Regatta to mark 50th anniversary

Regatta to mark 50th anniversary

31 May 2023

A REGATTA to mark the 50th anniversary of the Ruffian 23 yacht will be held in Portaferry over June 15-18.

The event is being organised by Portaferry Sailing Club and sponsored by Millar, McCall Wylie, Portaferry Regeneration and the Brown family.

The Ruffian 23 was designed by Billy Brown and primarily built by his brother, Dickie, and other Portaferry workers.

The first boat, Muffin, was completed by May 1973 and taken to Belfast Boat Show in the Kings Hall being being launched and starting her racing career.

A company, Weatherly Yachts, was formed and production began, initially with the help of another company McComb Plastics.

Bluenose was the second Ruffian to be built and with Muffin won most of the races for boats of their size on the Irish Sea and on the Clyde in Scotland.

In August 1973 Muffin, Bluenose and a third boat, Scruff, took part in the Quarter Ton Cup in Weymouth with moderate success but raised the profile of the Ruffian 23 class and helped fill the order books.

Ruffians were renowned for being good sea boats and very capable in the Irish sea conditions. The hull shape and an overlapping headsail gave good up wind performance and with their masthead spinnaker were lively off the wind. A crew of four or five could easily sail these little boats.

Boats were built and sold in completed form and also in staged kits with hull, deck and some internal structures fitted, so allowing owners to complete themselves to an agreed specification. 

1975 saw nine Ruffians head to Hong Kong where there is now a fleet of 12-14 racing regularly. They were also exported to Iceland and England but Southern Ireland was the biggest market.

Weatherly Yachts continued producing boats — approximately 100 — until around 1977/78 when a combination of increases in VAT rates and consumer uncertainty caused orders to dry up.

The advancement of plastic (fibreglass) boats affected a lot of wooden boat builders at this time and although Ruffians were made of fibreglass other companies started to produce boats at a much faster rate than the craftsmen at Weatherly Yachts were able to do.

The moulds were subsequently sold to a boat builder, BJ Marine, in Dublin and then on to Baltimore, Co Cork, where production continued. Total production amounted to around 200 boats.

The boats remain as a one design with some differences for inboard/outboard engines etc but racing has always been keen and close.

The workforce at Weatherly Yachts was largely made up of Portaferry people. The boats have been cruised and raced all over Ireland. Currently there are fleets in Belfast Lough, Dublin Bay, Wicklow Cork and Galway Bay.

Facebook Ruffian 23 

Facebookk page now has 500 followers with lots of Many of them will be coming to the anniversary regatta, arriving in Portaferry on Thursday, June 15, and berthing in the marina.

On Friday there will be a cruise in company around the lough and in the evening there will be a talk by Mike Cutliffe, who has owned a Ruffian 23 since 1974. Members of the Brown family and some former workers at Weatherly Yachts will be present to meet up with crews.

Saturday is race day with 9.30am start and three races to be sailed.

Portaferry Sailing Club, which hosted a Ruffian 23 25th anniversary regatta, is looking forward to the event and is being assisted by the Irish Ruffian Association.