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.
Irish sailing has lost one of its best international friends and loyal supporters with the death at the age of 93 of Piet Vroon, who was the very epitome of the reality that in The Netherlands, we find Europe's leading…
Kinsale Yacht Club's Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup Series On Target For Sport And Socialising
21st June 2023 Sovereign's Cup
Kinsale Yacht Club's popular biennial Sovereign's Cup series is up and running today (Wednesday, June 21st), on target with 90 entries, and the rock stars of the re-born 1720 Sportsbat Class coming up with a fleet of 25 super-hot boats…
Conor O’Brien Honoured With Ilen Dun Laoghaire Celebration For Saoirse Circumnavigation Centenary
18th June 2023 Ilen
The Commemoration of the Centenary of the pioneering global circumnavigation south of the Great Capes by Conor O’Brien of Foynes, sailing the 42ft ketch Saoirse between June 20th 1923 and June 20th 1925, was put underway yesterday (Saturday) from Dun…
Conor O'Brien’s Saoirse Departure Centenary Underlines Dun Laoghaire’s Central Role
17th June 2023 W M Nixon
A hundred years ago next Tuesday, June 20th, Conor O'Brien (1880-1952) of Foynes took his departure with some fanfare aboard his 42ft Saoirse from the harbour her skipper preferred to call Dunleary, though most of its citizens saw it as…
Dublin Bay’s Definitive One Designs Provide Ideal Projects For International Boat-Building Schools
13th June 2023 Historic Boats
The recent spell of hyper-sunny weather was a reminder of the time we stumbled upon the “lost” Dublin Bay 24 Zephyra while searching for shade to walk our little dog around the back of a castle in Mayo. The elegant…
Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race 2023 – An Entire Saga Of Sailing In Just Twenty-Six Hours
9th June 2023 Dun Laoghaire Dingle
It was that noted offshore yachtsman and rail travel enthusiast Vladimir Ilyich Lenin who observed that ten years can go past with no significant history occurring at all, and then suddenly ten years of hectic history can happen in just…
Volvo Dun Laoghaire-Dingle Race: Privateer’s Crew Necks Are Safe For Another Day
8th June 2023 Dun Laoghaire Dingle
D2D Thursday, 7 pm - In the golden olden days, when the legendary Fingal privateer skippers like Luke Ryan of Rogerstown or James Mathews of Rush went forth on their remarkably fine ships in officially licensed pursuit of enemy bullion and…
D2D Thursday, 4 pm - The majestic monastic rock of Skellig Michael may be the austere epitome of a rugged and solitary Atlantic outpost, but this final turning point of the 270-mile Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race 2023 has…
Volvo D2D: Fringe Benefits Of Storm Oscar and Cinnamon Girl’s Spicy Performance Might Yet Affect Dingle Results
8th June 2023 Dun Laoghaire Dingle
D2D Thursday, 12.30 pm - It’s not often that the steep but serene Atlantic island of Madeira is assaulted by a tropical storm. But a nasty one called Oscar has been doing that in recent days, and while evil Oscar’s…
America’s Privateer Clinches Course Record And Multiple Wins In 30th Anniversary Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race
8th June 2023 Dun Laoghaire Dingle
D2D, Thursday 0930 am - At 09.19 hrs this morning, a deceptively straightforward-looking 50ft sloop (she’s straightforward above water) came smoothly across the finish line at Dingle to finish first in every way in the National Yacht Club’s 16th staging and…
D2D Thursday at 12.30 am - It’s a cold night off the south coast, with a keen edge to the east nor’east breeze which is sweeping the fleet towards a very strong possibility of records in the biennial 270-mile Volvo Dun…
Volvo D2D Speedster – Privateer Sees Off Dublin Bay-Tuskar in Less Than Five Hours
7th June 2023 Dun Laoghaire Dingle
D2D Wed, 730 pm - Ron O’Hanley’s highy-tuned Cookson 50 Turbo Privateer from America flies on, and was past the Tuskar Rock by 18:40 hours with the last of the sluicing ebb helping her to 17 knots. Although boats with special…
New York’s Finest Turbos Into Immediate Lead In Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Dash
7th June 2023 Dun Laoghaire Dingle
D2D Race Wednesday 4 pm - In Dublin Bay’s increasingly sunlit nor’easterly breeze this afternoon, the pre-start positioning of the 43-strong fleet had barely got itself in order and away with the 14:00 hrs start of the biennial National Yacht…
Re-Born 'Saoirse' Stars With 'Ilen' And Many Others In Baltimore Woodenboat Festival
2nd June 2023 Historic Boats
With just three weeks to go to the Centenary of the departure from Ireland on June 20th 1923 of Conor O’Brien’s world-girdling 42ft Baltimore-built ketch Saoirse, the public debut of the re-born Saoirse (Fred Kinmonth) at last weekend’s Baltimore Wooden…
This weekend sees ancient gaff-rigged and other craft of multiple vintages gathering at Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club in Ringsend in the heart of Dublin Port, within sight of some of the most modern ships afloat. It’s the 60th Anniversary…
Howth Yacht Club's ICRA Nationals 2023 Linkup With monday.com Captures The Mood Of The Moment
26th May 2023 ICRA
Most sailors would have seen themselves as Friday Fun-Folk and Monday Moaners until yesterday (Thursday) evening, when Howth Yacht Club Commodore Neil Murphy announced that the club's big one for 2023, the staging of the ICRA Nationals from September 8th…
First staged in 1904, Howth YC’s annual Lambay Race claims to be unique in offering keelboats of all types a taste of the offshore racing experience while remaining within safe coastal limits. It could be argued that the race round…
This coming weekend’s annual Baltimore Wooden Boat Festival makes its welcome post-pandemic return from Friday, May 26th until Sunday, May 28th, with the well-proven formula of events afloat tailor-made for the local and visiting classic and traditional craft being neatly…
There’s a remarkable inherited experience of staging regattas in Dun Laoghaire, reinforced by the shared skill in running races of appropriate type and length, which comes through from the unrivalled memory bank of what is and isn’t reasonably possible, passed…
The Sisk family are a remarkable tribe around boats as around everything else with which they get involved. But perhaps the most remarkable of them all was John Sisk (1911-2001), who spearheaded the family construction company’s move from being a…
