CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2016 57We go sailing with the oldest
one-design class, still launching
new boats after 130 years
STORY AND PICTURES NIC COMPTONCATHY’S
‘H
ave you ever used a scythe, Nic?” asked
Cathy Mac Aleavey when I met her at
Jimmy Furey’s house on the banks of the
River Shannon last summer. Now, I’ve
been to dozens of sailing events around the world, and
I’m pretty sure I’ve never been asked that question
before.
“A long time ago,” I replied. “Or it might have been a
sickle...”
“Good,” she said. “Come with me.”
And so she led me down Jimmy’s garden and across a
fi eld, and pointed to a seemingly impenetrable bank of
rushes. “We need to cut a channel through that, so
Jimmy can see the boats,” she said. “If Moses can’t go to
the mountain, the mountain will have to come to him.”
With those words, she climbed on a paddle board and
started attacking the rushes with a scythe, taking long,
determined sweeps below the surface of the water. Once
I realised she really, really wasn’t joking, I joined her,
taking my turn with the scythe, and soon Cathy’s
husband Con Murphy joined in with a sickle too. Six
hours later, as dusk was falling, we broke through to the
other side and emerged onto the dark, glassy waters of
Blackbrink Bay. It felt as satisfying as if we’d cut a path
through the jungle and reached the Pacifi c.