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.

(L to R) Industrial Heritage Association of Ireland President Paul McMahon, Gary MacMahon of the Ilen Project, ESB Director Nicholas Tarrant, Father Anthony Keane (Ilen Project), and Michael English (IHAI Board Member) at the presentation of the IHAI’s Best Restoration of 2019 .

Limerick’s Ilen Restorers Get National Recognition for Success of Their Project

17th December 2019 Ilen

Limerick's Ilen Project has been presented with the Industrial Heritage Association of Ireland's Award for “Best Restoration of 2019” with its visionary management of the rebuilt sailing ship Ilen, and the associated community education work in Limerick. The Association’s President…

HYC Breakthrough, the First 40 which is the Howth entry for the 75th Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race of 630 miles in twelve days’ time

Howth Yacht Club Returns to New Sydney-Hobart Challenge

13th December 2019 W M Nixon

Back in 1991 when the world seemed a much simpler place, a three-crew Irish team - using shrewdly-selected offshore racing boats chartered in Australia - took part in the then-popular International Southern Cross Series, which was built around a programme…

The spirit of San Francisco, relaxed but effective. Imp at the start of the 1977 RORC Channel before she went on to be overall winner of that year’s Fastnet Race. Her intriguing stern is much in evidence – it tried and succeeded in finding the balance between upwind speed and downwind power

The Eternal Imp is More Than Just a Special Boat

12th December 2019 Historic Boats

There’s boats. There’s great boats. And then there’s Imp. Our story at the weekend about how George Radley of Great Island and Cobh in Cork Harbour was bringing home his fabulous 1976 Ron Holland-designed 40-footer has drawn a global response…

Derryinver in Connemara – the Land of the Sea. Connemara is planned as the 2020 setting for a Galway Bay SC Cruise-in-Company, following their successful visit to South Brittany in July 2019

Galway Sailors Will Give Their Own Connemara the Visitor Treatment

10th December 2019 Galway Harbour

One of the great successes of the 2019 season was the Galway-Lorient Cruise-in-Company in July to celebrate the ancient seaborn links between the City of the Tribes and the historic port and Celtic centre of South Brittany on France's Biscay…

Imp is Coming Home to Cork Harbour

6th December 2019 Historic Boats

It says everything about the legendary allure of the 1976 Ron Holland 40-footer Imp that we only have to run a headline saying Imp is coming home for most sailors in Ireland to have some idea of what it’s all…

“The light of other days…..” The Dublin Bay 21 Naneen sails for the first time in 33 years in the otherworldly illumination of December sunshine on the Shannon Estuary. Photo: Kate Griffiths

Dublin Bay 21 'Naneen' Sails Again as Howth 17s Celebrate Restoration in Growing Irish Classics Revival

6th December 2019 Howth 17

Sunshine in December imparts a surreal look to everything it illuminates with its vivid low-angled delineation. And for anyone who happened to be on the Shannon Estuary between Kilrush and Scattery Island on Monday afternoon this week, the sense of…

The modern Dragon class racing the 2019 Grand Prix at Cannes – an extraordinary transformation for a boat designed 90 years ago to be a weekend cruiser and club racer in the Swedish islands around Gothenburg.

Dragon Gold Cup at Kinsale Yacht Club Will Be Something Quite Magic

28th November 2019 W M Nixon

The International Dragon Class and Kinsale seem to have been made for each other. When the Dragon Gold Cup is staged at the glossy south coast port next September, there will undoubtedly be a natural harmony to the event. With…

The 40th anniversary Round Ireland Race from Wicklow on June 20th will be an “alternative highlight” of the 2020 season, with fresh sponsorship from SSE Renewables. The 2018 winner, Baraka GP (a Ker 43), is seen here sweeping past Wicklow Head shortly after the start. The middle third of the race saw conditions go against her, and at one stage off the north coast of Mayo she was lying 23rd overall. But in the later stages, skipper Niall Dowling (RIYC) and navigator Ian Moore called the tactics to such good effect that Baraka took line honours and won overall. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O’Brien

2020 Irish Sailing Fixtures Preview: The Year of the Irish Sailing Club

21st November 2019 W M Nixon

Nobody seems yet to have nominated the already very special 2020 as The Year of the Sailing Club, or more accurately as The Year of the Irish Sailing Club. So here in Afloat.ie we’re just going to do that very…

Flying the flag for Ireland, asymmetric style. The US and UK in downwind dicing with Ireland, represented by Royal Cork YC and skippered by Anthony O’Leary, in the New York YC 20-team international series in September at Newport, RI. Ireland finished third overall in a series raced in the new Melges IC 37s, designed by Mark Mills of Wicklow

Irish Sailing’s Annual Rhythm is Structured Through 'Sailor of the Month' Awards

15th November 2019 W M Nixon

The Irish sailing and boating season seems to get longer and more complex with every passing year, yet the vast majority of us would like it all to happen on days of floating summery perfection, with the ideal weight of…

The Rolex Men’s Sailor of the Year 2019, 15-year-old Marco Gradoni of Italy, on his way to winning his third Optimist Worlds in a row at Antigua in July

World Sailing’s Bermuda Decisions Will have Longterm Significance as Young People Become the Real Adults

8th November 2019 W M Nixon

What’s with today’s teenagers? Time was when your average teen aspired to sleep for 24 hours every day. The reason they slept for 24 hours every day was there were only 24 hours in the day. Move the dial-up to…

(Top) The yachts of the Water Club of the Harbour of Cork on fleet manoeuvres in 1738, as painted by Peter Monamy. Founded in 1720 with just 25 members, the club’s early programme at sea was to follow Sailing Orders with signals by flags from the Admiral’s yacht. But by the 1760s, the occasional race was being held, and by the 1780s racing was a more regular part of the programme Reproduced by courtesy RCYC and (above) Royal Cork 1720 Sportsboats at speed. The Water Club had become the Royal Cork YC by 1831, and having been unique at its foundation in 1720, it had now become part of a much broader development of sailing in both its cruising and racing forms. By the 1970s-1990s, Crosshaven had become a remarkable nucleus for advanced ideas, and the Royal Cork 1720 Sportsboats of 1994 became international trend-setters Photo: Bob Bateman

Irish Sailing Preview: Royal Cork’s Tricentenary Makes 2020 the Year of Years

1st November 2019 W M Nixon

You thought 2019 was quite the busy sailing year in Ireland? Believe me folks, after writing last Saturday’s marathon review of one very special season, we went through the weekend in a state of mental meltdown which wasn’t helped by…

Summertime on Dublin Bay. In a season of very mixed weather, the biennial Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta managed its usual trick of finding a useful little bit of precious summer.

Irish Sailing 2019 Review: Mixed Weather & Fortunes in 'Seven Week Scrunch-up'

24th October 2019 W M Nixon

With two World Championships on the agenda, and Ireland’s biggest sailing event – the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta - making its biennial appearance at mid-season, 2019’s sailing programme couldn’t be anything other than interesting as it also included the increasingly…

Neat trick…..the Puppeteer 22 Trick or Treat (Alan Pearson and Alan Blay) was top scorer for the second year running in the Beshoff Motors Autumn League at Howth. At the end-of-series prize-giving in HYC her cheerful crew were (left to right) Alan Pearson, Nicole Guinee, Alan Blay, and Oscar Langan – missing from photo is regular crewman Peter Bannon.

Hallowe’en Provides an Early Christmas for Trick-or-Treat in Howth Autumn League

21st October 2019 Howth YC

After the perfect weather of the sunlit two-race programme on Saturday, October 12th in the Beshoff Motor Autumn League in Howth, there were those who suggested the series should have been declared finished there and then, as it just couldn’t…

Bryon Ehrhart’s Maxi 72 Lucky has set a new record in the ninth biennial Hong Kong-Vietnam Race with a strong Irish presence on board

Irish Input for Lucky’s New Hong Kong-Vietnam Offshore Race Record

20th October 2019 Offshore

American Bryon Ehrhart’s impressive Maxi 72 Lucky has added a new gong to her distinguished trophy list by taking line honours and establishing a new course record in the biennial Hong Kong to Vietnam Offshore Race, aided in no small…

The veteran IMOCA 60 4myplanet which Mayo’s Joan Mulloy will be co-skippering with Alexia Barrier in next weekend’s 12,000 mile Transat Jacques Vabre from Le Havre to Bahia in Brazil

Mayo’s Joan Mulloy Racing Two-Handed to Brazil as Middle Sea Race Departs Malta

18th October 2019 Middle Sea Race

Solo sailor Joan Mulloy of Mayo has teamed up as co-skipper with France’s Alexia Barrier on the latter’s veteran IMOCA 60 4Myplanet to become the only all-female crew in the 30-strong IMOCA 60 Class in the 12,000 mile Transat Jacques…

A perfect sailing day – the J/109 Outrajeous (Richard Colwell & Johnny Murphy) showing ahead of National Championship runner-up Storm (Pat Kelly) early in Saturday’s racing at Howth, but overall Storm now holds the lead

Winner’s Enclosure Starts to Fill at Howth Yacht Club's Autumn League

15th October 2019 Howth YC

Day Five of the Beshoff Motors Autumn League at Howth Yacht Club on Saturday saw races six and seven completed, but even with a race still to go, with no further discards, some of the class leaders have already secured…

Tough going for a classic – in the very varied weather for the 160-boat fleet at the 90h Anniversary International Dragon Regattta at San Remo, the large classics division had to take the rough with the smooth along with the rest of the fleet

Don Street of Glandore Gets Top International Dragon Honour at 90th Anniversary Regatta

14th October 2019 Dragon

The stupendous 90th Anniversary International Dragon Class Regatta at San Remo in Italy has concluded with overall victory going to Jens Christensen of Denmark, crewed by Anders Bagger and Thomas Schmidt. But the most special celebration at the prize-giving was…

The SB20 has been in Ireland since 2003, but with an increasingly strong class organisation now headed by John Malone of Lough Ree YC, its position is stronger than ever with two overall wins in a row recorded in the annual All-Ireland Helmsmans Championship. Healthy class organisations are essential for the general good of Irish sailing

Irish Sailing Needs to be More Upbeat About its Future

11th October 2019 W M Nixon

Here in the Sailing on Saturday verbiage production complex in a hidden bunker under a nameless hill off an un-named coast of Ireland, all this maundering-on about a gloomy future for sailing in general and Irish sailing, in particular, passes…

At the presentation to Dun Laoghaire RNLI of the Cruising Association of Ireland cheque for €1,000 collected at the recent CAI "Three Bridges Lifted” Rally in Dublin Port were (back row, left to right) Chris Watson, Ronan Adams, Jack Shanahan, Damien Payne and Oisin Corrigan of Dun Laoghaire lifeboat, and front row (left) Station Mechanic Kieran O’Connell (left) and (right) Duty Cox’n Adam O’Sullivan, with Commodore Vincent Lundy of the CAI, and Honorary Treasurer Bryan Downey

Cruising Association of Ireland’s Three Bridges Lift Raises €1,000 for Dun Laoghaire RNLI

9th October 2019 Cruising

The Cruising Association of Ireland’s popular “Three Bridges Lifted” Rally to Dublin Port in September was a festive occasion in a weekend of exceptionally good weather, and a large fleet celebrated the camaraderie of seafaring and boats and cruising until…

The successful Australian Botin 52 Ichi Ban, a TP 52 variant, has seen Irish sailor Gordon Maguire (seen here on helm) much involved both as sailing master and during the design, build and development stages with owner Matt Allen. Ichi Ban is now on the three-boat short-list for the World Sailing 2019 Goslings Boat of the Year, the winner to be announced on October 29th

Howth’s Gordon Maguire at the Heart of it as World Sailing Decides on 2019’s Boat of the Year

8th October 2019 Howth YC

Gordon Maguire (58) may now be recognised as Australia’s leading all-round professional offshore/inshore keelboat skipper - his World Sailing Code Number is unmistakably GMA#1 writes W M Nixon. But somewhere in there is the exceptionally talented sailor, son of renowned…