The Shannon One Design (SOD) Wolf Regatta celebrated its 50th anniversary following last year’s Centenary of the class, previously reported in Afloat.
50 years ago, in 1973, Donal Gleeson, with his wife Renée, planned an end-of-year regatta, ‘the Wolf regatta’ for the SODs in Lough Derg Yacht Club (LDYC) in Dromineer inviting Lough Ree YC SOD sailors to participate.
The Wolf regatta was created to extend the season and have fun before the boats were sanded, varnished, and stored for the winter.
For anyone not familiar with the SOD, it is a handmade, high maintenance, 18-foot (5.49m) wooden clinker with one sail, sailed on Lough Derg and Lough Ree with a crew of three.
A Shannon One design start at the 2023 Wolf regatta Photo: John O'Callaghan
Clinker building (or lapstrake) is an intricate discipline involving the precise overlapping of wood planks (or clinkers) from the keel up. So, a fun regatta with a fancy-dress dinner, targeted to banish the maintenance work plan for a few more weeks, was popular. Costumes of wit and wonder, designed to win the fancy dress prize were well-kept secrets.
The regatta is called after Donal’s favourite soccer team Wolverhampton and the regatta's burgee is designed after the Wolves flag, yellow background with a big W.
The 50th-anniversary burgee was sponsored by Harmony Solar. The regatta is run under sailing racing rules, but as an old hand at the regatta will tell you, it was ‘Donal’s rules of participation’ that was the first and last word. After Donal died in 2009, his daughter Sarah with Renée organised the regatta. Donal Junior, who served 14 years in the Irish Naval Service, is now the organiser.
Second generation Wolf regatta participants, Erica Mulville in SOD 99 and regatta organiser Donal Gleeson
The regatta was held in Dromineer for the first years, then moved around the lake, e.g. Kilinure point, and finally Terryglass, now the home of the Wolf Regatta on the bank holiday weekend in October.
Many historic milestones were reminisced at this year’s regatta. Five boats participated in the first Wolf regatta in 1973, in winning order, (SOD No. 32 (Syd Shine), No 67 (Peter Mulvhille), No 104 (Donal Gleeson), No 93 (Edwina Knight) and No 48 (Dick Foy) and remarkably SOD No’s 67 and 104 were sailing again 50 years later, no 67 under the capable hands of John McGonigle and no.104 the O’ Donoghue family, Robert and Moyra and William Leech, coming 5th overall. Children of the first families who sailed, the Mulvihill’s, Gleeson’s and Knights, also participated.
The trophies also have history; the main Walter Levinge Trophy, named after Walter Levinge (1892-1972), build the second recorded SOD, No. 33 in 1922, and is credited with building fifty-eight SODs over his lifetime, the last No 118 in 1973. Levinge’s grandson Tristan Couper, with George Hooker and Liam Knight sailed SOD 80, also built by Levinge.
The beautiful wooden SOD model trophy was made by Jimmy Furey, who came after Walter and began making SODs in 1971, beginning with the SOD 107 and ending with SOD 178, which was made with Cathy MacAleavey, of which a documentary was made. Jimmy is credited with making thirty-five SOD’s over his lifetime. Peter Quigley built twenty-one SODs.
All of the SOD numbers and owners from 32 to 179 are registered by the Shannon One Design Association (SODA).
The weather was favourable over the weekend, with magnificent stormy clouds which did not result in major wind or rain, which was unusual for the event. 15 boats participated, with ten races and one discard, under race officer Alan Algeo. Ian Croxon and his crew James Sammon and Sophie Sanders, in SOD 73, won the Walter Levinge Trophy; the 73 was built by Walter Levinge in 1961. LDYC sailors Rachel Algeo, Natalie Guy and Patricia George were second in SOD 142, built by Eric Goodbody.
The Silver Fleet trophy, the ‘Dan the Man clock’, was won by the SOD 138, with DJ Algeo, Conor Temple and Shauna Gresham. Peter Quigley built the 138. The 'Dan the Man' clock trophy has a bittersweet history; named after Donals’s cousin Dan Gleeson, who drowned in Shannon Harbour. The clock was made by Reneés Gleeson’s father in Dan’s memory.
The Wolf regatta's Dan the Man clock, with Conor Temple, Shauna Gresham and DJ Algeo
Many tales of old were told at the dinner, and with many thanks to the mark layers and safety crew, John O’Callaghan and Brendan Garland, to the community hall and Paddy’s bar in Terryglass and the Sanders family for organising the fancy dress dinner, a great time was had by all.
The Wolf regatta is taken seriously, as are all SOD racing events, but as the SODA website outlines SOD sailing as, ‘a lot of fun, in which conviviality, wit, character and friendship are on a par with the high quality of the racing. Individual boats seem to develop their idiosyncrasies to complement the eccentricities of those privileged to sail them’.
The results of the Wolf Regatta 2023 below:
