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Displaying items by tag: Vintage boats

The first opening of the Samuel Beckett Bridge to accommodate a flotilla of sailing craft dressed overall will be the highlight of water activity on the River Liffey in the coming weekend.

Organised by the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association and  the Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club, it will also feature skiff racing involving competing men, women and mixed rowing crews from Wicklow, Dun Laoghaire, Arklow, Greystones, Bray and two entries from Ringsend, assembled by  the East Coast Rowing Council.

The stretch of the river near the Poolbeg club will be a scene of constant craft  movement from the Beckett and East Link Bridges downriver to entrance to Dublin Bay. The skiff racing will be over a five- hour period from 2pm.

The best vantage point for the public to be up close to the rowing action will be East Link Road from the yacht club to the East Link Bridge.

The DBOGA expect gaffers from Wales, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man to join local craft in a parade upstream and downriver to the entrance to Dubllin Bay in a parade of over 20 craft dressed overall.

Included in the visiting craft will be WILMA, A 60-foot Baltic Trader from Port Pnryn on the Menaii Straits, the Scots Zulu Breccon Lass of the Poolbeg club, the Galway Hooker, Naomh Chronain, built by hooker enthusiasts in Clondalkin, the gaff sloop Marguerite built in Malahide 114 years ago and the engineless Happy Quest  from Milford Haven.

The DBOGA's special guest for the weekend will be the noted shipwright, John Kearon, who leads the small team currently completing the conservation of ASGARD and headed for future display in the National Museum at Collins Barracks.

John Kearon has honoured the association with a special ASGARD trophy made up of original  ASGARD timber and portions of new wood that has gone into her hull. This will be the major prize for all future DBOGSA events and will be competed for over a five-hour race in the bay on Saturday  scheduled to start at 2pm.

That same evening victuals for the hungry racing crews will consist of a hog roast on the club premises followed by prizegiving and the first presentation of the new ASGARD Trophy.
Published in Dublin Bay Old Gaffers

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.