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A Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: AfloatA Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

Displaying items by tag: Afloat Calendar Dates

#SeafrontTours- The Seafront Memorials Tour is a free guided tour that is part of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council's annual Summer of Heritage programme.

The first tour begins this Sunday 5 July and will be held every Sunday throughout the summer until 6 September.

Meeting Point: Queen Victoria Fountain, Dún Laoghaire.
Wheelchair accessible.

This is an outdoor event.

Enjoy a tour of the coastal memorials in Dún Laoghaire including the Queen Victoria Fountain, George IV Memorial, the mailboat Leinster's anchor,Christ the King, the Crimean War Cannon and the 1895 Lifeboat Disaster.

Tour Time Start: 11.30am
One tour per day
One event per week

Tour duration: 60 mins
Maximum capacity: 20 people

For more information on other events download the Summer of Heritage brochure here

#Wine&TableQuiz- Come along for a fun night combining a Table Quiz & Christmas Wine Tasting on Thursday 11 December (doors open 7.15pm) at the Eblana Club (off Marine Road) in Dun Laoghaire. The festive evening is to raise funds for the local National Maritime Museum of Ireland.

A selection of wines to match your Christmas feast will be available to taste.

Following this there will be the Table Quiz (8.30pm). The familiar mix of obvious and obscure questions are guaranteed to infuriate all who take part.

Tickets for the festive fundraiser event are €10.00 each and available from the door. In addition for more information on bookings made by email [email protected] or by contacting (01) 2143 964

Published in Boating Fixtures

#TableQuiz - The Glenua and friends monthly winter lectures for 2014/15 resumed last month in the Poolbeg Yacht & Boat Club, Dublin and instead of a talk for December, a Christmas Table-Quiz in aid of the RNLI is organised for Thursday 4 December at 8pm.

During last year's lecture season, a total €837 was raised for the RNLI. Kieran Cotter, Coxwain of the RNLI Baltimore lifeboat was presented with the donation from Mick O'Meara, President of Glenua.

So on this occasion, the fundraising efforts continue with the Christmas Table Quiz, an event which welcomes everyone to take part either solo or with friend at the venue in Ringsend.

A table of four is €40 and all is in good cause for the life-saving rescue service.

Joe Varley well known for his lectures over the years, has volunteered his services as Quizmaster. For further details contact 087 2129614.

 

Published in Boating Fixtures

#AsgardLecture - The History of Asgard, from Launch to Gun Running to Conservation is the title of a lecture by Pat Murphy which is to take place in the National Maritime Museum of Ireland, Dun Laoghaire.

The lecture is on Thursday November 20th (8pm). Tickets costing €10 will be made available at the door opening at 7.30pm.

Murphy will tell the life of this famous yacht in Irish history from her launch in 1905 to current conservation in Collin's Barracks Museum.

Asgard undertook a 23 day voyage that centred on the dangerous mission to collect guns and ammunition for the Irish Volunteers. The landing of the arms took place in Howth Harbour in July 1914 and this historical event is described in detail with unique photographs.

The lecture will also feature Conor O'Brien's Kelpie and the Kilcoole landing.

In this centenary year of the anniversary of the Howth gunning event, the lecture will also cover commemorative celebrations.

In addition to tickets payable at the door, bookings can be made in advance by email: [email protected] and by contacting the NMMI on (01) 2143 964

For more details about the Maritime Institute of Ireland's museum which has a gift shop and café, visit: www.mariner.ie

Published in Boating Fixtures

#LectureILEN - "The Ketch Ilen-Ireland's Sole Surviving Sail Trader" will be the public lecture presented by Gary Mac Mahon next Thursday (7 November) in the Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club, Ringsend.

The talk which forms the members of Les Glénans & friends 2013/2014 lecture series starts at 20.00hrs in the Dublin docklands venue noting an entry fee of €5 in aid of the RNLI.

Ilen is a 56-ft sailing ketch that was built in 1926 in the Baltimore Fishery School Boatyard for the Falkland Islands Company. She was designed and sailed to the Falkland Islands by Conor O'Brien who in 1925 was the first Irishman to complete a circumnavigation of the world in the 42-ft ketch, Saoirse, also built in Baltimore.

The Ilen served seventy years as a trading vessel in the tempestuous seas of the South Atlantic before being brought back to Ireland in 1998.

Now being restored, she is the focal point for a remarkable maritime project embracing the A.K. Ilen School for wooden boatbuilding in Limerick and Hegarty's boatyard in Oldcourt.

Gary McMahon, in his illustrated presentation, will provide the background to the return of the Ilen to Ireland and the founding of the A.K. Ilen Company with Anthony Keane OSB.

It is an Irish-registered charity dedicated to education through the medium of sailing, very much in the spirit of the original aims of Glénans

Gary is a keen offshore sailor who publishes maritime books through the A.K. Ilen Company and will include Conor O'Brien and his exploits on Saoirse in his lecture.

For further details on this lecture contact: 087 2129614 and details for the Poolbeg Yacht, Boat Club & Marina visit: www.poolbegmarina.ie

 

Published in Ilen

#LockoutLectures – The 1913 Lockout –Dun Laoghaire & The Marine is the theme to a series of lectures to be held on Sunday 25 August in the Dun Laoghaire Club, 3 Eblana Avenue which is off Marine Road.

The afternoon event (donation request) is to be hosted by the Maritime Museum of Ireland which runs the nearby National Maritime Museum of Ireland and to where as previously reported this venue is run an exhibition on the 1913 Lockout.

The lecture programme in the Dun Laoghaire Club, is listed as follows:

12noon "Kingstown-Portrait of an Edwardian Seaport Town" – Peter Pearson

1pm "The 1913 Lockout –International Context" – Colin Whitson

2pm "Women in the 1913 Lockout" – Mary Muldowney

3pm "Dublin Dock Communities and the Legacy of 1913" – Joe Mooney

3.45pm "Dun Laoghaire in 1913 –Stronghold of Unionism or Frontier of New Unionism?" – Padraig Yeates

4.30pm "Patrick Moran: Trade Unionist, Sportsman and Patriot" – May Moran

5.15pm "Edward Lee –The 'Model Employer' – Mike Lee

If visiting the National Maritime Museum which is open every day 11am-5pm, noting admission fees, there is a gift shop and café in addition to wheelchair accessibility, though some areas have restricted access. For mor details visit:www.mariner.ie

Location, the museum is in the former Mariners Church on Haigh Terrace, which can be reached from Lower Georges Street or from the coast road, noting pedestrian access over the DART railway line (opposite the East Pier), or by strolling along The Metals.

#BaroqueConcert – Dublin-based early music ensemble Respicio are to perform in the National Maritime Museum of Ireland (NMMI), Dun Laoghaire this Friday 31 May.

Come along to the hear music by Teleman, Bach & Graupner, starting at 8pm (tickets cost €10) in the unique surroundings of the maritime museum. The restored former Mariners Church, was awarded earlier this year the Best Museum / Restored Site at the 2012 Industrial Heritage Association of Ireland Awards.

The museum is (mostly) wheelchair accessible and during normal opening hours, 11am-5pm every day, there is a Museum Café serving hot snacks throughout. There is also a WiFi hotspot. For further information about the museum run by the Maritime Institute of Ireland visit: www.mariner.ie

 

Published in Boating Fixtures

#Lecture – The inside story of MSC Napoli, the containership which became the UK's largest, most complicated and most expensive shipwreck and salvage operation and will be the topic of a lecture held on Tuesday 23 April.

Robin Middleton CBE, former Secretary of State Representative of the United Kingdom, who took all the pivotal decisions during the disaster, will present the lecture in the National Maritime Museum of Ireland (NMMI) in Dun Laoghaire.

Lecture begins at 8:00 pm noting an admission fee of € 10. For bookings contact the maritime museum Tel: (01) 2143965, by email: [email protected]
For more information about the Maritime Institute of Ireland's maritime museum visit: www.mariner.ie

 

Published in Boating Fixtures

#ChoirConcert - A varied and exciting programme of accessible music from one of America's leading high school choirs, the Hood Valley River High School Choir is to be held in the Maritime Museum in Dun Laoghaire.

The evening will Include the Aurora Group, consisting of around 20 girls from the HRV choir will sing more modern and secular music next Thursday 28 March starting 8pm.
Tickets cost €10 per person and for a group rate of €7 pp (based on groups of 10 or more)

For further information and to book call: (01) 2143964 Email [email protected]

 

Published in Boating Fixtures

#Lecture – Dubliner Pete Hogan, a well-known artist specialising in painting boats is to present a lecture titled "The Log of the Molly B - Building and sailing a gaff-rigged ketch around the World".

The lecture takes place next Wednesday 13 March at 20:00 in Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club, Ringsend, in the heart of Dublin Port.

Pete has been sailing all his life usually out of Dun Laoghaire but also in the Clew Bay area of Mayo. He worked as a commercial fisherman, as a deck hand on yachts and in the office of a paper company. In 1975 he emigrated to Vancouver, Canada.

Three years later he said 'To hell with this. I'm going to build a boat... ' He built a 30 foot double ended gaff rigged ketch and sailed it through the Panama Canal and back to Ireland without motor or electronics.

He then sailed Molly B around the World by way of the infamous Cape Horn. Embarking on a third voyage, Molly B sank in a storm in the Mediterranean and he was lucky to survive.

Pete recently published an illustrated book about his adventures with Molly B and this forms the basis of his talk and slide show.

The talk is part of the les Glénans Irish Sector Winter Lecture Series. All are welcome. Entry fee of €5 in aid of the RNLI. For further details contact: 087 2129614

 

Published in Boating Fixtures
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How to sail, sailing clubs and sailing boats plus news on the wide range of sailing events on Irish waters forms the backbone of Afloat's sailing coverage.

We aim to encompass the widest range of activities undertaken on Irish lakes, rivers and coastal waters. This page describes those sailing activites in more detail and provides links and breakdowns of what you can expect from our sailing pages. We aim to bring jargon free reports separated in to popular categories to promote the sport of sailing in Ireland.

The packed 2013 sailing season sees the usual regular summer leagues and there are regular weekly race reports from Dublin Bay Sailing Club, Howth and Cork Harbour on Afloat.ie. This season and last also featured an array of top class events coming to these shores. Each year there is ICRA's Cruiser Nationals starts and every other year the Round Ireland Yacht Race starts and ends in Wicklow and all this action before July. Crosshaven's Cork Week kicks off on in early July every other year. in 2012 Ireland hosted some big international events too,  the ISAF Youth Worlds in Dun Laoghaire and in August the Tall Ships Race sailed into Dublin on its final leg. In that year the Dragon Gold Cup set sail in Kinsale in too.

2013 is also packed with Kinsale hosting the IFDS diabled world sailing championships in Kinsale and the same port is also hosting the Sovereign's Cup. The action moves to the east coast in July with the staging of the country's biggest regatta, the Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta from July 11.

Our coverage though is not restricted to the Republic of Ireland but encompasses Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Irish Sea area too. In this section you'll find information on the Irish Sailing Association and Irish sailors. There's sailing reports on regattas, racing, training, cruising, dinghies and keelboat classes, windsurfers, disabled sailing, sailing cruisers, Olympic sailing and Tall Ships sections plus youth sailing, match racing and team racing coverage too.

Sailing Club News

There is a network of over 70 sailing clubs in Ireland and we invite all clubs to submit details of their activities for inclusion in our daily website updates. There are dedicated sections given over to the big Irish clubs such as  the waterfront clubs in Dun Laoghaire; Dublin Bay Sailing Club, the Royal Saint George Yacht Club,  the Royal Irish Yacht Club and the National Yacht Club. In Munster we regularly feature the work of Kinsale Yacht Club and Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven.  Abroad Irish sailors compete in Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) racing in the UK and this club is covered too. Click here for Afloat's full list of sailing club information. We are keen to increase our coverage on the network of clubs from around the coast so if you would like to send us news and views of a local interest please let us have it by sending an email to [email protected]

Sailing Boats and Classes

Over 20 active dinghy and one design classes race in Irish waters and fleet sizes range from just a dozen or so right up to over 100 boats in the case of some of the biggest classes such as the Laser or Optimist dinghies for national and regional championships. Afloat has dedicated pages for each class: Dragons, Etchells, Fireball, Flying Fifteen, GP14, J24's, J80's, Laser, Sigma 33, RS Sailing, Star, Squibs, TopperMirror, Mermaids, National 18, Optimist, Puppeteers, SB3's, and Wayfarers. For more resources on Irish classes go to our dedicated sailing classes page.

The big boat scene represents up to 60% of the sail boat racing in these waters and Afloat carries updates from the Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA), the body responsible for administering cruiser racing in Ireland and the popular annual ICRA National Championships. In 2010 an Irish team won the RORC Commodore's Cup putting Irish cruiser racing at an all time high. Popular cruiser fleets in Ireland are raced right around the coast but naturally the biggest fleets are in the biggest sailing centres in Cork Harbour and Dublin Bay. Cruisers race from a modest 20 feet or so right up to 50'. Racing is typically divided in to Cruisers Zero, Cruisers One, Cruisers Two, Cruisers Three and Cruisers Four. A current trend over the past few seasons has been the introduction of a White Sail division that is attracting big fleets.

Traditionally sailing in northern Europe and Ireland used to occur only in some months but now thanks to the advent of a network of marinas around the coast (and some would say milder winters) there are a number of popular winter leagues running right over the Christmas and winter periods.

Sailing Events

Punching well above its weight Irish sailing has staged some of the world's top events including the Volvo Ocean Race Galway Stopover, Tall Ships visits as well as dozens of class world and European Championships including the Laser Worlds, the Fireball Worlds in both Dun Laoghaire and Sligo.

Some of these events are no longer pure sailing regattas and have become major public maritime festivals some are the biggest of all public staged events. In the past few seasons Ireland has hosted events such as La Solitaire du Figaro and the ISAF Dublin Bay 2012 Youth Worlds.

There is a lively domestic racing scene for both inshore and offshore sailing. A national sailing calendar of summer fixtures is published annually and it includes old favorites such as Sovereign's Cup, Calves Week, Dun Laoghaire to Dingle, All Ireland Sailing Championships as well as new events with international appeal such as the Round Britain and Ireland Race and the Clipper Round the World Race, both of which have visited Ireland.

The bulk of the work on running events though is carried out by the network of sailing clubs around the coast and this is mostly a voluntary effort by people committed to the sport of sailing. For example Wicklow Sailing Club's Round Ireland yacht race run in association with the Royal Ocean Racing Club has been operating for over 30 years. Similarly the international Cork Week regatta has attracted over 500 boats in past editions and has also been running for over 30 years.  In recent years Dublin Bay has revived its own regatta called Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta and can claim to be the country's biggest event with over 550 boats entered in 2009.

On the international stage Afloat carries news of Irish and UK interest on Olympics 2012, Sydney to Hobart, Volvo Ocean Race, Cowes Week and the Fastnet Race.

We're always aiming to build on our sailing content. We're keen to build on areas such as online guides on learning to sail in Irish sailing schools, navigation and sailing holidays. If you have ideas for our pages we'd love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected]