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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: rock

Last season Dublin Bay sailors hit rocks off Dalkey Island prompting Dublin Bay Sailing Club, the largest leisure users of the bay, to issue a warning over the hazard. Known locally as 'Leac Buidhe', the rocks in Muglins Sound gave some sailors a bump at low water. As a result, sailors were warned to stay away from rocks at the North end of Dalkey Island. This week Afloat.ie has been sent a number of photos depicting a new 'rock' in a nearby location.

The mysterious appearance is nearly as amazing as last month's story on Afloat about the cruising boat that witnessed a volcano emerging in the Pacific. Except this time, Afloat has been reliably informed, the new 'rock' won't cause much of a bump because it is made of fibreglass and linked to a film crew based at nearby Coliemore Harbour! Realistic isn't it?

Published in Dublin Bay
Tagged under
Last night, Lough Derg RNLI lifeboat, Toshiba Wave Warrior, was requested by Valentia Coast Guard to go to the assistance of 1 person, on board a 33ft cruiser on rocks after suffering engine failure, and which was now taking on considerable amounts of water. Mathew Gallagher, skipper of Aftermath was standing by, but was unable to get close to the casualty.

At 17.54hrs the lifeboat, with helm Eleanor Hooker, Colin Knight and Ger Egan was launched. The lifeboat carried its salvage pump, and in addition, Lifeboat Operations Manager, Charles Stanley-Smith made contact with Fergal Kerney, Lifeboat Deputy Launching Authority, who agreed to take a second salvage pump to Portumna by road.

At 18.15hrs the lifeboat was alongside the casualty vessel which was listing to port and on rocks. There were two persons on board (the skipper has been joined by a friend, a marine mechanic). The lifeboat transferred an RNLI crew member and the salvage pump to the casualty vessel and the lifeboat salvage pump was immediately put to work. The cruiser Aftermath met Fergal Kerney and took him to the scene. At 18.21hrs the lifeboat transferred the second salvage pump to the casualty vessel, set up a tow and held off head to weather.

At 19.25, (it was now dusk) and with two pumps running, the vessel was not floated. At 19.34hrs, RNLI Lifeboat helm agreed one last attempt to float the vessel before taking all persons off. Eamon Egan, Marine Engineer, brought a third, larger pump to the vessel from Portumna. At 19:45hrs, when the boat was not floated with three pumps running, the lifeboat made the decision to take all persons off and advised Valentia Coast Guard of same. At 20.15hrs, the two persons from the casualty vessel were transferred onto Aftermath, who had offered to take them back to Portumna. The owner will attempt to refloat his vessel in daylight tomorrow. The lifeboat returned to station and was ready for service again at 21.10hrs.

Published in RNLI Lifeboats
Tagged under
Four teenagers were rescued in Co Down last weekend when they were cut off by the tide, the News Letter reports.
The teens were caught up to their shoulders in water at Ardilea on Saturday evening when they were retrieved by a former volunteer coastguard who lives nearby.
The group were met at the shore by the South Down Coastguard Rescue Team and NI Ambulance Service paramedics and taken to hospital showing signs of hypothermia.
Meanwhile, on Friday night RNLI Bangor lifeboat rescued a young girl stranded on a rock near Groomsport after a call from a member of the public.
“With waves breaking around the knees of the frightened child it was paramount that she be brought ashore as quickly as possible," said a coastguard statement.
The girl was treated by waiting paramedics at the shore.

Four teenagers were rescued in Co Down last weekend when they were cut off by the tide, the News Letter reports.

The teens were caught up to their shoulders in water at Ardilea on Saturday evening when they were retrieved by a former volunteer coastguard who lives nearby.

The group were met at the shore by the South Down Coastguard Rescue Team and NI Ambulance Service paramedics and taken to hospital showing signs of hypothermia.

Meanwhile, on Friday night RNLI Bangor lifeboat rescued a young girl stranded on a rock near Groomsport after a call from a member of the public.

“With waves breaking around the knees of the frightened child it was paramount that she be brought ashore as quickly as possible," said a coastguard statement. 

The girl was treated by waiting paramedics at the shore.

Published in Rescue

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]