WSC President Sadie Phelan (second right) with (left to right) Liam Coyne, WSC Commodore Hal Fitzgerald, and Wicklow s own Brian Flahive after the Club had conferred Honorary Membership on Liam & Brian following their overall victory in four classes in the 2014 RORC Seven Stars Round Britain & Ireland Race with the First 36.7 Lula Belle.
The sudden death of Sadie Phelan after a short illness has been a matter of great regret and sadness in Wicklow and beyond in Ireland, and in a wider world which shared her enthusiastically pursued interests.
She was an active and hard-working member of Wicklow Sailing Club for over forty years, holding several roles in the club. In 2010, the 60th anniversary of the club s foundation, she was elected to become the first ever Lady President. She served for the maximum two terms, from 2011 to 2016 inclusive, presiding over six years of notable achievement during which WSC put its flagship event, the biennial Round Ireland Yacht Race, on a sound footi
Galway s Yannick Lemonnier Aims for Mini Transat 2021 in September
25th February 2021
The new look for Yannick Lemonnier s Mini 6.50. Original designer Sam Manuard has done away with the single canard daggerboard, and replaced it with two asymmetrical foils
Quite a few of us still think of Yannick Lemonnier as the keen young French guy who came to Galway by way of Dingle, and in time became the Irish branch of Quantum Sails, with a new loft in the City of the Tribes. But he turned 50 last July, and was thinking of unfinished business, even though he and his son Sean – they re a formidable team – were on their way to winning the Cong-Galway Race for the second year running.
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.