2025 CRUISING TALKS

FLIGHT OF FANTASY
(As it was billed on 10 June 1986)

RIYC Member John Leahy will talk on the Boeing 737 Fastnet Race. There will be an optional supper following the talk, €38 per person, 23rd January, 2025.


We planned a flight around the Republic clockwise in a Boeing 737, to coincide with the Round Ireland Race on the 21st June. Two weeks away. Not possible - many thought. 

Too many authorities would need to agree and anyway the organisation would take months. 
In two weeks, we had our 737, 100 passengers from the Waterfront clubs and at £50 per ticket we got airborne from Dublin at 08:00 on Sunday 21 June. 

At 10:00 hrs we landed after a 500 nm flight which took in Glandore, the Fasnet, the Round Ireland Fleet, the Skelligs, Mt Brandon, Loop Head and the Aran Islands before heading home via Connemara. The passenger list was a " who's who" of Irish sailing!

The flight nearly never took to the air, and only happenstance and a bit of good luck allowed it to happen 
As the years rolled by such flights were made impossible as regulation and even attitudes changed.

So it was a unique never to be repeated event ever!

We will relive the flight with narrative, images, some video taken on Super-8 and documents from the time.

Reserve Your Seat Here