WM Nixon
William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland for many years in print and online, and his work has appeared internationally in magazines and books. His own experience ranges from club sailing to international offshore events, and he has cruised extensively under sail, often in his own boats which have ranged in size from an 11ft dinghy to a 35ft cruiser-racer. He has also been involved in the administration of several sailing organisations.
Sailing In Ireland: Good Weather Is Now Just Around The Corner – But Which Corner?
5th August 2023 W M Nixon
Down Kerry way where the weather is often for adults only, they say that when Noah came bobbing along in his crowded Ark across the boundless wastes of flood water, the first sign of any land-indicating feature with life that…
Fastnet Race Day 6 - Rapid night-time progress up Channel to the Cherbourg finish has seen the Murphy family's Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo of the Royal Cork Yacht Club pip Mike O'Donnell's J/121 Darkwood (Royal Irish YC) for the best-placed…
Fastnet Race Day Five 1900 - France's Presidential Department of Protocol or some such secretive yet high-powered bureaucracy seems to have taken over dark world control of the Western Approaches weather system for the latter part of the Cherbourg-finishing 50th…
Cork’s Honorary Special Veteran Maluka’s Handy Little Hitch-Hike To Europe For The 50th Fastnet Race
26th July 2023 Fastnet
Sean Langman’s superbly-restored 1932-vintage 30ft Sydney Harbour Ranger Class gaff cutter Maluka finally put the Fastnet Rock astern at 9:00 hrs this morning (Wednesday), and now her crew - including the legendary Gordon Maguire - are making the best of…
Fastnet Race Day 5 0800 - A slowly rising southwest breeze through the night has put fresh purpose into the on-track progress of the large fleet of Fastnet racers still at sea, but by early afternoon today (Wednesday) in the…
Fastnet Race Day Four 1800 - They really should think of some word other than "calm" to describe the situation in an offshore race when the wind falls away after a period of brisk breezes. "Calm" suggests quiet serenity, yet…
Fastnet Racers To Have Day Of Gentler Conditions Before Atlantic Weather Returns
25th July 2023 Fastnet
Fastnet Race Day Four 0900 - When they were approaching the Fastnet Rock yesterday, the middle cohort of this still-large fleet in the 50th Edition of the Fastnet Race found that summer was quietly enjoying itself around West Cork's legendary…
Fastnet Race Day Three, 5pm: After the first 30 hours or so with rather more wind - and headwinds at that - than most entrants sought, it looks as though the turbines may be slowed down or even turned off…
Fastnet Race 2023 Into More Normal Progress After Mayhem Of First Day's Gales
24th July 2023 Fastnet
Fastnet Race Day 3 0800 - Northerly winds are now set in on the Fastnet race area between Cornwall and southwest Ireland, while the underlying breeze still has a westerly emphasis in the English Channel between Lands End and the…
100 Retire After Destructive First Night Of Fastnet 2023: Nieulargo from Cork and Darkwood (RIYC) Best Of Irish
23rd July 2023 Fastnet
Fastnet Race Day 2 0900: The strong to gale force south-westerlies headwinds, occasionally hitting 40 knots with dense air and poor visibility, have made the destructive first cold, wet night of the 450-boat Fastnet Race 2023 into an endurance test,…
Fastnet Race 2023 start - The Murphy family of Cork's Grand Soleil Nieulargo, racing in IRC 2, had one of the best starts of the entire Fastnet Race 2023 fleet in a rain-sodden Solent this afternoon, conditions which - when…
Ireland’s Fastnet Rock Could Become Only Remaining Feature Of Original Fastnet Race Course
22nd July 2023 W M Nixon
Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that prediction can be a dodgy business as it involves the future. And when that future is reckoned to include – as it does for today (Saturday’s) Fastnet Race start in the Solent –…
The expected wind and weather conditions for Saturday's Fastnet Race, while still unsettled, look to be averaging out. The dominant factor is a low-pressure area of 1008 currently (Thursday afternoon) off southeast Greenland. It will only deepen slowly as it…
Former RORC Commodore Michael Boyd of the Royal Irish Yacht Club is one of the commentary team on the RORC's live Youtube broadcast on Saturday (July 22nd)'s Rolex Fastnet Race 2023 start, with transmission beginningat 12:30 hrs. A very experienced…
A relatively brief but extremely strong period of southwest winds forecast as increasingly likely for Saturday afternoon and evening along the south coast of England will have the RORC's Fastnet Race Team contemplating a day's postponement as one of their…
Boat Of New Zealand's National Hopes Becomes Embarrassing Environmental Hazard
18th July 2023 America's Cup
Thirty-one years ago, she carried the hopes of a nation, and no care and expense were too much for New Zealand's 1992 America's Cup Challenger. But the highly-specialised boats which were developed at that time to fit in with the…
When the first Fastnet Race was sailed in 1925 amidst controversy over the foolhardiness of bringing “reckless competition” into ocean voyaging, the last thing on the organisers’ mind was the crazy thought that by 2023, with the 50th Fastnet getting…
Gus Henry: He Will Be Memorialised By Up-Coming Mirror Worlds At His Beloved Sligo Yacht Club
17th July 2023 GP14
The death of Gus Henry of Sligo has taken from among us a pillar of sailing in the northwest whose energies and enthusiasm were such that they had beneficial effects nationally and internationally. A member of Sligo Yacht Club for…
50th Fastnet Race on Saturday July 22nd 2023 Will Remind Us Of Vintage Racer Brynoth’s Unique Success In Golden Jubilee Race
15th July 2023 W M Nixon
It is arguably the greatest on-water fleet organisation in world sailing. In a week’s time, the 450 or so boats in the 50th staging of the 695-mile Rolex Fastnet Race will be sent on their way from Cowes in a…
Conor O’Brien Two Year Saoirse Circumnavigation Centenary Celebration Now Well Under Way
11th July 2023 Conor O'Brien
A hundred years ago on this day, Conor O’Brien of Limerick’s 42ft own-designed ketch - newly-built by Tom Moynihan of Baltimore with some of the West Cork shipwright’s small but very effective hull shape improvements - was well into a…
