Following today’s devastating damage in northeasterly storms at high water to the shed towards the end of the East Pier in Howth where seven of the 1898-founded Howth 17s are in winter storage, the members of Howth YC are keeping their fingers crossed that conditions will have eased a little by tonight’s high tide in order to minimise further significant damage to battered boats, two of which are already borderline cases writes W M Nixon.
Certainly were she not such a significant piece of local sailing history, the 1907-built Rosemary would probably be considered a write-off. But once a boat has reached such classic status, re-builds are acceptable provided that you have as little as the original ballast keel to work with, and in this case there may be more to work with than that.
However with conditions no longer safe for detailed examination of the situation, the class can only unite in its remarkable community spirit through tonight, and hope that tomorrow will bring improved conditions to allow positive action. Either way, there’ll be no lack of very willing volunteers.