Alf Delany

The son of a doctor, Alf Delany followed in his father’s footsteps and became a general practitioner (GP) after completing his medical studies at Trinity College Dublin. He was introduced to sailing by his father, who was the treasurer of the North Shannon Yacht Club. The young Delany started racing dinghies at the age of 14 before going on to become a dinghy legend in a career that spanned more than 80 years. He first raced his 14-foot dinghy Pansy in 1925, when he joined the world’s oldest one-design sailing class, the Water Wags, and was still winning races in 2004.

Delany won 12 Irish championships and for more than ten years served on the Irish Olympic Council as he helped promote sailing as a sport in Ireland. Delany went to the 1948 and 1952 Olympics competing in, respectively, the two-person Swallow class with Hugh Allen and the one-person Finn class. Despite making two Olympic appearances, Delany maintained that the highlight of his career was in finishing overall third at the 1963 British Firefly Championships. He reckoned the opposition in those championships was the toughest he had ever faced.

Delany was made an honorary member of both the Royal Saint George and National Yacht Clubs in Dun Laoghaire before he died at the age of 95 in 2006. His son Vincent was also a prominent Irish sailor and yachting historian.