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Displaying items by tag: Autobiography 'So Far, So Good'

#Lecture - Friends of Glenua are to have a lecture 'Adventures in Antarctica' and launch of an autobiography 'So Far, So Good' by Paddy Barry this Thursday 2 November at 20:00.

The venue will be in the Poolbeg Yacht & Boat Club, Ringsend, Dublin and where there will be an entry fee of €5 in aid of the RNLI.

Paddy Barry has led an adventurous life land and sea. His crossing of the Atlantic in his Galway hooker, St Patrick, was a just a prelude to a series of ever more ambitious voyages and expeditions. These include traversing the North West and North East Passages through the Artic ice cap.

Paddy was joint leader and skipper of the Tom Crean for the South Aris expedition to Antartica in 1997. He has been presented with numerous awards, including the coveted Blue Water Medal of the Cruising Club of America, in recognition of his achievements.

In his talk, Paddy will narrate how he and his six fellow Irishmen organised the South Aris expedition to recreate the 800 mile voyage of Ernest Shackleton from Elephant Island to South Georgia in a 23 foot lifeboat. A near ‘wipe out’ didn’t deter the South Aris expedition from laying a brass plaque on behalf of the Irish people at Shackleton's grave at Grytviken, South Georgia.

His talk will be followed by the launch of Paddy’s recently published autobiography, So Far, So Good-An Adventurous Life. Purchase the book online here.

Published in Coastal Notes

Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Yacht Race Information

The biennial Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race is a 320-miles race down to the east coast of Ireland, across the south coast and into Dingle harbour in County Kerry.

The race is organised by the National Yacht Club.

It never fails to offer a full range of weather, wind and tide to the intrepid entrants, ranging from a 32ft cruiser to a 79ft all-out racer.

Three divisions are available to enter: cruiser (boats equipped with furlers), racing (the bulk of the fleet) and also two-handed.

D2D Course change overruled

In 2019, the organisers considered changing the course to allow boats to select routes close to shore by removing the requirement to go outside Islands and Lighthouses en route, but following input from regular participants, the National Yacht Club decided to stick with the tried and tested course route in order to be fair to large and smaller boats and to keep race records intact.

RORC Points Calendar

The 2019 race was the first edition to form part of the Royal Ocean Racing Club “RORC” calendar for the season. This is in addition to the race continuing as part of the ISORA programme. 

D2D Course record time

Mick Cotter’s 78ft Whisper established the 1 day and 48 minutes course record for the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race in 2009 and that time stood until 2019 when Cotter returned to beat his own record but only just, the Dun Laoghaire helmsman crossing the line in Kerry to shave just 20 seconds off his 2009 time.