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 overall winner for the fifth (or may be it’s the sixth) time, for he also had overall success with Stephen Ainsworth’s Loki.
Yet today (Friday, December 31st) it came true. In the Hobart summer sunshine, he and owner-skipper Matt Allen shared that rare experience in a very special moment of camaraderie which spoke volumes of how their dynamic interaction made the Botin/TP 52 Ichi Ban into one of the most all-round successful offshore racers in the world. And coming just a fortnight after he was grieving the death of his remarkable and equally-talented 95-year-old father Neville Maguire, it was a time of heightened emotions for one of the finest sailors Ireland has ever produced.