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.
Lough Ree Yacht Club & Shannon ODs Share MG Motors “Sailing Club of the Year” Award for 2022
1st January 2022 W M Nixon
Lough Ree Yacht Club and the Shannon One Design Association are sharing this year’s MG Motors Sailing Club of the Year Award. It’s the well-deserved honouring of a dynamic combination that provides a core contribution to the Athlone area’s reputation…
Gordon Maguire’s Fifth Hobart Race Win Sees Ichi Ban Take Tattersall Cup For Third year In A Row
31st December 2021 Sydney to Hobart
When Gordon Maguire of Howth won his first Sydney-Hobart Race in 1991 helming Atara with Cork’s Harold Cudmore as skipper, he can scarcely have dreamed that thirty years later, he would proudly be holding the coveted Tattersall Cup for the…
Hot News From Tasmania - Ichi Ban Wins Hobart Race For Matt Allen & Gordon Maguire
31st December 2021 Sydney to Hobart
Matt Allen’s Botin/TP 52 Ichi Ban, with Gordon Maguire of Howth as Sailing Master and a crew including Sean O’Rourke and Dublin-born Noel Drennan, has received the benefit of a remarkable reversal of fortune in the current Rolex Sydney Hobart…
Ichi Ban Misses Chance of Third Successive Hobart Overall Win by Just Three Minutes, But Protests Pending Against Leader
29th December 2021 Sydney to Hobart
Matt Allen’s TP 52 Ichi Ban, with Gordon Maguire as Sailing Master, was first of all the TP 52s into the finish of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race 2021 at 4:45:29 pm local time December 29th. But as she had…
Black Jack Takes Sydney-Hobart Line Honours While Three TP 52s are “Glued Together” in Battle for IRC Overall Win
29th December 2021 Sydney to Hobart
The Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race must be one of the most intensely-analysed offshore racing events in the world, providing four or five days of close-fought competition to be looked at every which way while the Northern Hemisphere is largely in a…
Sydney-Hobart Race’s Wind-Over-Current Sailing Too Lively For Some as Ireland’s Maguire Settles to His Work Aboard Ichi Ban
27th December 2021 Sydney to Hobart
The south-going East Australia Current off the coast of New South Wales can vary in its strength. But if there’s power in it at its strongest streams about ten miles and more offshore, even a moderate to fresh southerly wind…
Irish Sailor Pamela Lee Meets Extreme Challenge of Midwinter Atlantic Crossing
26th December 2021 Offshore
With the three named Atlantic storms of Arwen, Barra and Corrie already logged and leaving behind trails of varying degrees of disruption in Northwest Europe, we in Ireland don’t need to be told that the winter of 2021-2022 has been…
Will Sydney-Hobart’s Sunshine Return to Brighten Ireland’s Mid-Winter Mood?
25th December 2021 W M Nixon
For many years now, the annual 628-mile Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race on 26th December has played a special role in reviving the mid-winter spirits of the dark and gloomy Northern Hemisphere, with the glitzy sunlit start out of one of the…
Wexford, Skerries, Rush, Derrynane, Malahide, Howth & Dun Laoghaire In Top Eight Places In Howth's Key Capital Laser Frostbites
21st December 2021 Howth YC
In ancient Greece, the mythological Halcyon Days at mid-winter were the calm and bright time around the Winter Solstice. In Ireland, a calm at midwinter (the Solstice is at 3.59 pm this (Tuesday) afternoon) tends to bring grey days, and…
The Cape 31s Give An Entirely New Meaning To “Local Club Evening Racing” (Video)
21st December 2021 Cape 31
The Mark Mills-designed Cape 31s have been stretching their limbs and muscles at the Royal Cape Yacht Cub in South Africa for long enough now to attract much interest elsewhere, and by next year they’ll be coming to a club…
Ireland’s Clinker-Built Boats Lead The Way In New UNESCO Heritage Status
21st December 2021 Historic Boats
Now hear this, all you sailors or rowers of Greencastle Yawls, Dublin Bay Water Wags, Foyle Punts, International 12s, Shannon One Designs, Castlehaven Ettes, Strangford Lough Clippers, Coastal Hobbler Rowing Skiffs, Dublin Bay Mermaids, Mayfly-Fishing Lakeboats, IDRA 14s, Ballyholme Insects,…
Neville Maguire Of Howth Was The Accomplished Sailor We Would All Wish To Be
18th December 2021 W M Nixon
Neville Maguire (1927-2021) was a devotedly local sailor whose racing was at world standard. Yet any civilised sailing enthusiast would wish to be as he was, for although Neville’s racing was important, it was only part of a lifelong love…
‘All in a Row’ Marathon Charity Challenge on Dublin’s River Liffey Provides A Great Boat Show Afloat
16th December 2021 Coastal Rowing
When we revealed the background to the Crosshaven-built George Bushe rowing skiff Lorelei of 1954 vintage, many sailors of traditional outlook could have been forgiven for reckoning this innovative craft would still stand out as decidedly unusual in any gathering…
Jack Roy’s Huge Contribution To Sailing Was Only One Part Of An Exceptional Life
14th December 2021 News Update
When we published a comprehensive overview of Jack Roy’s achievement-filled career ashore and afloat on 14th July 2017, it was in light of his recently-elected position as President of Irish Sailing. With someone who lived life a hundred per cent…
Neville Maguire of Howth has died much-mourned today (Monday) at the age of 95. The father of international ace Gordon Maguire, Neville himself was one of Ireland's most accomplished and popular sailors inshore and offshore, whether racing or cruising and…
For casual observers, conditions looked miserably grey for yesterday (Saturday’s) final race of Part 1 of Howth YC’s annual Brass Monkey through-winter series. But those bustling cheerfully ashore afterwards were full of enthusiasm for a great racing breeze from the…
The death of former Irish Sailing President and Olympic Games Race Officer Jack Roy of Greystones and Dun Laoghaire has deprived our sport of one of its most popular and enthusiastic devotees, both in terms of services to sailing and in…
The 2022 Sailing Season in Ireland is Approaching Over the Horizon With Drums Beating & Flags Flying
1st January 2022 W M Nixon
(First published 11/12/2021) Four World Championships. Two Europeans. The super-staging of our defining offshore race. A major new offshore challenge. Regattas galore. A very significant Centenary. An important Golden Jubilee. At least one new One-Design class. Established OD classes finding…
Limerick’s Ketch Ilen’s Christmas Lights Shone Undimmed Through Storm Barra in Galway Docks
8th December 2021 Galway Harbour
The imaginative use of the 1926-vintage 56ft Trading Ketch Ilen’s mainmast as a brightly-illuminated Christmas Tree for Galway Docks was switched on as recently as Sunday evening. Yet within 30 hours, the entire setup was being severely tested for many…
Howth’s Bright Motors Brass Monkeys Winter League Sails Serenely Between The Storms
6th December 2021 Howth YC
With the shortest day of the year only a fortnight away, winter leagues at a number of centres in Ireland can already look back on a satisfying collection of good races which somehow hit on magic days between storms such…
