Carina (yacht)

[11] The boat was 21 feet long and bermuda-rigged and part-owned by commercial traveller[1] John 'Jack’ McConnell of Rathgar, the 1942-43 captain of Old Wesley Rugby Football Club.

[11] The yacht was seen sailing by the Baily Lighthouse principal keeper in 'heavy weather'[2] about 7.30pm, 'trying to beat against a west-southwest wind which broke out of Dublin Bay'.

[11] As the tide had turned northward by that point, it was suggested that rounding Howth Head and the Bailey would have created an unfavourable sea state, and Jack may have attempted a downwind return to Skerries.

Jack's younger brother Cecil Frank McConnell was also an owner[4] and a well-known sailor aboard Carina, and was lost when the working schooner Cymric disappeared at sea in February.

A poem written by journalist and Skerries Sailing Club committee member Liam MacGabhann a year later, after VE Day, lamented the loss of local recreational sailors aboard Carina, Cymric, and other ships during World War II.

[4] The second-last verse is dedicated to the Carina and her crew[3].And so we still set spinnakers, and make the runners fast, And keep the good craft sailing still, though she be first or last Yet scarce an evening passes but someone's sure to say.

Totem-style pole against an angry coastal sky.
The two crew lost aboard the Carina, plus two other Carina crew lost aboard the Cymric, are remembered at the Skerries and Loughshinny Sea Pole Memorial.
Map showing ports of Skerries, Clontarf, Howth, and a position three miles off Howth Head.
Map of the north Dublin coast showing Carina's estimated final sighting.
Photo of a framed poem.
The poem Sailing Down the Bay laments the loss of recreational sailors from Skerries aboard ships in World War II, and references the Carina.
Carina sailors Cecil Frank McConnell and Peter Joseph “Perie” Seavers are remembered on the Irish Merchant Seaman’s Memorial in Dublin.