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Irish Examiner
28-05-2025
- General
- Irish Examiner
West Cork town to celebrate 200 years of the first lifeboat in Courtmacsherry
A host of events to mark the 200th anniversary of the first lifeboat in Courtmacsherry will take place over the June bank holiday weekend, with Taoiseach Micheál Martin set to be in attendance. Courtmacsherry has a proud tradition within the RNLI, with a great spirit of volunteerism spanning centuries. The first RNLI lifeboat in Ireland, named The Plenty, arrived in Courtmacsherry in 1825. On Sunday, the Taoiseach will unveil a special 200th anniversary plaque at 1.30pm on the pier, against the backdrop of the all-weather state-of-the-art Shannon class lifeboat, the Val Adnams. Other first response agencies, such as the Irish Coast Guard and Civil Defence, will also be present on Sunday, and there will be a display of model lifeboats on the pier. The weekend celebrations will begin on Friday night in the Courtmacsherry Community Hall, with a historical talk on the 200 years of the lifeboats in the village. Former lifeboat mechanic Micheál Hurley will be one of those who will recount the station's history and the many journeys of the lifeboats, including the Fastnet Race tragedy in 1979 when the crew of the Courtmacsherry relief RNLI lifeboat spent 21 hours at sea. An open day will take place on Saturday and Sunday from 2pm to 5pm and the Courtmacsherry lifeboat Val Adnams will be open to the public for guided tours. In addition, the Courtmacsherry RNLI station house will also be open to the public. The weekend celebrations conclude with the performance of Courtmacsherry Rhythms in the Sacred Heart Church, Courtmacsherry, beginning at 6pm. Read More Record number of Sanctuary Runners gear up for Sunday's Cork City Marathon
Boston Globe
22-05-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Andrew Cassell, daring sailor who won paralympic gold and set up foundation to help others do the same, dies
Soon enough, he was racing a secondhand Albacore dinghy that his grandmother bought him. And at 18, Mr. Cassel won a national dinghy-sailing championship. He went on to become a skilled competitor in national and international races in various classes, including keelboats and yachts. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up In August 1979, at the age of 37, he helmed a crew of six in the Fastnet Race, a roughly 700-mile yachting competition from southern England to Ireland and back, named for the Fastnet Rock, a rugged Irish islet in the middle of the course. Advertisement They set out in sunshine, but it wouldn't last. A severe windstorm killed 15 sailors in what is now considered the deadliest race in modern yachting history. During those perilous hours, Mr. Cassell discovered that his youthful sailing experience -- the hardship of learning to sail without legs and the subtleties of piloting a rustic dinghy -- had prepared him to survive. Advertisement After steering his boat to safety, he went on to lead the first crew to win a Paralympic gold medal in sailing. He later established a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping disabled sailors compete in races open to everyone. Mr. Cassell died March 18 at the age of 82, in a hospital on the Isle of Wight. The cause was sepsis following heart surgery, Matt Grier, director of the Andrew Cassell Foundation, said. It was about two days into the Fastnet Race when a fog descended, Mr. Cassell recalled in a 2018 post on his foundation's website. The wind picked up, eventually reaching over 55 knots, and the waves soared to 60 feet high. The boat's engine and radio malfunctioned, and a critical piece connecting the mast to the boom broke. Mr. Cassell's crew took down the mainsail to prevent the boat from capsizing. One man suggested that they head into the wind. Mr. Cassell objected, saying their rudder would be ripped off. They tried going downwind but then shot forward so fast that Mr. Cassell warned the boat was about to go under a wave and 'disappear forever.' Then he had an idea. He remembered a technique he had learned while sailing a dinghy: Frequently recalibrating the direction of a vessel at fine angles enabled smoother sailing. Trying that now, however, would require the finesse of handling his 30-foot sailboat as if it were just 6 feet long. For hours throughout the night, without stopping to sleep, and rejecting a tow from a lifeboat -- 'they told us that we were mad, rather more strongly than that,' Mr. Cassell remembered -- he steered the boat as he would have a dinghy, while his crew stayed below deck. His upper-body strength, gained from decades of moving around on crutches with prosthetic legs, was a matter of some lore; he was able to haul himself, hand grip by hand grip, up a mast to retrieve a rope. Advertisement More than 24 hours after the storm began, Mr. Cassell skippered his boat into port at the coastal Irish village of Dunmore East. Local residents were waiting and broke into applause. Andrew Cassell was born July 14, 1942, in East Sussex, England. His father, Clarence Cassell, was a farmer who moved the family to East Cowes on the Isle of Wight, where he had found work as an estate manager. His mother, Dulcie (Bull) Cassell, was a pianist. At 14, Andy Cassell left school to work as an apprentice at Ratsey & Lapthorn, a sail-making company, where he remained employed for the rest of his career. In the 1990s, he was persuaded to join sailing races for people with disabilities. His crowning achievement came in the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games, where sailing was a trial event. Mr. Cassell won the gold and with it, growing acclaim. Local papers called him the 'disabled yachting hero.' Propelled by his Paralympic victory, Mr. Cassell created a foundation with the goal of training disabled sailors to compete with everyone else on a 'level playing field.' Ian Wyllie, one of those sailors, had severely injured his spine during training with the British navy. Until he took up competitive sailing, he thought he had lost the chance at a life on the sea. But thanks to the Cassell Foundation, he said, he discovered that he could zip around a boat wearing his leg braces, by sliding, gripping rails and other handholds, and relying on his savvy and strength. Advertisement 'I owe him, and the foundation he began, my second go at life,' he wrote in a memorial for Mr. Cassell. Mr. Cassell's first marriage, to Chris Wimball, ended in divorce. He leaves his second wife, Sue Burgess, whom he married in 2001; a daughter from his first marriage, Zoe Barnes; three stepdaughters, Debbie Heryet, Vicki Lachlan, and Lucie Banks; and several grandchildren and step-grandchildren. Another sailor mentored by Mr. Cassell, Duncan Byatt, recalled that before they sailed together for the first time, Mr. Cassell mentioned that he had just broken his leg. Concerned, Byatt asked how long it would take to heal. 'Oh, don't worry,' Mr. Cassell said. 'I'll get a new one in the post on Monday.' This article originally appeared in
Miami Herald
17-05-2025
- General
- Miami Herald
Andrew Cassell, daring sailor who won Paralympic gold, dies at 82
In the early 1950s, Andy Cassell, a 9-year-old boy on the Isle of Wight in England, read about the Kon-Tiki expedition, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl's voyage across the Pacific Ocean on a primitive raft. Andy began to dream of sailing, although it seemed an unlikely prospect: He had been born with malformed hips and no legs. Still, he built a raft with pine logs he found on the beach, and his grandmother helped by fashioning a sail from a tablecloth and a mast from a clothesline pole. His mother allowed him on the raft, so long as he remained tied to the shore with a 60-foot rope. After a few weeks, he cut the rope. Soon enough, he was racing a secondhand Albacore dinghy that his grandmother bought him. And at 18, Cassel won a national dinghy-sailing championship. He went on to become a skilled competitor in national and international races in various classes, including keelboats and yachts. In August 1979, at the age of 37, he helmed a crew of six in the Fastnet Race, a roughly 700-mile yachting competition from southern England to Ireland and back, named for the Fastnet Rock, a rugged Irish islet in the middle of the course. They set out in sunshine, but it wouldn't last. A severe windstorm killed 15 sailors in what is now considered the deadliest race in modern yachting history. During those perilous hours, Cassell discovered that his youthful sailing experience -- the hardship of learning to sail without legs and the subtleties of piloting a rustic dinghy -- had prepared him to survive. After steering his boat to safety, he went on to lead the first crew to win a Paralympic gold medal in sailing. He later established a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping disabled sailors compete in races open to everyone. Cassell died March 18 at the age of 82, in a hospital on the Isle of Wight. The cause was sepsis following heart surgery, Matt Grier, director of the Andrew Cassell Foundation, said. It was about two days into the Fastnet Race when a fog descended, Cassell recalled in a 2018 post on his foundation's website. The wind picked up, eventually reaching over 55 knots, and the waves soared to 60 feet high. The boat's engine and radio malfunctioned, and a critical piece connecting the mast to the boom broke. Cassell's crew took down the mainsail to prevent the boat from capsizing. One man suggested that they head into the wind. Cassell objected, saying their rudder would be ripped off. They tried going downwind but then shot forward so fast that Cassell warned the boat was about to go under a wave and 'disappear forever.' Then he had an idea. He remembered a technique he had learned while sailing a dinghy: Frequently recalibrating the direction of a vessel at fine angles enabled smoother sailing. Trying that now, however, would require the finesse of handling his 30-foot sailboat as if it were just 6 feet long. For hours throughout the night, without stopping to sleep, and rejecting a tow from a lifeboat -- 'they told us that we were mad, rather more strongly than that,' Cassell remembered -- he steered the boat as he would have a dinghy, while his crew stayed below deck. His upper-body strength, gained from decades of moving around on crutches with prosthetic legs, was a matter of some lore; he was able to haul himself, hand grip by hand grip, up a mast to retrieve a rope. More than 24 hours after the storm began, Cassell skippered his boat into port at the coastal Irish village of Dunmore East. Local residents were waiting and broke into applause. Andrew Cassell was born July 14, 1942, in East Sussex, England. His father, Clarence Cassell, was a farmer who moved the family to East Cowes on the Isle of Wight, where he had found work as an estate manager. His mother, Dulcie (Bull) Cassell, was a pianist. At 14, Andy Cassell left school to work as an apprentice at Ratsey & Lapthorn, a sail-making company, where he remained employed for the rest of his career. In the 1990s, he was convinced to join sailing races for people with disabilities. His crowning achievement came in the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games, where sailing was a trial event. Cassell won the gold and with it, growing acclaim. Local papers called him the 'legless helmsman' and the 'disabled yachting hero.' Propelled by his Paralympic victory, Cassell created a foundation with the goal of training disabled sailors to compete with everyone else on a 'level playing field.' Ian Wyllie, one of those sailors, had severely injured his spine during training with the British navy. Until he took up competitive sailing, he thought he had lost the chance at a life on the sea. But thanks to the Cassell Foundation, he said, he discovered that he could zip around a boat wearing his leg braces, by sliding, gripping rails and other handholds, and relying on his savvy and strength. 'I owe him, and the foundation he began, my second go at life,' he wrote in a memorial for Cassell. Cassell's first marriage, to Chris Wimball, ended in divorce. He is survived by his second wife, Sue Burgess, whom he married in 2001; a daughter from his first marriage, Zoe Barnes; three stepdaughters, Debbie Heryet, Vicki Lachlan and Lucie Banks; and several grandchildren and step-grandchildren. Another sailor mentored by Cassell, Duncan Byatt, recalled that before they sailed together for the first time, Cassell mentioned that he had just broken his leg. Concerned, Byatt asked how long it would take to heal. 'Oh, don't worry,' Cassell said. 'I'll get a new one in the post on Monday.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2025
New York Times
15-05-2025
- General
- New York Times
Andrew Cassell, Daring Sailor Who Won Paralympic Gold, Dies at 82
In the early 1950s, Andy Cassell, a 9-year-old boy on the Isle of Wight in England, read about the Kon-Tiki expedition, the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl's voyage across the Pacific Ocean on a primitive raft. Andy began to dream of sailing, although it seemed an unlikely prospect: He had been born with malformed hips and no legs. Still, he built a raft with pine logs he found on the beach, and his grandmother helped by fashioning a sail from a tablecloth and a mast from a clothesline pole. His mother allowed him on the raft, so long as he remained tied to the shore with a 60-foot rope. After a few weeks, he cut the rope. Soon enough, he was racing a secondhand Albacore dinghy that his grandmother bought him. And at 18, Cassel (pronounced CAS-ul) won a national dinghy-sailing championship. He went on to become a skilled competitor in national and international races in various classes, including keelboats and yachts. In August 1979, at the age of 37, he helmed a crew of six in the Fastnet Race, a roughly 700-mile yachting competition from southern England to Ireland and back, named for the Fastnet Rock, a rugged Irish islet in the middle of the course. They set out in sunshine, but it wouldn't last. A severe windstorm killed 15 sailors in what is now considered the deadliest race in modern yachting history. During those perilous hours, Cassell discovered that his youthful sailing experience — the hardship of learning to sail without legs and the subtleties of piloting a rustic dinghy — had prepared him to survive. After steering his boat to safety, he went on to lead the first crew to win a Paralympic gold medal in sailing. He later established a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping disabled sailors compete in races open to everyone. Cassell died on March 18 at the age of 82, in a hospital on the Isle of Wight. The cause was sepsis following heart surgery, Matt Grier, the director of the Andrew Cassell Foundation, said. It was about two days into the Fastnet Race when a fog descended, Cassell recalled in a 2018 post on his foundation's website. The wind picked up, eventually reaching over 55 knots, and the waves soared to 60 feet high. The boat's engine and radio malfunctioned, and a critical piece connecting the mast to the boom broke. Cassell's crew took down the mainsail to prevent the boat from capsizing. One man suggested that they head into the wind. Cassell objected, saying their rudder would be ripped off. They tried going downwind, but then shot forward so fast that Cassell warned the boat was about to go under a wave and 'disappear forever.' Then he had an idea. He remembered a technique he had learned while sailing a dinghy: Frequently recalibrating the direction of a vessel at fine angles enabled smoother sailing. Trying that now, however, would require the finesse of handling his 30-foot sailboat as if it were just six feet long. For hours throughout the night, without stopping to sleep, and rejecting a tow from a lifeboat — 'they told us that we were mad, rather more strongly than that,' Cassell remembered — he steered the boat as he would have a dinghy, while his crew stayed below deck. His upper-body strength, gained from decades of moving around on crutches with prosthetic legs, was a matter of some lore; he was able to haul himself, hand grip by hand grip, up a mast to retrieve a rope. More than 24 hours after the storm began, Cassell skippered his boat into port at the coastal Irish village of Dunmore East. Local residents were waiting and broke into applause. Andrew Cassell was born on July 14, 1942, in East Sussex, England. His father, Clarence Cassell, was a farmer who moved the family to East Cowes on the Isle of Wight, where he had found work as an estate manager. His mother, Dulcie (Bull) Cassell, was a pianist. At 14, Andy left school to work as an apprentice at Ratsey & Lapthorn, a sail-making company, where he remained employed for the rest of his career. In the 1990s, he was convinced to join sailing races for people with disabilities. His crowning achievement came in the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games, where sailing was a trial event. Cassell won the gold and with it, growing acclaim. Local papers called him the 'legless helmsman' and the 'disabled yachting hero.' Propelled by his Paralympic victory, Cassell created a foundation with the goal of training disabled sailors to compete with everyone else, on a 'level playing field.' Ian Wyllie, one of those sailors, had severely injured his spine during training with the Royal Navy. Until he took up competitive sailing, he thought he had lost the chance at a life on the sea. But thanks to the Cassell Foundation, he said, he discovered that he could zip around a boat wearing his leg braces, by sliding, gripping rails and other handholds, and relying on his savvy and strength. 'I owe him, and the foundation he began, my second go at life,' he wrote in a memorial for Cassell. Cassell's first marriage, to Chris Wimball, ended in divorce. He is survived by his second wife, Sue Burgess, whom he married in 2001; a daughter from his first marriage, Zoe Barnes; three stepdaughters, Debbie Heryet, Vicki Lachlan and Lucie Banks; and several grandchildren and step-grandchildren. Another sailor mentored by Cassell, Duncan Byatt, recalled that before they sailed together for the first time, Cassell mentioned that he had just broken his leg. Concerned, Byatt asked how long it would take to heal. 'Oh, don't worry,' Cassell said. 'I'll get a new one in the post on Monday.'
