Displaying items by tag: Battle for the Lake

28th September 2018

Kitesurfers Clash On Achill Island In ‘Battle For The Lake’ This Weekend

#Kitesurfing - Independent.ie has the lowdown on this weekend’s Battle for the Lake kitesurfing extravaganza on Achill Island.

Keel Lough is the venue for the finale of the 2018 IKSA tour that will see many of the same competitors that wowed the crowds during the Battle for the Bay on Dollymount Strand this past summer.

Also bringing his skills to this eighth Battle for the Lake is Kevin Langeree, Red Bull’s King of the Air, who will be giving demonstrations on the lough and even DJing for fans after dark.

Indeed its the festival atmosphere around the competition that’s as much of a draw to Mayo from today (Friday 28 September), with a packed music and comedy lineup — even fire dancers to light up the nights.

Independent.ie has more on the story HERE.

Published in Kitesurfing

Tagged under

Get Up To Speed As Ireland's Surfing Season Begins

#Surfing - Summer might already be a distant memory, but Ireland's surfing season is only just getting under way.

And beyond the bigger wave hotspots like Sligo, which is set to host record-breaker Garrett McNamara at the second Surf Summit this November, there's a wealth of activity happening all around the Irish coast.

Entertainment.ie brings us a round-up of some of the best places for surfing action for all ability levels, including perhaps lesser-known haunts like the Sunny South East.

But the biggest attraction this month is surely the Battle for the Lake kitesurfing festival on Achill Island next weekend (25-27 September), with its entertaining mix of live music from up-and-coming homegrown acts and dazzling displays by Ireland's top kitesurfers.

Published in Surfing

Tagged under

About the 29er Skiff Dinghy

The 29er is a one-design double-handed, single trapeze skiff for youth sailors.

There is an active class in Ireland, just one of the 38-countries from across all continents now racing the high-performance skiff.

The 29er is one of the latest dinghy classes to arrive in Ireland and has a 50/50 split between boys and girls.

The class like to describe the boat as "The most popular skiff for sailors who want to go fast!".

Derived from the Olympic class 49er class and designed by Julian Bethwaite the 29er was first produced in 1998.

Two sailors sail the 29er, one on trapeze.

The 6.25-metre high rig features a fractional asymmetrical spinnaker; a self-tacking jib decreases the workload of the crew, making manoeuvres more efficient and freeing the crew to take the mainsheet upwind and on two-sail reaches.

The 15.00 m2 spinnaker rigging set-up challenges crews to be fit and coordinated, and manoeuvres in the boat require athleticism due to its lack of inherent stability and the high speed with which the fully battened mainsail and jib power up.

The 74kg weight hull is constructed of fibreglass-reinforced polyester in a foam sandwich layout.

The fully battened mainsail and jib are made from a transparent Mylar laminate with orange or red Dacron trimming, while the spinnaker is manufactured from ripstop Nylon.

The mast is in three parts - an aluminium bottom and middle section, with a polyester-fibreglass composite tip to increase mast bend and decrease both overall weights, and the capsizing moment a heavy mast tip can generate. Foils are aluminium or fibreglass.

About the ILCA/Laser Dinghy

The ILCA, formerly known as the Laser, is the most produced boat in the world, with 220,000 units built since 1971.

It's easy to see why the single-handed dinghy has won the title of the most widely distributed boat of all time.

The Laser is a one-design dinghy, the hulls being identical but three rigs that can be used according to the size and weight of the sailor.

The class is international, with sailors from 120 countries. The boat has also been an Olympic class since 1996, being both the men's and women's singlehanded dinghy.

Three rigs are recognised by the International Laser Class Association (ILCA):

ILCA 4: sail of 4.70m2

ILCA 6: sail of 5.76 m2

ILCA 7: sail of 7.06 m2