Summer 2026

This blog has become inactive. The truth is I started to resent my writing: its lack of creativity, the inescapable feeling that I was using the same copy-and-paste formula each time. I must have started at least 15 things in the past 6months, all of which I ended up hating so much I threw them in the bin. Well, the bin on my computer. I think I care about this silly blog too much because it’s got my name on it. Maybe I should focus on quantity not quality? But that just doesn’t feel right. Anyway, I’m going to publish this no matter how much I hate it.

When I last posted on here, the big challenge was trying to walk up and down stairs. Since then, I’ve sailed 4,000 miles and scored some podiums too.

The Recovery Road

This summer was not the summer I wanted it to be, but in a crazy way, I’m kind of glad it happened. The road back from injury was long, slow, and often painful. The slowing down meant I got to spend time with friends, gone to more birthdays this summer than I have done in the past 3 years combined, and indulged the part of me I don’t usually talk about: my love of nature.

Mostly, people know me as David “the sailor.” This sport has made up a large part of my life since I was 9 years old. Did I have a small crisis when I was too injured to sail, wondering who the heck I actually am as a person? Absolutely! I think without sailing, I still love sport, particularly those of the endurance variety, being in nature, and spending time outside. Oh yeah, I’m someone who will become utterly obsessed with things and need to learn everything about something. This summer, without sailing, that something was the cute, misunderstood, and brilliant little rodent: the Beaver. Fun fact: they have a third transparent eyelid that allows them to see underwater.

I lived in the past a little too much this summer, tried to make a video of when I raced La Solitaire in 2023, and discovered what I already knew: that I absolutely love writing, despite my dyslexia making spelling something that requires a fair amount of hope.

I knew from my past injury in 2014 not to rush recovery. Be slow. Be methodical. March, April, and May were for resting. June: re-started sailing, albeit not in any competitive sense. July: the realization that life was pain-free again. August: re-started serious training. September? Well, in September, I went back to doing my favorite thing: racing Figaros.

The Nastro Rosa Tour

I had thought, in the aftermath of the accident, that I wouldn’t enter a race in 2026. How wrong I was. Thanks to Pam Lee for the link-up. I got to the best thing: race Figaros in a professional championship. Quelle vie. Quelle chance. On a personal level, as someone whose family is half Italian, the prospect of racing around Italy was and is extremely motivating. I teamed up with Eimer Moriarty, a future rock star. I’m calling it now.

Eimer and I are actually quite similar, which can be the downfall of a team. We both need calm, long preparation periods, we’re both kind of introverted, and maybe both a little too nice. Eimer suggested that we should make a conscious effort to be more outspoken… That started a few mega days.

Day 1: First time on a boat together, straight to the front, never outside the top 3. Day 2: Even better, never outside the top 2. It comes across as arrogant, but it’s true and something we are very proud of: always fast, always well-positioned, and mistake-free. Day 3: The heartbreaker. The race turned inside out. Boats that were 2 miles out the back came through the fleet with a shut-down 1.2 miles from the end. 3rd place turned last. Leaving no race left to re-overtake them. Maybe the cruellest moment of 2026.

I’ve been lucky in my life to score some incredible results with some incredible people. It has, however, involved taking a riskier approach to sailing strategy (Mum, if you’re reading this, I take all safety precautions). I’d love to write that they were all super well-calculated. Yes, they were all planned out, but there was a certain “first or last” feel to my sailing sometimes. I did begin to question whether I could get results without taking such risks. The Nastro Rosa Tour was different. We were decisive and clinical with our moves, yes, but more so we were managing risk. We did something that 2023 David would never believe: we controlled races. We gave up leads in order to protect our position. A wild turn of events for the person who got into the lead of his second ever Figaro race in 2021 by sailing the other side of an island from the fleet.

We’ve got a lot to be proud of, even if the result only shows that sailing can sometimes be a painful sport.

A Future adventure

This blog, since 2023, has become something of an outlet for my dreams, featuring the occasional plea and frequent attempts to manifest mixed in for good measure. Something to build, something to create, and to fulfil a dream. Well, this just may just happen. In a way I never truly imagined possible…

But I’m afraid that’s all I’m going to say for now on it, and I’m going to leave you with an Irish Goodbye or a French Exit.