Once upon a time, no self-respecting race boat could survive without a Kiwi pro sailor on board. Today a nation making its mark on the RC44 circuit, particularly after their resounding choral work at the 44Cup Marstrand party, is Ireland.
Black Star Sailing Team’s Simon Johnson, heralding from Wicklow, just south of Dublin, has represented the Emerald Isle since the RC44’s very early days– he original raced on Vladimir Prosikhin’s Shipman 72 Nadejda, before continuing on with his Team Nika RC44 where he spent three years on the bow. He subsequently was recruited to handle pit duties aboard Team Aqua, a role he has continued with Black Star Sailing Team, as well as racing on a number of high profile maxi yachts.
However there are now three additional Irish: with two large lads filling up the middle of Hugues Lepic’s Aleph Racing and another grinding on board Igor Lah’s Team Ceeref Vaider.
Cian Guilfoyle grew up racing dinghies out of the Royal St George Yacht Club in Dublin. His largish size halted his Olympic aspirations, but he admits from the outset he preferred keelboat racing. joining the O’Leary family on their Ker 40 Antix in the shortlived UK-based FAST40+ circuit. He also raced with Nigel Biggs on the C&C30 Checkmate XVI, largely in the US, bringing him into contact with many pro sailors.
Studying Environmental Biology at University College Dublin, Guilfoyle admits he somehow graduated despite spending most of his college years racing. He has since become a pro sailor and today it is rare to find an event, whether it is the 52 Super Series (Sled) or ClubSwan or the Maxis (Bella Mente) in which he isn’t racing. He joined up the 44Cup full time as grinder on Team Aleph. “Most of my pro sailing inroads came through this class,” he admits. “It has taken me to other places from here. This has been really good for me.”
Irish are some way from becoming the new sailing mafia but the four have brought a fresh dynamic to the 44Cup. “Simon is a little older than us and he helped us and we are helping a couple of younger guys try to break in,” says Guilfoyle. “It is hard coming from Ireland – there is a cruiser-racer scene there, but no pro-sailing programmes. Even going from Ireland to the UK – it’s a big step trying to find connections there.”
He brought in former Finn sailor Oisin Mcclelland as Aleph Racing’s offside trimmer who is bigger than he is. “The ones who don’t have the hand-eye co-ordination for rugby come sailing!” quips Guilfoyle. “I have been friends with Oisin for some time and the offshore trimmer/grinder spot opened up where we needed to fill the 100kg weight for the role. He was perfect.”
Having sailed in many other class, he notes of the 44Cup: “The camaraderie within the fleet - you don’t see that elsewhere. The 44s place an emphasis on the social side. Everyone enjoys spending time with other teams and the boats are moored side by side at events.” He is a fan of the RC44 too: “It has great range - we are sailing in five knots or ripping around in 25 - it is versatile. It is a strict one design and relatively simple. It is as close as you can get to dinghy sailing with a bigger keelboat. They are super fun. There is no racing that is as close as this.
“With the 44 there is one builder, everyone has the exact same gear. You can change how you sail the boat, but there is no secret boat development. Super consistently there is good racing. Any boat can win a race - you just have to fight. Of the keel boat sailing we do, it is the most athletic. You feel like you have worked very hard, no matter how much wind is there is out there.”
His compatriot Oisin Mcclelland is huge. He grew up in Northern Ireland, close to Donaghadee Sailing Club outside of Belfast. He raced dinghies, but his size made him sought-aft rugby second row material. However this soon changed: “I did a Laser Europeans in Dublin. I didn’t train like a professional Laser sailor, but I saw glimpses and thought ‘I’d like to do this’. So in my last year at school I focussed on sailing as much as possible. Then I got into Southampton University to do Naval Architecture, but half way through I got the chance to do some Finn sailing, which brought a big decision... So I dropped out of uni to do the Finn.”
Joining the British Finn squad meant he would be up against the likes of Ben Ainslie and Giles Scott, along with several other world class Olympic contenders. Instead he typically trained with the Irish and after the Rio games moved to Valencia to prepare for Tokyo. Sadly, despite regularly finishing in the top 20 he didn’t qualify for the Games.
“That left me a bit stranded, but it taught me a lot about sailing and about myself and how to put a campaign together,” he admits. “And I wasn’t satisfied about how far I had got with sailing.”
COVID saw him take a Computer Science degree by remote which he completed this summer. At the start of this season he was recruited to Aleph Racing. “I jumped in there and I had to lose a bit of weight to make the weight limit, but I jumped at the opportunity. I am really enjoyed it.”
Mcclelland loves the RC44. “I grew up sailing keelboats. This boat has got a very good range from four knots up to 25. In Lanzarote - it was full on with 25 knots each day. I love the tightness of the racing and that everyone hangs about after and has a chat about how their day was.
“It is a benefit in this boat to have a bit of power in manoeuvres and also there is a benefit to lightening the ends and having concentrated weight in the middle of the boat, when we’re fully hiked.”
While bigger than Guilfoyle, he is offside trimmer. “I back up the trimmer and set things up for them [on the next tack]. I back up Cian as the grinder. During manoeuvres, we are both on the handles to get things up and down quickly and efficiently.” Between them, they reckon they have the strongest grinding team among the RC44s. “That is a big benefit, especially with the way the boats are sailed, it gives the tacticians and trimmers more options if you can pull off whatever you want at marks.”
On board Team Ceeref Viader, is Grattan Roberts. Aged 26 he is youngster of the four, from the southern Irish sailing epicentre: Cork. He is second generation – he father used to race on a successful series of Admiral’s Cuppers called Moonduster, whose owner Dennis Doyle had a shipping company in Cork where Roberts now works when not racing.
He too was brought up dinghy sailing and, although tempted by the 49ers, chose university instead, studying Mechanical Engineer at the Cork Institute of Technology. CIT’s successful sailing team saw them win the Student Nationals, getting them invited over to Los Angeles to race Catalina 37s, which he remembers fondly.
It was Guilfoyle who put him in contact with Mo Grey and on board the ClubSwan 50 Perhonen, on which Adrian Stead is tactician and Matteo Auguardo bowman. So when at the beginning of this season, when a grinder vacancy arose on Team CEEREF, Roberts was a good fit. He too, he admits, has joined the ‘44Cup Irish Swimming Team’ having fallen overboard on the first day of the Lanzarote event (Aleph Racing’s Irish duo both also took an accidental plunge, together, last season), however Roberts admits that he hung on, the crew recovered him and they went on to finish second.
Perhaps sweetest is his view of the RC44: “The 44s are epic. When I was 13-14 years old I had a poster of an RC44 on my wall. They are super cool boats and getting to race with all the lads who have done loads of America’s Cups and Volvo Ocean Races – I have heaps to learn off them…” Aside from Stead’s huge CV, main trimmer Dirk de Ridder won the Volvo Ocean Race and the America’s Cup. “Igor and his son Tine are great owners. We chat away to them. In fact everyone is really nice – the way all the teams chat away to each other and go for the odd drink. It is a nice close-knit group.”
Now they have their foot in the door, we look forward to seeing more up and coming Irish sailors joining the class.