CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2016WATER WAGS
60But, beautiful as Mariposa was and delicious as the
cakes were, there was no doubt the main attraction
was Jimmy’s idyllic cottage – the very essence of a
traditional Irish cottage, set in equally quintessential
Irish countryside – and the star of the show was the
elderly man sitting quietly to one side, watching
everything with a happy twinkle in his eye. I doubt
there was a single person who didn’t feel it was a
profound honour just to be there.
“Have you ever sailed a Wag, Nic?” asked class
Captain David Macfarlane the next day, as we headed
back to Blackbrink Bay to release the boats from their
overnight berth in the rushes.
“A long time ago,” I replied. “Or it might have been
a 12...”
“Good,” he said. “Come with me.”
And so it was that, having not helmed competitively
for at least ten years, I found myself clutching the tiller of
the wonderful Moosmie, while David hoisted the sails.
Built in 1910, Moosmie (Japanese for ‘young woman’) is
one of seven centenarians in the Dublin Bay fleet and,
despite still being largely original, she’s highly
competitive. All her sailing gear is unashamedly modern,
with colour-coded halyards and sheets, stainless steel
blocks, and a well-cut suit of sails. Most importantly,
David knows exactly what he’s doing, winning the
Jubilee Cup, the Wag’s main trophy, in 2006 and 2010
and finishing in fifth place overall in 2015.
It’s a crowded start as usual, but I manage not to
ram anyone and we find some clean air at the
windward end of the line. With their short waterlines
and rockered keels, Wags are nimble boats and,
provided you keep your speed up, can turn reasonably
quickly. Lose momentum, though, and they will
quickly stall and become glued to the water (all
that wetted surface area).
The guiding principle is to tack as little as possible,
so a short starboard tack is followed by a long port
tack before we head for the first mark. I leave the
tactics to David and concentrate on helming the boat.
The fleet is spread out across the bay, and it’s only
after we round the first mark that I realise we are in
front, closely followed by the class champions, Mollie
and Swift. As we crack open the spinnaker for theAbove l-r: Water
Wags line up at
the Shannon
Regatta; Hal SiskDOUGAL
MACMAHON
Dougal MacMahon
is the man charged
with maintaining the
elderly Water Wag
fleet. A former IBTC
graduate, he made
his name building
Shannon One-
Designs, launching
eight boats in as
many years. Since
2009, he has
switched to
restoration of Wags
and SODsdownwind leg, David says, “First round the mark.
Well done!” But of course it doesn’t last, and we soon
lose our advantage, as I struggle to keep the spinnaker
full and maintain the boat’s momentum. It happens on
both laps of the race, gaining on the upwind legs and
losing on the downwind ones. I need more spinnaker
practice. We finish in fifth place, not too shabby in a
fleet of 13 boats, albeit on one of the best boats in the
fleet, accompanied by an extremely able class captain.
I return to my rightful place in the camera boat for
the passage race to Galey Bay, and the regatta turns
into a mini-raid as the fleet sails up the Shannon,
through steady Irish rain, and moors up under the
remains of Galey Bay Castle for lunch. The last time
the Wags visited this place, according to class historian
Vincent Delany, was in 1926, when at least two of the
boats present today (his own Pansy and Ian Malcolm’s
Barbara) competed. It’s a powerful reminder of the
longevity of these boats, which will almost certainly
outlive most of their owners.
I’m back on Moosmie for the return leg, only this
time as crew for maritime historian Hal Sisk, who is at
the helm. Hal’s own boat Good Hope has been under-
performing, so he’s swapped with David to see if it’s the
man or the boat that’s the problem. After a bad start,
Hal does a brilliant job of catching up, and we work our
way steadily up the fleet – this time with the rain in our
faces. Back at Blackbrink Bay we are in fourth place
but, as we tack to the finish, Mollie charges towards us
on a starboard tack. At the last second, Hal concedes
and we finish in fifth place. But the main thing is that
we’re well ahead of Good Hope, in last place, and Hal’s
doubts about the boat seem to be vindicated.
In the spirit of the original Wags, who liked to drink
“the Queen’s health” at any opportunity, the prize-
giving ceremony took place not in some posh yacht
club but in Coffey’s pub in nearby Lecarrow – or to be
precise, in the adjoining shop, as Dublin was playing
Kerry on TV, and no-one interrupts a match of Gaelic
football. Six hand-painted ceramic paintings of Galey
Bay (specially made by Cathy) were duly presented,
between the Heinz baked beans and the HB ice cream,
with Swift winning overall. It was an occasion
Middleton himself would have been proud of.