In 1953, skipper Jimmy Mooney and crew members David Ryder and Robin Benson, won one of Britain’s most coveted Dragon racing prizes, the Edinburgh Cup (now regarded as the British Open National Dragon Championship), on Belfast Lough at Cultra, Northern Ireland. Five years later, the trio won the trophy for a second time, again at Cultra. As Mooney was a dentist and his two crew were both doctors in 1958, their boat Nirvana II was dubbed “The Doctors’ Boat”. Remarkably, in race one, Ryder and Benson fell overboard but were rescued before finishing seventh and then going on to win the trophy for a second time
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The three men went to the Roma (Rome) Olympics but could only finish 12th in the Dragon Class aboard Aletta, with a best result of fifth in race three. For Mooney it was his second Olympic appearance. Ryder later emigrated to New Zealand where he died at just 50-years-of-age in 1985.
Ireland