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.
Volvo D2D: Fringe Benefits Of Storm Oscar and Cinnamon Girl’s Spicy Performance Might Yet Affect Dingle Results
8th June 2023 Dun Laoghaire Dingle
D2D Thursday, 12.30 pm - It’s not often that the steep but serene Atlantic island of Madeira is assaulted by a tropical storm. But a nasty one called Oscar has been doing that in recent days, and while evil Oscar’s…
America’s Privateer Clinches Course Record And Multiple Wins In 30th Anniversary Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race
8th June 2023 Dun Laoghaire Dingle
D2D, Thursday 0930 am - At 09.19 hrs this morning, a deceptively straightforward-looking 50ft sloop (she’s straightforward above water) came smoothly across the finish line at Dingle to finish first in every way in the National Yacht Club’s 16th staging and…
D2D Thursday at 12.30 am - It’s a cold night off the south coast, with a keen edge to the east nor’east breeze which is sweeping the fleet towards a very strong possibility of records in the biennial 270-mile Volvo Dun…
Volvo D2D Speedster – Privateer Sees Off Dublin Bay-Tuskar in Less Than Five Hours
7th June 2023 Dun Laoghaire Dingle
D2D Wed, 730 pm - Ron O’Hanley’s highy-tuned Cookson 50 Turbo Privateer from America flies on, and was past the Tuskar Rock by 18:40 hours with the last of the sluicing ebb helping her to 17 knots. Although boats with special…
New York’s Finest Turbos Into Immediate Lead In Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Dash
7th June 2023 Dun Laoghaire Dingle
D2D Race Wednesday 4 pm - In Dublin Bay’s increasingly sunlit nor’easterly breeze this afternoon, the pre-start positioning of the 43-strong fleet had barely got itself in order and away with the 14:00 hrs start of the biennial National Yacht…
Re-Born 'Saoirse' Stars With 'Ilen' And Many Others In Baltimore Woodenboat Festival
2nd June 2023 Historic Boats
With just three weeks to go to the Centenary of the departure from Ireland on June 20th 1923 of Conor O’Brien’s world-girdling 42ft Baltimore-built ketch Saoirse, the public debut of the re-born Saoirse (Fred Kinmonth) at last weekend’s Baltimore Wooden…
This weekend sees ancient gaff-rigged and other craft of multiple vintages gathering at Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club in Ringsend in the heart of Dublin Port, within sight of some of the most modern ships afloat. It’s the 60th Anniversary…
Howth Yacht Club's ICRA Nationals 2023 Linkup With monday.com Captures The Mood Of The Moment
26th May 2023 ICRA
Most sailors would have seen themselves as Friday Fun-Folk and Monday Moaners until yesterday (Thursday) evening, when Howth Yacht Club Commodore Neil Murphy announced that the club's big one for 2023, the staging of the ICRA Nationals from September 8th…
First staged in 1904, Howth YC’s annual Lambay Race claims to be unique in offering keelboats of all types a taste of the offshore racing experience while remaining within safe coastal limits. It could be argued that the race round…
This coming weekend’s annual Baltimore Wooden Boat Festival makes its welcome post-pandemic return from Friday, May 26th until Sunday, May 28th, with the well-proven formula of events afloat tailor-made for the local and visiting classic and traditional craft being neatly…
There’s a remarkable inherited experience of staging regattas in Dun Laoghaire, reinforced by the shared skill in running races of appropriate type and length, which comes through from the unrivalled memory bank of what is and isn’t reasonably possible, passed…
The Sisk family are a remarkable tribe around boats as around everything else with which they get involved. But perhaps the most remarkable of them all was John Sisk (1911-2001), who spearheaded the family construction company’s move from being a…
Genuine Irish Women Sailors Just Get On With It, Without Making A Fuss And Seeking Patronising Support
13th May 2023 W M Nixon
Whatever you may think about the historic gun-running by Erskine & Molly Childers’ Asgard into Howth on July 26th 1914, there’s no denying the fact that this was one of the most significant interactions of sailing as a sport with…
Bill King's Galway Blazer Circumnavigation Will Have 50th Anniversary Celebrated On May 23rd
12th May 2023 Galway Harbour
Following this week's Mariners Memorial gathering on Monday at Galway Bay Sailing Club, which featured - among other significant west coast maritime memorabilia - some key items relating to the area's own global-circumnavigating Bill King of Galway Blazer II fame,…
In April 1898 the little gaff sloop Rita came sailing into Howth Harbour, the first of the five new inaugural Howth 17s built by John Hilditch of Carrickfergus on Belfast Lough to reach their home port. The 90-mile open-water voyage…
(Day four, 0800) Light winds - mostly from ahead - and adverse Spring tides in the most tide-riven part of the unforgiving North Channel, have seen Tom Dolan's clockwise Round Ireland solo/duo challenge evaporate through the night. By midnight, he…
Donegal's Bloody Foreland Is Appropriately Named For Tom Dolan In Dumbing-Down Of Round Ireland Record
6th May 2023 Tom Dolan
Day 3 (1030hrs) – Ireland's northwest corner, the unspectacular but memorably-named Bloody Foreland in Donegal, lived up to its name all too well for Round Ireland record challenger Tom Dolan in his Figaro 3 Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan at midnight. For although…
Everyone seems to relish the idea of sailing round Ireland. Indeed, such is our appreciation of it that it all seems to mean different things to different people. To start with, how far is it? Time was when you’d be…
Day Two 0900 - Tom Dolan and his "non-sailing cameraman" aboard the Figaro 3 Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan, in their current multi-interpretation Round Ireland Challenge (is it double or solo?), had a frustrating time out beyond Achill Island early this morning. The…
The Happy Haunted Ship - Celebration At Killaloe For The Phoenix Sesquicentennial On May 15th 2023
5th May 2023 Historic Boats
Until DBOGA President Adrian “Stu” Spence’s ancient 1873-vintage Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter Madcap was sold away to France some years ago, John and Sandra Lefroy’s Phoenix was just one of three yachts of the circa 1870 era still in Ireland,…
