Mermaid plan on the rocks

Sailing:  An ambitious plan to breathe new life into an Irish sailing class is unfortunately on the rocks this week because the majority of crews, who are keen to preserve clinker-building skills, have turned their backs on a modern building method that could yet save thousands of euros in the construction of a classic 72-year-old Dublin Bay design.

The decision to abandon the fibreglass Mermaid project at November's a.g.m has been followed up this week with the news of the likely loss of its Dublin Bay Sailing Club racing status next season, a further setback to traditionalists, due to a drop off in numbers sailing the traditional clinker three-man boat.

The composite Mermaid project, spearheaded by former class champion Roger Bannon, was effectively killed off when members were split 20 to 19 in a ballot at its meeting on November 24th at Dublin's Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club.

The idea behind the project was to build a cheaper plastic version of the wooden hull but the class - active at five Irish sailing centres nationwide - never united behind the concept.

Bannon had earlier this season withdrawn from the process of trying to get the Mermaid class to adopt the new style hull he pioneered at a cost of 30,000 out of "frustration" over the attitude of the class committee.

In spite of his country-wide tour, calling into Mermaid clubs at Rush, Skerries, Dún Laoghaire, Wexford and Foynes, "Dolly", as the fully working prototype is known, failed to convince the bulk of the class membership - whose average age is in the mid-50s - that it was the panacea to the decline in wooden boat sailing.

Bannon modelled the boat on his "Endeavour", a boat he has won the Irish championship in three times.

Most traditionalists who have seen Dolly admit Bannon's workmanship is of a high standard but they still maintain that fibreglass construction is incompatible with the Mermaid's appearance.

The Irish title is contested annually and in spite of it's traditional ethos and low budget approach Mermaid fleet numbers remain the envy of many other modern racing fleets.

Over the last 30 years the national championship fleet typically gets 40 boats for the championship if held on the east coast and 30 boats if the venue is west coast.

A dejected Bannon told The Irish Times after the a.g.m: "I am disappointed but not surprised after the manner in which the committee operated over the last 12 months.

"After a period of less than six weeks on the water the committee, most of whom never saw the boat never mind sailed on or against it, decided it should not be given an extension to next season to prove itself one way or the other" he said.

Class president Marilyn Griffiths of Dún Laoghaire, who did not vote on the issue, said most of the class were not in favour of the move, primarily because they remained unconvinced that it would lead to a growth in numbers.

There was also a large doubt, she said, about the cost of the new hull which appeared to vary between 14,000 and €25,000.

Skerries sailor Ross Galbraith said that the Mermaid ethos was all about the love of clinker construction and people did not want to give that classic status up, even if it was only an emotional issue.

Galbraith also expressed concern that the class was being asked to make a decision in just one season on the biggest development in its 72-year history.

"It took me three years to even get a bulkhead rule adopted," he recalls about previous more minor a.g.m motions to hull construction.

But fellow Skerries sailor Jim Dempsey admitted that what Bannon had done so far was a fantastic achievement and it was "galling" that some of those who voted had dismissed the concept without even looking at it.

Ironically, the Mermaid's smaller sister, the IDRA 14, another traditional clinker dinghy that embraced fibreglass construction in the 1970s, gathered in Dún Laoghaire on Wednesday evening to salute the work of class activist Ian Sargent, the man behind the move to fibreglass as the class prepares for it's 60th birthday in 2006.