Carmel Winkelmann was Irish sailing’s Spirit of Volunteerism Personified BY WM NIXON
An impressive threesome enjoying each other’s company at the National YC in Dun Laoghaire – Olympic Laser sailor Finn Lynch, mentor and motivator Carmel Winkelmann, and Olympic Silver Medallist Annalise Murphy
Carmel Winkelmann of Dun Laoghaire, who has died in her 93rd year, was a universe, a force of nature, and an indefatigable and resilient optimist who carved her own unique course through Irish sailing at every level for sixty years and more. She was the very soul of encouragement in making good things happen at the ultimate heights of our sport’s functioning and administration, while at the same time never showing any reluctance to knuckle down at the most basic levels of volunteerism to ensure that the most humdrum and sometimes almost invisible tasks were properly completed. In the bigger picture, Carmel was a star by any standards, and would have been conspicuous in any setting. But the unique Dun Laoghaire Harbour sailing scene provided the special firmament in which she could shine with the greatest brilliance. Yet In the final analysis, she was the one who was always ready to fulfill that most basic requirement of any successful human endeavour – she always showed up. But anyone who imagines that all this was performed in a pious atmosphere of dogoodery would be wildly wide of the mark.
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For she’d an almost irrepressible sense of humour which could be wickedly funny at times, yet underneath it all was a profound kindness – sustained by a deep faith which would manifest itself as tough love for sometimes errant sailing kids whose potential she recognized and encouraged.
THE POWER COUPLE She was a star married to a star, though Franz Winkelmann was the quiet one who shone in a very different manner. His boats were to include a classic Dublin Bay 24, and a partnership-owned Ruffian 23 that was raced and cruised extensively, and his roles included being Commodore of the National Yacht Club from 1974 to 1976. He filled this position with the calm efficiency and style of a highly-regarded Dublin figure who was to be celebrated in an appreciation at his death in 2010 as “Franz Winkelmann, the Treasurer of Trinity College Dublin - a sailor, music lover and investment genius”. Thus they were a “power couple” long before the term entered popular usage. But with
Franz’s talents so clearly defined in sailing and the world of administration, finance and business, Carmel – in addition to raising a family and running a wonderful household initially devoted herself to the development of junior sailing in the National YC, then in the larger fleet of Dun Laoghaire harbour, and soon on an all-Ireland basis through the newly-formed Irish Yachting Association which had emerged from the Irish Dinghy Racing Association under the Presidency of Clayton Love Jnr of Cork. When we remember that this was all taking place during the 1960s, it made for an especially memorable moment 55 years later in August 2020, when the pop-up Fastnet 450 offshore race from Dublin Bay to Cork via the Fastnet was quickly arranged in the window of opportunity provided by a temporary easing of lockdown restrictions. Only the smallest possible bubble groups were allowed to assemble ashore, but at the start, the National YC’s group included Clayton Love and Carmel Winkelmann, both of them in their 90s and both continuing to manifest that lively and productive interest in sailing which has done so much to make our sport what it is in Ireland today.
