5th February 2021
At the double. Anthony O Leary of Crosshaven and Annalise Murphy of Dun Laoghaire are the only contenders to be Afloat.ie Sailors of the Year twice – himself in 2010 and 2014, and herself in 2012 and 2016
Credit: Robert Bateman and IOC
In these long-lived times, a Silver Jubilee is not what it used to be in an era when Golden Jubilees, Centenaries, Tricentenaries and whatever you re having yourself are cascading around us in an almost continuous nostalgia-fest.
Nevertheless the healthy Quarter Century of the Afloat.ie Sailor of the Year contest deserves celebration, as it has evolved since its inception to give a true reflection of Irish sailing in all its historic and extraordinary variety. And it has done this by being based on monthly awards which – at an early stage – weren t found to be enough to truly reflect our sport s exceptional diversity, and so in some months the adjudicators have allocated two or even three awards.
Olympic Sailor Mark Lyttle Pays Tribute to Laser Legend Bill O Hara OBE
14th January 2021
2018 Laser Grand Master World Champion and 1996 Olympian
Mark Lyttle reflects on a lifetime sailing against his old rival and great friend Bill O Hara, who was awarded an OBE in the Queen s New Year s Honours List 2021.
I first recall Bill at the 1978 Pimm s Irish Lasers Nationals at Lough Ree Yacht Club (actually sailed from Hodson Bay and yes, they did sponsor the Irish Laser class) but it wasn t on the race course. As a 15-year-old sailing what we now call a Standard rig as that s all there was, I was nowhere near the front of the fleet especially as a hurricane passed through during the regatta. But I do remember Bill was the centre of social activities ashore as a young university student.
Marine Industry
We aim to encompass the widest range of activities undertaken on Irish lakes, rivers and coastal waters. This page describes those sailing activites in more detail and provides links and breakdowns of what you can expect from our sailing pages. We aim to bring jargon free reports separated in to popular categories to promote the sport of sailing in Ireland.
The packed 2013 sailing season sees the usual regular summer leagues and there are regular weekly race reports from Dublin Bay Sailing Club, Howth and Cork Harbour on Afloat.ie. This season and last also featured an array of top class events coming to these shores. Each year there is ICRA s Cruiser Nationals starts and every other year the Round Ireland Yacht Race starts and ends in Wicklow and all this action before July. Crosshaven s Cork Week kicks off on in early July every other year. in 2012 Ireland hosted some big international events too, the ISAF Youth Worlds in Dun Laoghaire and in August the Tall Shi