Howth sea-faring family on course to fulfil an Olympic dream

Fingal County Council would be forgiven if this week’s latest sailing results prompted them to immediately commence new water sampling in the Howth Sound area.

At just 19-years-old, Eve McMahon has been confirmed as the youngest-ever Irish sailor to qualify for an Olympic regatta following her world championship performance in Argentina.

That she was capable of achieving the high standard needed for team selection wasn’t in doubt really, just a question of when rather than if.

Success at age 13 saw her steadily progress through the junior and youth ranks through to her stellar success at this level, with three gold medals in quick succession in 2022 before commencing her senior career barely a year ago.

Caitlin Clark could have Tiger Woods-like effect on women’s basketball

---

Mental fit zones and AI to weed out online abuse of athletes at Paris 2024

---

Five things we learned from the GAA weekend: Omens looking good for Galway

---

Jim becomes Jimmy as Joe Brolly changes his tune on McGuinness

---

Nor is her success an isolated occurrence.

She is the youngest of three siblings that all embarked on the punishingly competitive single-handed dinghy circuit in the ILCA class, a boat more famously known as “The Laser”.

All three grew up sailing from Howth Yacht Club, itself situated at the heart of the famous fishing village and opposite the idyllic and unspoilt waters around Ireland’s Eye.

But the McMahons are far from an isolated family in this peninsular setting.

Before McMahon, Aoife Hopkins was also considered a successor to Olympic silver medallist Annalise Murphy until the Rio Olympian switched back to the ILCA from a short-lived 49er FX skiff campaign for Tokyo 2020.

And there are others too. Indelibly linked to the Howth fishing industry, the Wright family is hugely active in the sport across the generations.

Until he took a break from the ultra-competitive ILCA circuit last year, Rocco Wright had made his mark in many ways, achieving European Championship success in addition to his Youth Worlds Gold result in 2022.

And his younger sister Sienna won bronze in Brazil just before Christmas. At 15, she took to the podium alongside girls who will next year have aged out of youth level, so there’s a further prospect of at least two more years of success on her trajectory.

At that point, McMahon will have had the Paris 2024 Games under her belt and will be focused on the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, where Olympic expert Bill O’Hara told this newspaper he expects her to be a medal prospect.

Nevertheless, with Sienna Wright’s progress rolled forward, there could even be a tantalising prospect of an up-and-coming 19-year-old – from the same club – giving McMahon a run for her money.

Apart from the single-handers, there is also Robert Dickson in the 49er skiff class who, along with his Skerries crewmate Seán Waddilove qualified Ireland once again for Paris.

His grandfather Roy is somewhat of a Howth sailing legend, having led largely amateur crews competing to a semi-professional standard on his racing yachts over many decades.

That his grandson would be a third-generation competitive sailor and an Olympian gives a clue to the true explanation for the success stories emanating from Howth Yacht Club.

Aside from checks on water properties off Fingal, the more obvious explanation is the strong family support – both moral and financial – that is the backbone of so many elite sailors.

The intensity of the full-time campaigns and the commitment needed to keep up with each programme’s demands is rarely witnessed first-hand or even fully. It is purely a lived experience that the few competitions each year don’t really shed much light on.

On top of which, sailing is far from a spectator sport so even less profile and insight is available to reveal just how much devotion from the youngest age is needed.

And, the lack of awareness is not just limited to the racecourse either.

Barely two summers ago, on a rest from the regatta and training circuit, Rocco Wright was out with friends close to Ireland’s Eye when he heard cries for help close by as winds whipped up a choppy sea.

A family of two adults and a child had gone afloat in a small boat and when one parent stood to take a family group photo, the craft capsized and all three ended up in the water.

Wright immediately went to their aid with his friends on their rib, pulled all three from the sea and brought their swamped boat to a mooring and landed the family at Howth Yacht Club.

While the child was fine, both adults were described as near-hypothermic and needed medical attention.

Apart from obvious praise on arrival ashore, that was the end of the matter. Except that a teenager and his mates had just saved a family of three from serious injury or perhaps death went otherwise unnoticed.

In a sense, it is the immersive “oneness” with the ocean that all young sailors acquire from years of experience afloat that allows them to perform, almost routinely a massive service to others that might otherwise have them decorated as national heroes.

But it’s also a culture that has taken hold not just at Howth but at numerous other sailing centres around Ireland, where family-based sailing has started to replace the more traditional meme of “pale, stale and male” yachties that head off for days away from home and the kids.

“That ethos was partly born out of Covid when lots of people spent more time with their families and discovered sailing,” commented Brian Turvey, a former HYC commodore. “There was also a natural generational thing where parents want to spend more time with their families and pass on their love of sailing.”

Even the bigger boats, perhaps with older owners regularly have teenagers as crew which indicates a blossoming of relationships between the teenagers.

Turvey recalls watching the Rio 2016 on the club television and looking around the room at the vastly changed audience from bygone days.

“I don’t think that we can discount the influence that Annalise winning her medal had on our sport,” said Turvey. “That had an enormous impact on the likes of Aoife and Eve.”

But the ethos goes further, possibly indicating the important role that clubs can and do play as sailing changes with the times.

A constant of club life is hosting championships and occasionally international championship grade events that are sometimes the staple of keeping profile up among the sailing community at least.

A few years back, Howth was hosting the Etchells class world championship, and one of the greatest and best-known living sailors of all time, American Dennis Conner, was in town to compete.

Holding court at the bar one day before the event started a parent brought his child over after junior sailing had ended. The young sailor politely requested an autograph and the great “DC” charmingly obliged.

“And are you learning to sail?” he inquired. Yes was the answer.

“Will you be here tomorrow morning?” A nod.

“Well, we need someone to help us steer our boat out to the racecourse – do you think you might be available?” A wide-eyed reply spoke the answer and the adults present found annoying dust in their eyes.

For Eve McMahon, and her brother Jamie who will contest the ILCA7 men’s selection trials for the Irish place in Paris 2024, a long road lies ahead with incredibly intense competition.

She has shown in the past, both at youth and under-21 level that she is a winner. Her coach Rory Fitzpatrick assures that her best performances are yet to come.

Driving this is certainly more than something in the waters off North County Dublin: shared passion from family right through to the club and on to the national team and a spark to share for generations to follow.

• Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
• Find The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
• Our In The News podcast is now published daily – Find the latest episode here