The 'Addison'

 

The 'Addison' is a small yacht owned by a local man called C.J. McHenry who lives just outside Wicklow Town. I came to know him from his walks along the East Pier when he would regularly rib me in his easy-going manner - "I don't see my boat on the wall yet, Pat!".

Truth be told, few people had ever seen his boat, including his fellow members of the  Wicklow Sailing Club who believed it to be a phantom boat. In reality, however, CJ had been quietly working away with the help of a friend in repairing his yacht in the back garden of his house over a period of seven years.

Finally, in 2023, she made her public appearance when she was lifted into Wicklow harbour as part of the annual Sailing Club lift-in. 

CJ  and his beloved 'Addison' took part in the Sailing Club's races on Sunday afternoons and Wednesday evenings. Alas, he was never particularly well-placed, as CJ readily admitted he was far from an experienced sailor. However, for one race when he invited three experienced teenagers to sail with him, he actually won - a truly memorable victory for CJ and the 'Addison'!

A few weeks later, his wife, Jackie, agreed a secret plan with me to paint a mural of the winning yacht without CJ knowing about it. In October 2023, I managed to complete the mural after a day-and-a-half's intense work, all the time being very watchful that CJ would not see me working on it on one of his walks along the pier. It was really funny how the mural came about, with Jackie and I having to be very careful not to give anything away. 

In fact, this was the first mural I painted on the pier wall after I had completed a major overhaul of revitalising all of the existing murals there following my retirement. 

When I finished the mural, I texted Jackie and suggested that she arrange to bring CJ down to the pier for a surprise reveal. On that nice Sunday afternoon, CJ turned up at the pier in the company of Jackie and their son, Chris. Straight off on seeing me, he slagged me that I still hadn't painted his yacht. As I stood aside, he saw the mural of his 'Addison' and was literally speechless!

Jackie had secreted a bottle of champagne along with some paper cups, and the four of us joyously held a little naming ceremony for the occasion. CJ was over the moon to actually see his yacht on the East Pier wall. 

They were among the happiest people I have had the pleasure of meeting on the pier, as the photograph below depicts. It includes the working sketch I drew for painting the mural.




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