Get to know our Boat Captain – James ‘Irish’ O’Mahony

Q: Tell us a little about the most recent sailing race campaign you’re just coming off before joining 11th Hour Racing?

JO: “I worked on Vestas 11th Hour Racing in 2017-18. That was a very cool campaign to be part of. I came in a few months before the start of the race and in some ways it was a last minute call-up. It was quite different then my first time working with a team in 2014. Both teams had the aim of winning but had very different approaches and it was also my first introduction around the important issues facing our industry and our sport around sustainability. We had really strong performance early on and building on the experience that I had in my first Volvo, it was really a positive. Of course, we had some setbacks and the biggest challenge we faced was shipping the boat from China to New Zealand in order to get back to the start line. It was a massive effort with huge teamwork needed and everyone had a huge part to play. But we managed to get it to the yard and repair the boat in six weeks. Just pure team effort all around.”

Q: So can you expand on what your role with 11th Hour Racing as Boat Captain means for those that might not be as familiar?

JO: “So basically the boat captain makes sure the boat is in absolute best condition it can be for racing. I am essentially responsible for getting the boat ready for racing. There are multiple departments involved, so I am coordinating the job list and making sure everything is good to go. It’s a big coordination job among departments whether that’s electronics to the sail program to foils. And when there’s a problem you have to trouble-shoot with that department. 

Q: You have a Master of Engineering in Yacht and Small Craft Design from Southampton University — when did you first realize that sailing and racing yachts was going to be a career for you?

JO: “Rather bizarrely, I originally wanted to study architecture. It wasn’t until I first set foot in a sailing boat at age 16 — a little later perhaps than most people in this sport — that I quite liked merging the design aspect with the sailing. That’s what led me wanting to go to Southampton. It was a bit out of the norm for most Irish. They don’t generally leave Ireland to go to university elsewhere, but I sought out the program in Southampton and was the only one in my class to leave Ireland after high school.”

Q: Tell us a little about  the focus for that Masters degree – what kind of course load and is it more theoretical or practical applications?

JO: Basically for that four-year course, the first two years is almost like a general engineering degree. You share most of your classes with civil and aerospace engineers. By year three is when we started focusing on yachts, boats and ships. During my studies, I designed a 99-meter pleasure yacht, a 399-meter cargo vessel and also designed a racing boat and a rib. You’ve got to design them all yourself and you spend a lot of time on Autocad and Excel. Very hands on in the design approach. But it’s also theoretical because there is a lot of number crunching. Both my dissertation and my masters were hands-on: repairing damaged composites and the group masters program was about designing a composite submersible to go down the Mariana Trench, which is 10,994 meters deep.