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Displaying items by tag: Soling

Bill Trafford, Ireland’s boatbuilding sorcerer who beavers away in a shed near Skenakilla Crossroads in North County Cork, is already hatching new magic as onlookers continue to be entranced by his Super Etchells 22 Guapa currently making her debut on Cork Harbour writes W M Nixon.

This extraordinary project has already attracted several potential customers with their own ideas on re-configuring standard glassfibre boats. But Bill himself reckons that after an Etchells 22, a useful area for exploration might be found with the former Olympic class, the 26.75ft LOA Soling, which already comes with quite a pretty sheerline, and would only need a classic counter (and of course a teak laid deck and an elegant little cabin-top) to transform her into a very special 30-footer.

etchells 22 classic2With a new counter stern inspired by the transom of the Friendship sloop of Maine, this is an Etchells 22 with a difference

etchells 22 classic3Amidships, the Etchells 22 seems purest Scandinavian in concept

There’s no doubt that the Soling has a long-lasting hull, and one in reasonable order would respond very well to the Skenakilla treatment. But I think I’d pass on what used to be a Soling, which we spotted a couple of years ago when cruising the Hebrides.

This boat is to be found – or at least used to be found – abandoned at Port Ellen on Islay. The conversion to her presumably dates from the days of short-handed Round Britain & Ireland Races and other such ventures. Someone had taken a standard Soling, and stuck a sort of cabin on the forward end of the cockpit, and then for stowage space had put a box of sorts on the afterdeck.

The result, it could be argued, was a small centre-cockpit offshore racer. Somehow, she ended up on Islay. The concept is not quite what Bill Trafford has in mind. But it certainly proves that the Soling has considerable scope for innovation and re-configuration.

soling cruiser4Once upon a time, this was an Olympic Soling…Photo: W M Nixon

olympic soling5....and this is how she looked originally

Published in Etchells

#classicboat – Cowes Classics Week has an eligibility policy with a rolling 50 year design date. This means that three new classes become eligible in 2015 and are preparing to celebrate their anniversary at Cowes Classics Week 2015 writes Dave Elliott.

Tempest: designed by Ian Proctor for the 1965 trials for the new Olympic Keelboat used alongside the Star in 1972 in which the British won the Silver Medal and as the two-handed keelboat in 1976. The Tempest is unusual for a keelboat in having a trapeze and can reach remarkable speeds.

Soling: designed by Jan Linge of Norway in 1965 based on ideas that emerged while tank testing a 5.5mR for the 1960 Olympics, ideas which were outside the 5.5mR rules. The Soling was selected as the men's triple-handed boat for the 1972 Olympics in selection trails at which it was the only survivor in heavy conditions at Kiel and remained an Olympic class until 2000.

Contessa 26: designed by Jeremy Rogers and heavily influenced by David Sadler and the Folkboat to produce a 25.6ft fibreglass boat that proved to be a very successful racer and capable of long-distance, blue-water cruising.

In addition, other new classes that will join us in 2015:

Star: designed in 1910 by Francis Sweisguth—draftsman for William Gardner's Naval Architect office and has been an Olympic class since1932 until 2012 - it will not compete in 2016. They will wear their artist-designed sails - Fine Arts Sails have produced a set of sails with designs by renowned artists and are coordinating events for the class in support of the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation.

Royal Burnham One Design: designed by Norman Dallimore in 1932, the RBOD is similar in hull profile to the Alfred Westmacott designed XOD. Continuing our ambition to get together one-design classes from around the country as they are not well set up for travelling, CSCCW will be assisting with bringing some of the boats to Cowes.

Cruisers (non-Spinnaker): a new class that will appeal to those not so well set up for racing.

And, we are assured by the class associations of increased turnouts from XOD (the largest class that should reach 60 boats), Sunbeam and Daring (both of which have more boats in action than ever before as boats are restored, recovered or built/rebuilt) and 6mR (one of the most iconic classes ever).

Published in Historic Boats
Tagged under
#OLYMPICS - "Lingering bittnerness" among British sailing veterans over the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics has pushed them to seek recognition for the effort they put into their campaigns, the Daily Telegraph reports.
The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) was one of four sporting bodies that joined the British government's boycott of the Olympics that year.
But according to the sailors who had earned their spots at the games, the RYA's decision was made without consultation with them or the body's membership.
“They took away our dream, the fruits of months and years of hard work and dedication which is something I will regret until my dying day,” said Soling sailor Gavin Simonds, who is leading the charge for the RYA to make amends before London 2012 and assure that no sailor will be so deprived in future.
Simonds' brother Colin was the one of the leading Soling sailors in the world in 1980, and was reportedly devastated when the RYA backed that year's boycott.
The 1980 games saw Ireland win its only Olympic medals in sailing when David Wilkins and James Wilkinson took silver in the Flying Dutchman class. The president of the Irish sailing's governing body has an honourary seat on the RYA council.
The Daily Telegraph has much more on the story HERE.

#OLYMPICS - "Lingering bitterness" among British sailing veterans over the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics has pushed them to seek recognition for the effort they put into their campaigns, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) was one of four sporting bodies that joined the British government's boycott of the Olympics that year. 

But according to the sailors who had earned their spots at the games, the RYA's decision was made without consultation with them or the body's membership.

“They took away our dream, the fruits of months and years of hard work and dedication which is something I will regret until my dying day,” said Soling sailor Gavin Simonds, who is leading the charge for the RYA to make amends before London 2012 and assure that no sailor will be so deprived in future.

Simonds' brother Colin was the one of the leading Soling sailors in the world in 1980, and was reportedly devastated when the RYA backed that year's boycott.

The 1980 games saw Ireland win its only Olympic medals in sailing when David Wilkins and James Wilkinson took silver in the Flying Dutchman class. The president of Irish sailing's governing body has an honourary seat on the RYA council.

The Daily Telegraph has much more on the story HERE.

Published in Olympics 2012

Galway Port & Harbour

Galway Bay is a large bay on the west coast of Ireland, between County Galway in the province of Connacht to the north and the Burren in County Clare in the province of Munster to the south. Galway city and port is located on the northeast side of the bay. The bay is about 50 kilometres (31 miles) long and from 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) to 30 kilometres (19 miles) in breadth.

The Aran Islands are to the west across the entrance and there are numerous small islands within the bay.

Galway Port FAQs

Galway was founded in the 13th century by the de Burgo family, and became an important seaport with sailing ships bearing wine imports and exports of fish, hides and wool.

Not as old as previously thought. Galway bay was once a series of lagoons, known as Loch Lurgan, plied by people in log canoes. Ancient tree stumps exposed by storms in 2010 have been dated back about 7,500 years.

It is about 660,000 tonnes as it is a tidal port.

Capt Brian Sheridan, who succeeded his late father, Capt Frank Sheridan

The dock gates open approximately two hours before high water and close at high water subject to ship movements on each tide.

The typical ship sizes are in the region of 4,000 to 6,000 tonnes

Turbines for about 14 wind projects have been imported in recent years, but the tonnage of these cargoes is light. A European industry report calculates that each turbine generates €10 million in locally generated revenue during construction and logistics/transport.

Yes, Iceland has selected Galway as European landing location for international telecommunications cables. Farice, a company wholly owned by the Icelandic Government, currently owns and operates two submarine cables linking Iceland to Northern Europe.

It is "very much a live project", Harbourmaster Capt Sheridan says, and the Port of Galway board is "awaiting the outcome of a Bord Pleanála determination", he says.

90% of the scrap steel is exported to Spain with the balance being shipped to Portugal. Since the pandemic, scrap steel is shipped to the Liverpool where it is either transhipped to larger ships bound for China.

It might look like silage, but in fact, its bales domestic and municipal waste, exported to Denmark where the waste is incinerated, and the heat is used in district heating of homes and schools. It is called RDF or Refuse Derived Fuel and has been exported out of Galway since 2013.

The new ferry is arriving at Galway Bay onboard the cargo ship SVENJA. The vessel is currently on passage to Belem, Brazil before making her way across the Atlantic to Galway.

Two Volvo round world races have selected Galway for the prestigious yacht race route. Some 10,000 people welcomed the boats in during its first stopover in 2009, when a festival was marked by stunning weather. It was also selected for the race finish in 2012. The Volvo has changed its name and is now known as the "Ocean Race". Capt Sheridan says that once port expansion and the re-urbanisation of the docklands is complete, the port will welcome the "ocean race, Clipper race, Tall Ships race, Small Ships Regatta and maybe the America's Cup right into the city centre...".

The pandemic was the reason why Seafest did not go ahead in Cork in 2020. Galway will welcome Seafest back after it calls to Waterford and Limerick, thus having been to all the Port cities.

© Afloat 2020