Kinsale Yacht Club’s Daniel Murphy was privileged to be asked to helm the beautiful 80ft Fife designed Hallowe’en at the recent Voiles d’Antibes. Daniel regularly races with the team as a trimmer alongside fellow Kinsale Yacht Club member George O’Dowd, so when the skipper was unable to make the event at late notice, he rang Daniel to ask if he would step up and helm. Daniel gladly accepted.

Les Voiles d’Antibes is one of the jewels of the Mediterranean classic yacht calendar. First held in 1996, it traditionally opens the Mediterranean circuit for vintage and classic yachts each year, drawing some of the finest old wooden boats afloat to the waters off Antibes and Juan-les-Pins. The fleet is split into classes for Epoque yachts (built before 1950), Classique yachts and the more modern Spirit of Tradition boats. The racing takes place on coastal courses against the backdrop of the old town ramparts and Cap d’Antibes. Alongside the Régates Royales in Cannes and Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, it is among the great gatherings of classic yachts in the Med. Daniel told Tomas O’Brien, Vice Commodore at KYC that,

“To be asked to helm at such an event came with no small amount of responsibility. Hallowe’en is celebrating her centenary this year (1926–2026), carries a crew of 18 and weighs in at 45 tonnes!”.

Hallowe’en was designed by the legendary William Fife III and built to the 15m rule, launched in 1926 just in time for that year’s Fastnet Race, where she took line honours by a remarkable margin and announced herself as a serious racer. Fife rigged her as a Bermudan cutter at a time when gaff-rigged boats dominated, a choice that has helped keep her competitive a century on. Over a long and colourful life she sailed under other names, including Cotton Blossom IV, spent time as an ocean racer and even served as an official yacht of the Royal Norwegian sailing scene before being restored to her original lines, most recently at Fairlie Restorations on the Hamble. Fife himself is said to have called her “the perfect gentleman’s yacht.” Stepping aboard a boat with that kind of pedigree, the pressure was on.

The event opened with a training day on Wednesday, where the crew got a feel for the boat, ran through their manoeuvres and laid some marks for practice starts. It calmed the nerves considerably ahead of the racing, because…

“She certainly does not tack or manoeuvre like a Dragon!”

Daniel has won many times racing Dragons.

There were five boats in the Big Boat class, including one of the gorgeous 15m class yachts, Mariska. Day 1 was a long course around Cap d’Antibes to a mark off Cannes Yacht Club, with the wind swinging anywhere from 0 to 14 knots. After a six-hour race they crossed the line in a respectable third.

The following day brought no breeze at all and racing was abandoned. For the final two days they had light airs in the Bay of Antibes and some very close racing with Mariska and the 1930-built 25m Viveka. They crept closer to Mariska with each passing day but could not quite reel her in. They did, however, overhaul Viveka to claim second place overall, a result the whole crew was proud of.

“A heartfelt thank you to captain, Inigo Strez, for the vote of confidence in me to helm and to the rest of the team for making it all so easy for me, an experience I won’t forget. I look forward to the next event in Argentario in Italy at the end of June – Daniel Murphy”.

“We’re enormously proud of both Daniel and George. For Daniel to be asked to helm a boat like Hallowe’en in her centenary year is a real honour and second place overall against that quality of fleet is a tremendous result. It says a lot about Daniel’s seamanship and about the way our members keep flying the Kinsale Yacht Club flag on some of the world’s great waters.” said Anthony O’Neill, Commodore Kinsale Yacht Club.