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Displaying items by tag: Aegean to Fastnet Race 2017

#Presentation - Friends of Glenua are to hold a presentation entitled: “From the Aegean to the Fastnet Race 2017-Trom agus Éadrom”

The presentation by Dermot Cronin will take place on Thursday 1 March (20:00) at the Poolbeg Yacht & Boat Club, Ringsend, Dublin 4. There will be an entry fee of €5 in aid of the RNLI.

The 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race attracted a record-sized fleet of 362 boats, six more than in 2015. The 605 mile continues to be the world’s largest offshore yacht race, defined by the rounding of the Fastnet Rock with its iconic lighthouse. 

Dermot Cronin of Malahide Yacht Club, competed in the 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race in his yacht, Encore, a First 40.7. The preparations included the 2,500 mile passage of Encore from her winterage in Greece to Malahide, during which she encountered heavy weather both in the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic (the ‘Trom’ of the title).

In his illustrated lecture, Dermot will give a practical insight into the preparation and logistics required to get his boat to the starting line at Cowes followed by the competitive intensity experienced in a huge international fleet. The events of the Fastnet race itself which, although more benign in the weather (the Eadrom of the title), provided some close racing.

Dermot’s first sailing course was with Glenans in Bere Island in 1979. Being an active racing member of Malahide Yacht Club since 1989, he progressed to Round Ireland racing, D2D’s and Fastnet in 2003. He participated in the Middle Sea Race in 2013 and 2014 in his fully crewed Encore. He finally struck gold in 2015 with his son Paddy, winning the Double-handed division of the 2015 Middle Sea Race in Encore.

Published in Coastal Notes

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.