April, Justin Lucas of the Royal Cork Yacht Club placed second, while his club-mate Harry Twomey finished fourth.

In addition there were four more top 20 places for Ireland at the event: James Dwyer Matthews (RCYC; 13th), Michael Crosbie (RCYC; 14th), Johnny Flynn (Howth YC; 18th) and Rocco Wright (HYC; 19th).

Jessica Riordan of the Royal St George and IDT France Team also finished a very strong seventh in the Silver Fleet.

Fifteen Irish sailors travelled to the French Nationals, seven of them as part of the Irish Development Team France (IDT France) and the rest independently.

The International Optimist Dinghy Association Ireland (IODAI) expressed its thanks to Yvonne Durcan for doing a sterling job as team parent for IDT France during the week, and to team coach Dara O’Shea for his efforts over the last few months to help Ireland’s young Oppy sailors to secure Ireland’s best ever results in France.

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23rd July 2012

Irish Optimist Sailing Team Racing in Dominican Republic

#optimist –After four races sailed and no discard applied Sophie Browne of Tralee lies top Irish boat in 63rd at the 230 boat Optimist World Championships this week in the Dominican Republic.

Hope of Irish success at the Championships is carried by Sophie, Harry Durcan, Douglas Elmes, Megan Parker and Harry Whitaker who are competing at the Optimist World Championships. Qualifying racing began last Wednesday. Vid report above. The event site (not a great one) is here. Preliminary results up to July 20th are downloadable below.

A beautiful day was expecting the 42 teams qualified for the Team Racing today in Boca Chica. The 2 race courses were very close to the Yacht Club and spectators had the opportunity to see the action on first hand.

In Team Racing each team competes with 4 athletes and they have to get the winning finish combination in order to win. More than 30 matches were sailed today and the task for the Jury was very hard.

Finally Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Italy, Finland, USA, New Zealand, Nederland, Turkey, Argentina, Spain, Croatia and Germany are the 16 teams qualified to the final series, tomorrow.

Local team had a difficult day and after two losses fro Italy and Poland were quickly off the completion. Singapore seemed to be the team in favor of winning since the won easily their qualification matches against Mexico and Greece.

The weather is expected to be breezier tomorrow with sunny skies, a perfect combination for the Team Racing Finals.

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8th August 2011

Glenageary's Hyland Takes Tenth at Oppy German Nationals

Broken toe straps were no obstacle for Adam Hyland this week when the Glenageary junior took an unexpected dip in the Baltic. He finished tenth and top Irish boat at the German Optimist National championships. The top result was from a field of 300. Full results HERE.

The 10 strong Irish optimist development team returned on Saturday night after a very successful trip to Kiel for the German Optimist Nationals. In particular Adam Hyland should be very happy with his 11th place in this world class fleet.

The quality of the fleet at the German nationals is much higher than at German oppie sailors have to qualify for the nationals and the top 20% of the German fleet (220 sailors) and with Foreign participants making up the balance of 310. Most of the foreign competitors teams were made up of World team sailors who are excluded from competing in the Europeans.

The Irish team spent 3 days training and acclimatizing to the local conditions with the German, Danish and other worlds teams.

The competitors competed in very mixed conditions ranging from very light to 20k plus.

The Irish Finished as follows:

11th Adam Hyland RstGYC
56th Sophie Brown TBSC/RCYC
75th Sean Waddilove SSC/HYC
77th Robert Dickson HYC
116th Fergus Flood HYC
129th Sean Gambier Ross KYC
139th Alacoque Daly TBSC
152nd Richard Hogan HYC
158th Ronan Cournane KYC/RCYC
204th Dara Cournane KYC/RCYC
239th Aoife Hopkins HYC

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11th July 2011

Racing Round up: Dun Laoghaire Regatta, ISAF Youths, Optimists, Paralympic, RORC, WIORA, Quarter Ton, Kiteboarding.

In one of the busiest racing weekends of the Irish sailing calendar a vintage Quarter tonner sailed by six friends lifted the top prize in Dun Laoghaire. We report on Supernova's success. In a weekend of extremes for the biennial 'big one' we have reports, photos and video from Day one, two, three and overall. Plus how one VDLR competitor skipped the ferry and sailed over, from Wales in a dinghy. We have the DBSC likely first series winners too. On Friday, John Twomey and his crew qualified in Weymouth for next year's Paralympic Games. Yesterday in Croatia Sophie Murphy took a race win at the ISAF Youth Worlds for Ireland. From a lead at the halfway stage Peter McCann ended up eighth at the Oppy worlds in Portugal.We have less serious Optimist action from Crosshaven too.

In offshore news, the Transatlantic Race 2011 Nears a Finish, and RORC yachts that headed West did best in the St Malo from Cowes race. Ireland's entry in the Tall Ships race, Celtic Mist, is safely in Scotland. WIORA starts this week in Clifden, thirty boats are expected.

Two top Cork performers are in Cowes for this week's Quarter Ton Cup.

In other boating news, rower Siobhan McCrohan won bronze at the World Rowing Champs in Lucerne, Kiteboarding debuted in Dun Laoghaire. There were Medals for Irish Kayakers at Athens Special Olympics.

And finally after a Elaine 'Shooter' Alexander is set for hero's welcome this week as she becomes the first woman from Northern Ireland to circumnavigate the island of Ireland.

All on our home page this morning, thanks for your interest in Irish Sailing and Boating.

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11th July 2011

Four Oppy Fleets Take to the Water in Crosshaven

There was fun on the river at Crosshaven for the Second Saturday of Royal Cork's Optimist July League for all four fleets Gold, Silver, Bronze and Copper. Three races were sailed starting out very light and ending up with about 8 knots in Cork Harbour. Plus we have one or two shots from an eight boat 420 Munsters. SCROLL DOWN FOR PICS by Bob Bateman.

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5th October 2010

Donnelly Wins Dun Laoghaire End of Season Oppy Event

At the weekend's end of season Optimist dinghy class Championships (aka the Gorman Trophy) held at the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire local helmsman Sean Donnelly was a popular win in a fleet of 66 boats. Second was Sean Waddilove from across the bay in Howth and third was Dun Laoghaire's Adam Hyland from the Royal St. George YC. Results HERE.

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17th August 2010

Royal Cork's Peter McCann Takes Early Lead at Oppy Nationals

The 3 sponsored Irish Optimist Nationals got underway today in Dunmore East in County Waterford. A total of 234 boats raced two races in light to moderate North West breezes, remaining steady for the day. Provisional results after 2 races:

Senior: 1st Peter McCann, RCYC, 2nd Aran Hollowell, UK.
Junior: 1st Daire Cournane, RCYC/KYC; 2nd Fergus Flood, HYC.
Regatta: 1st Michael O'Suilleabhain, KYC, 2nd Amy Carroll.

Photos below by Noel Browne

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