The efficiently-organised Flying Fifteens are Ireland's largest One-Design keelboat class, and despite the pandemic, they have managed to stage regulation-compliant National Championships in 2020 and 2021, at Dunmore East and on Strangford Lough, respectively. With former world champions and Olympic sailors from several classes among their current members, F/F sailing provides intense competition even when numbers are limited. Thus it has been remarkable that these two National Championships have been won by veteran skipper John Lavery, with Alan Green as his crew in both Dunmore East and Whiterock.
In a long sailing career that began in Optimists at the National Yacht Club in 1967, John Lavery has failed in only one thing. Despite a couple of announcements that he is permanently hanging up his sailing boots, he hasn't. He has been enticed back with a boat called Phoenix or maybe ffhoenix, and his scorecard on Strangford Lough in tricky conditions to take a 16 point overall margin shows that his sailing has lost none of its magic.
Early days. John Lavery (right) racing Optimists at the National YC in 1967.
