Malahide Yacht Club was established in 1958 with the objective of “promoting and encouraging sailing” and in the years since its formation, it has been one of the most successful sports clubs in a town rich in sporting heritage.
An Olympic Silver Medal (in 1980), representation at ten of the last twelve Olympic Games and 28 National Championship winners in eight different dinghy classes are impressive achievements but the Club is also proud of its contribution to introducing the sport to hundreds of children and adults over the years.
Although the club was founded in 1958 it did not have a clubhouse until 1959.
Despite planning the club’s first Whitsun Open Meeting (on the Broadmeadows) the enthusiastic early members found time to acquire and erect a de-mountable wooden chalet that had been purchased from Barney Herron Prefab Homes in Leixlip. It cost £300.
They started assembling the new clubhouse on a site on the ‘Band Gardens’ – more or less our current St. James’s Terrace site, which the Commodore, Lord Talbot had made available to the club. Work commenced on an April Monday and by Wednesday the roof was in position.
The building served the Lower Estuary sailors well and was used as a starters retreat when Mermaid races were started and finished at a line from the flagpole to a mark off Malahide Point. The building was removed in 1979 to make way for a more substantial premises.
In 1962 a site was acquired at Cave’s Marsh on the Broadmeadows from the local farmer, Mr Cave. A clubhouse was erected and a dinghy pen fenced off. Starting as a builders hut, it grew over the years then suffered severe fire damage, was re-built, then extended to the solid structure of to-day.
The club celebrated its 21st birthday in 1979 and was thriving with high levels of dinghy sailing activity on the Broadmeadows and a growing fleet of small cruiser/racers on the lower estuary.
It was agreed that a more elaborate clubhouse was needed at St. James’s Terrace and so a local architect, Mr. Brendan Canning, was engaged to draw up plans. A contract was signed with O’Rourke Builders Ltd. and with the help of bank finance and interest free loans from members a £60,000 clubhouse was constructed. The new facility was officially opened on Friday 30th May, 1980.
In 1980 the membership stood at 99 Family, 70 Ordinary, 35 Cadet, 10 Associate and 11 Life Members
For almost a decade the Club had hopes of moving from St. James’s Terrace to the marina area as it was always felt that it would be in our interests to be close to the boats moored in the marina. However, we were unable to reach an accord with any of the various parties involved over the years with the marina development project. Consequently, a general meeting of members on 17 October, 2001 authorised the Executive Committee proceed with a major refurbishment and extension of the existing premises at St. James’s Terrace. The club had accumulated a substantial cash balance in recent years and the balance of expenditure was to be financed by bank borrowings and a small increase in subscriptions over the following three years.
After much drawing and redrawing of plans agreement was reached with Ray Mac Donnell Architects on extending to the East at a higher floor level to provide a large lounge with panoramic windows, extending to the South to allow for a new bar, keg room and kitchen and a complete makeover of the toilet and shower facilities. Lissadell Construction Ltd. were awarded the contract. Eventually, on 22 June 2003 the magnificent new facility was officially opened and is now being much enjoyed and appreciated by members and friends.
Malahide Yacht Club has a long tradition of dinghy sailing and we’re very proud of the achievements of our sailors over the years.
The club was established in 1958, initially concentrating on dinghy sailing in the Broadmeadows estuary. The fleet comprised mainly Herons for the juniors and Enterprises, with their distinctive blue sails, for the rest. Later Optimists became very popular for the 8-14 year olds. Very large fleets of the latter two classes developed and racing was to a high standard with the club producing Olympic representatives, Irish and British national champions and many others representing Ireland internationally. With the growth of other types of sailing, especially Cruiser Class III, dinghy sailing went into a decline, mirroring a national trend. However, there has been a tremendous resurgence locally with the introduction of the Topaz class and the fleet has gone from scratch to over fifty boats in the course of the last few years with growth continuing apace. Hand-in-hand with this activity has gone a major refurbishment of the shore side facilities at Broadmeadows.
We have a busy club race calendar with races every Thursday and Saturday during the season.
Other events, such as away events where we take some of our fleet to visit other clubs are generally organised by the Dinghy committee and posted on the website.
If you’re not a ‘racer’ and want to sail for fun make contact as we will also be arranging fun sailing events.
If you’ve never sailed and dinghy before and would like to try, we have club boats that can be rented for a modest fee so members can experience the excitement of dinghy sailing without having their own boat.
Evening Dinghy Racing – On Thursday evenings during season with first gun at 19.00 hrs.
Saturday racing on Broadmeadows – Racing for Optimist, Lasers, Topaz, Mirrors, 420’s and sundry boats on most Saturdays throughout the season with First Gun at 14.00 hrs.
Training courses for Juniors – As in previous years, MYC is running its ever-popular summer training courses for juniors down in the Broadmeadows. Irish Sailing Levels 1, 2, 3 and 4 (Racing) courses will run concurrently.
