Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

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 Calender Dates

#Lecture - Howth Peninsula Heritage Society's opening lecture for the autumn/winter season will be about 'Howth & Sailing' and is to be presented by W.M. Nixon.

The talk takes place at 8.00 p.m. in Howth Angling Centre, West Pier next Tuesday, 24 September.

All are welcome to the venue which is close to the DART station. For non-members of the society there is an admission fee of €4.

For further details of the society and lecture programme visit: www.howthheritage.com

 

Published in Boating Fixtures

#Lecture–Maritime Institute of Ireland autumn/ winter lecture series resumes with a talk about the "The Loss of the MV Princess Victoria in January 1953".

James Scannell will present the lecture next Thursday 19 September (starting at 8pm) and as usual takes place in the Stella Maris Seafarers Club on Beresford Place, close to Busaras and behind the Customs House.

All are welcome to attend the evening where a bar and refreshments are available. A voluntary contribution is at the door. The organisers would be pleased for anyone to kindly forward details about the lecture programme, held monthly (third Thursday) at the city-centre venue.

Public transport: The nearest DART stations are Connolly Station and at Tara Street in addition to the LUAS (Red) line stop at Busáras.

Car parking is located in the Irish Life Mall (ILAC) on Lower Abbey Street.

For further information and of the lecture programme, contact 086 150 3766 and visit www.mariner.ie

 

Published in Boating Fixtures

#Lecture- To give the lecture its full title "Setting Sail and Coming Home-Voyages of Discovery in Irish Myth, Arts and Culture" and which is to be held on Wednesday 24 April in Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club, Ringsend.

Mary McKenna will present the talk (starting at 8pm) in the heart of the Dublin Port venue, as part les Glénans public 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

#Lecture – The next Howth Peninsula Heritage Society lecture will be about 'The Lighthouses of the South West Coast.

The lecture to be presented by Gerry Butler is to takes place in the Howth Angling Centre along the West Pier, on Tuesday 26 March starting at 8 pm.

Those arriving by train only have a short stroll to the venue from Howth DART station.

All are welcome to the lecture which is admission free to members and to non-members €4 payable at the door.

 

Published in Boating Fixtures

#LectureNorseDublin: The next and final monthly held 'Below the Surface' lecture the "Norse Dublin - The Fleet of Norse Dublin around 1000AD" is to be held on Wednesday 3 April (starting 8pm).

The talk to be presented by Professor Poul Holm TCD, who will mark the end of the Below the Surface series which began last November. The unique lecture series has provided the public an opportunity to attend and enjoy in celebrating Ireland's maritime heritage and archaeology.

As usual the talk is to take place on the famine replica ship, the Jeanie Johnston, docked at Custom House Quay in Dublin's city-centre. The venue provides an intimate space ideal for maritime tales, oozing seafaring ambience with the creaking sounds of the hull surrounding the audience.

The talks to date have touched on many aspects of our rich and controversial maritime history, from tales of pirates, queens and lost polar expeditions.

Tickets are available online by visiting: http://jeanie.visrez.com/engine/event/57

 

Published in Boating Fixtures

#Lecture – A talk will be given on Shackleton's Endurance Expeditions: 1914-17 next Thursday (21 March) at 8pm in the Stella Maris Club, Beresford Place, Dublin city centre.

All are welcome to the lecture, where there is an entrance fee (recommended donation €5) per person

The Stella Maris Club is located close to the Irish Life (ILAC) Mall complex car park, the Customs House and Busaras. It is convenient to the Luas (Red Line: Busaras stop) and the DART (Connolly and Tara Street stations).

The Maritime Institute runs a maritime museum, the National Maritime Museum of Ireland located in Dun Laoghaire. Co. Dublin. For further details visit: www.mariner.ie

 

Published in Boating Fixtures

#Lecture –The Old Dublin Society's next Spring lecture is "The Loss of the MV Princess Victoria in January 1953"

The lecture is to be presented by James Scannell and held next Wednesday 20th March, starting at 18.30hrs.

Venue is the Conference Room of the Dublin City Library and Archive, 138-144 Pearse Street, Dublin 2. All are welcome – no admission fee.

For further details about the society visit: www.olddublinsociety.ie and the library lecture click HERE.

 

Published in Boating Fixtures

#Lecture – A lecture 'Maritime Dalkey: Past, Present & Future' is to be presented by marine correspondent and photographer Jehan Ashmore.

The talk on Wednesday 13 March starts at 8pm and is organised by the Killiney & Ballybrack Historical Society, who hold a monthly lecture in The Graduate Lounge (Upstairs), Rochestown Avenue, Killiney.

Jehan will look into Dalkey's status as an 'outport' for Dublin, between 14th–16th centuries, when vessels sailed with cargo in and out along the coastline of Dalkey Sound. This was due to the dangerous silting channels and sand bar at the mouth of the Liffey, which prevented ships entering at low tide.

Also examined will be the beginnings of Irish Sea steam-packet services from the 1820's. Some of these routes operated within Dalkey waters and their present-day successors, as well as cruiseships, pass offshore in relative proximity.

Accompanying the lecture will be many unseen photographs, dating back three decades. This will open a different image of Dalkey Sound, featuring not just the island ferry, lobster-boats and summer filled scenes of pleasure craft and yachts but also a wide variety of larger 'working' vessels.

All are welcome to the lecture, admission of €3. Refreshments provided. The society has an annual subscription o €15 (€20 for couples and family). Contact: Richard Dolan: 087 6181212

 

Published in Boating Fixtures

#Lecture -The next 'Below the Surface' series of monthly held maritime lectures is 6 March. The topic will be 'The Opening of the Atlantic World' – English Settlement in Ireland and North America in the 17th Century, by James Lyttleton.

As usual the lecture takes place below decks on board the replica 19th century famine emigrant barque, Jeanie Johnston, at her berth at Custom House Quay, in Dublin's Docklands.

Doors open at 7.15pm and the lecture starts at 8pm. Please ensure to arrive early as entry to venue may not be permitted on commencement of the lecture.

For further details contact 01 4730111 and to book online, tickets costing €15.00 per person click HERE.

Published in Boating Fixtures

#LectureShackleton – Neale Webb, who is related to the family of the Irish-born Antarctic explorer, will present his lecture 'Sir Ernest Shackleton - Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration' next Thursday, 14 February.

The talk which is for the Kilmacud-Stillorgan History Society, will be held at 20.00hrs in the Function Room of the Glenalbyn Sports Club in Stillorgan. All visitors are welcome –admission fee: €3

As previously reported, the five-man crew re-enactment of Shackleton's Epic Antarctic rescue continued, having this week reached landfall on South Georgia Island after sailing 800 nautical miles and taking nearly 12 days to complete to reach this destination, a key highlight of their journey.

To follow the team's latest blog reports, and to track the Alexandra Shackleton, a replica of the lifeboat James Caird used in the mission nearly a century ago, visit: http://shackletonepic.com/live-tracking/

 

Published in Boating Fixtures
Page 8 of 9

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]