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.
The secret of Querrin is that it is secret. Or at least it used to be. This quiet community-minded place along the blessed south-facing coast of County Clare, on the north shore of the Shannon Estuary between Poulnasherry Bay and Carrigaholt…
Dun Laoghaire’s National Yacht Club Is Benignly Haunted By Spirit of John B Kearney
4th May 2024 W M Nixon
The National Yacht Club, handsomely sited in the southeast corner of Dun Laoghaire Harbour, was certainly looking its part as the current MG Motor “Sailing Cub of the Year” last Saturday morning. The sun shone, and in the crisp onshore…
Afloat.ie regrets to record the death of Don Street of Glandore in his 94th year. For many years a Caribbean enthusiast, writing a series of successful pioneering pilot books for the area, he was also a renowned authority on ocean…
The 1927 Fastnet Race winner Tally Ho - a 48ft gaff cutter built in 1910 - has now been fully restored in a remarkable online project by English sailor/boatbuilder Leo Sampson Goolden in Sampson Boat Company’s premises at Sequium, Washington…
The Royal Irish Yacht Club of Dun Laoghaire is so far the only club in Ireland which has indicated to Denis Byrne, Commodore of the governing Irish Cruiser-Racer Association and Vice Admiral of the Royal Cork YC, that it is…
Crosshaven Lifeboat To Fund-Raise Through Yellow Welly Shore Walks of Cork Harbour
23rd April 2024 RNLI Lifeboats
We’ve become so accustomed to the RNLI’s Yellow Wellies being used as receptacles for Lifeboat Fund-Raisers – with silent donations much preferred, and usually generously given - that we can easily forget they’re practical items of footwear. But Crosshaven Lifeboat…
There’s something special about a large organisation which is so attuned to the needs of the many services it quietly provides that it can - naturally and confidently and without fuss - move into action each year in a distinctly…
It was Conor O’Brien of Foynes who said the main purpose of cruising should be to sail to islands. So it’s appropriate that a Foynes Yacht Club cruiser-racer owner, Joe Kiernan, is suggesting that there are enough islands along the…
When the stories attached to the former Cassidy four-storey pub on Howth waterfront appeared on Afloat.ie last week, telling of how it might become a boutique hotel owned by a syndicate including MMI Word Champion Conor McGregor, eagle-eyed peninsula dwellers…
The 1980s tend to get a bad press as a time when young people left the country in droves, searching for jobs that matched their potential and training. Those of us who stayed at home to battle on, but now…
Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Griffin Training Scheme Focused On The Channel Hot Spot
13th April 2024 W M Nixon
With the RORC’s new Griffin Project for training young sailors recently launched in a blaze of publicity, there have been the usual demands that something similar should be delivered for Ireland. But Sailing on Saturday would suggest that, over the…
It may have been recently known as the boarded-up Baily Court Hotel. Yet for many in Howth, it was still the modestly-sized Royal Hotel. Once upon a time, it was the heart of the village, a reminder that way back…
This weekend is expected to see the Entry List for the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race on June 22nd going through the 40 mark, with a good selection of boats already providing a healthy mix of internationally-renowned craft lining up…
Bob Fannin Jnr feels most at home on the high seas. For as the Bristol-based writer, broadcaster and university lecturer told the members of the Cruising Group at his former club of Howth on Tuesday night, when sailing the sea,…
When the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association (ISORA) was in its rapid expansion stage in the 1970s, one of its most active clubs was Holyhead SC, the sea-going base for many from Merseyside, including leading Liverpool medics and Irish Sea…
University College Cork Take Home Intervarsities Keelboat Annual Title Won At Howth
31st March 2024 Youth Sailing
Always having the Friday and Saturday of the last weekend of March as the "fixed fixture" for your annual event is usually guaranteed to provide lively conditions and Howth YC's Scorie Walls's regular yearly staging of the University Keelboats team…
Olympians are different from you and me. In the final analysis, that’s what being Olympian is all about. For whether we like it or not, the vivid clarity of an Olympic medal is one of the few ways that sailing…
Irish Team Racing's 'George Invitational' Will See Super-Squads In Competition on May 25th & 26th
29th March 2024 RStGYC
A resurgence in demand for top-grade team racing events has resulted in the revival of the renowned George Invitational. The event maintained over twenty years of continuity in the sport in Dun Laoghaire in the70's, 80's & 90's until the…
There is now only one branch of the international Old Gaffers Association in all Ireland. But though it draws in its membership from every county, it continues to be known as the DBOGA, for it seems that the Dublin Bay…
Nowhere in the world do they regard the Etchells 22 with as much reverence as they do in Australia. And nowhere in Australia is the sailing as demanding as it can be at Fantastic Freo, otherwise Fremantle at Perth on…
