Eric Strain

Ulsterman Eric Strain came from a sailing family, as his father James was a founder member of Belfast’s Whiterock Yacht Club. Eric started racing miniature yachts as a youngster, and continued to race them, despite his many Dragon class successes throughout his career. In 1947, skippering W. H. Barnett’s Ceres, Strain and his crew, Jack Wallace and George Brown, won the coveted Gold Cup for the Dragon World Championship. It was the first time a Northern Ireland boat had won the Cup. The following year, Strain, a member of the Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club, skippered Ceres II in the Olympic regatta at Torbay. In August 1950, Strain left Britain to continue his career as a journalist in Sydney, New South Wales, where he became a member of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron (RSYS). Prior to the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, there was talk of him being a reserve for the Duke of Edinburgh’s yacht Bluebottle. Strain was honoured by the RSYS, who dedicated the William Eric Hamilton Strain Trophy to his memory.

In 1947, while skippering the yacht Minx in a race at Belfast Lough, a violent storm caused Strain’s vessel to capsize, and one of the crew members lost his life. Strain was rescued after 20 minutes in the water.