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Displaying items by tag: Round Ireland Yacht Race

Two of the three boats in Ireland's Commodore's Cup team are booked in for the annual Round the Island race in the Solent on June 19. The race, which already boasts 1,200 entries, kicks off the day before the Round Ireland, which is struggling to make the 20-entry mark at present.

Anthony O'Leary's Antix and the new Crosshaven-based Corby, Roxy 6 appear in the 399-boat IRC lineup.

Racing 50 miles around the Isle of Wight will no doubt be beneficial for the teams aboard both boats ahead of August's Commodore's Cup, and six Irish boats feature in the IRC section. However, the clash calls into question the timing of the Round Ireland. With the Round the Island, the single most popular sailing event in the British Isles every year, taking place on the solstice weekend, the Round Ireland puts itself at a serious disadvantage in seeking entries at that time.

The chance of tempting boats up from the Solent is lessened, when skippers are faced with a shorter, cheaper and more sociable event at home.  And with the Solent a similar distance from Cork, It's no surprise that two of the top boats in Ireland, both based in Cork, have decided to use it as a training event for the Commodore's Cup.

Insiders have already grumbled that this point is one Wicklow needs to address going into the next Round Ireland cycle.

Share your thoughts on Afloat.ie's forum.

Published in RORC
Page 20 of 20

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.