Displaying items by tag: Cliffs of Insanity

30th October 2012

Easkey Britton Praises New Account of Surfing in Ireland

#SURFING - A new book that delves into the world of surfing in Ireland gets a thumbs-up review from surf pro Easkey Britton in The Irish Times.

Cliffs of Insanity, by Irish Times sportswriter Keith Duggan, focuses on the close-knit surfing community in Lahinch, Co Clare - one of the many hotspots along the west coast that have produced such Irish big wave sensations as Ollie O'Flaherty and overseas visitors like Devon's Andrew Cotton (featured in the video above).

Britton - in the news herself recently for her pioneering surf trip to Iran - notes the passion among Ireland's surfers "to pursue a challenging vocation, one that is raw and unglamorous, set against the icy waters of the Atlantic" towered over by the Cliffs of Moher - the 'cliffs of insanity' of the title.

She also describes the book's central story - the progress of Mayo man Fergal Smith and Cornwall native Mickey Smith as they surf the uncompromising Aileens break - as "a story of hope for an island nation on its knees".

"Duggan presents a rare and intimate window into a little-understood world," she writes. "The ocean and the art of wave riding run so deep in our veins that when you ask a surfer to describe what it feels like we struggle to put it into words."

The Donegal surfing star adds that Duggan "is uniquely positioned as an 'outsider' looking in, and he captures what it is that drives these surfing souls, describing it as 'an elemental pull'."

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

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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