The Enterprise sailing dinghy was designed by Jack Holt in 1956. Early that year, it rocked the sailing world when two Enterprises sailed from Dover to Calais in the middle of the night.
The class quickly became extremely popular, and over 23,000 hulls were built, in the early years, many by amateurs, in their garages. The class was quickly adopted in Ireland with strong fleets throughout the country. At its peak, the class boasted 50+ teams at the national championships, which often included a number of boats travelling from the UK. Clubs, where the Enterprise was the dominant class, saw fleets at club racing that few classes would ever field today.
Small clubs such as Greystones and Bray could have as many as 20+ Enterprises on a start line for a weekday evening race. Such was the popularity of the class that it attracted, over the years, many well-known names in Irish sailing: Harold Cudmore, Philip Watson, Colm Barrington, John Murtagh, Marshall King, Prof. O’Connell, and Sean Craig, to name but a few. As the Enterprise was an established international class many Irish boats travelled to World Championships in exotic locations such as Zimbabwe, South Africa and Goa. Over the years, a number of Irish clubs had the prestige of hosting the Enterprise Worlds, including Bray, Ballyholme, Royal Cork, Sligo, Royal Irish YC and Waterford Harbour. In the early 2000s with the arrival of classes such as the RS, the Enterprise began a steady decline from which it has never recovered. The Irish Association ceased running regional events and all that remains is a few individual boats located around the coast. (Greystones still claims a fleet, with three racing regularly!)
However, the Enterprise fleet was famous for its lively social scene, with epic parties being a significant feature of all regional and national events, which are fondly talked about to this day, and so the class is organising a reunion this summer. The event will be held at 7 PM on the 8th of June at Greystones Sailing Club. It is open to all present and past Enterprise sailors.
Speaking on behalf of the organising committee, Greystones member Fiachra Etchingham confirmed that there was great interest in the event: “We have a Facebook group with 70 members at this stage. We have built up quite an archive of old photographs, articles etc and it’s growing all the time. Unfortunately, the heyday of the class predated social media and the widespread use of email, so we are encouraging everyone who knows of the event to reach out to their contacts and make sure they come along. We expect a great night” Etchingham continued. “We are all a bit older, so I don’t anticipate any drinking games, nightclubbing, throwing people into the harbour or any of the other erudite diversions we engaged in back in the day. However, we will have some food, memorabilia and a lot of reminiscing.
Booking for the event is available on the Greystones Sailing Club website (www.gsc.ie). If you have any queries, please contact the organising committee at fetchingham@gonzaga.ie
