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Displaying items by tag: Cooleen

Next Sunday, May 29, Commodore's Day will be celebrated at Foynes Yacht Club. This sailing day is very special in the annals of the Cooleen Point based club, because it has been celebrated for the last 49 years.

Commodore Tom Murray has a host of events planned for the day, racing will take place in the harbour area starting at 2pm. This is for all classes, Class 1, 2, White Sails and Mermaids. The junior members of the club will be sailing the Topaz dinghies.

It is hoped to have a live commentary of the racing from the clubhouse, to let the onlookers know what is happening on the water.

After racing the annual blessing of the boats will be performed by Canon O'Keeffe and Fr. Noonan, this will take place on the marina approximately at 4pm.

When the blessing of the boats is over, member's are asked to retire to the clubhouse for a Bar-b-Que and a traditional Irish music session, which will commence at 5pm.

The Foynes Irish Coffee Festival is back this year. The club is hosting a 'Fun Day', on Sunday, June 5 at 2pm. More details on this will follow next week.

The Waterways Ireland Inter-Counties Sailing Championships will be taking place on the Grand Canal Dock on Sunday, June 26.
A fleet of one-design keel boats will be provided, and a series of sprint sailing races of 15-20 minutes leading to the final.

A team from the club, which is spear-headed by Donal McCormack, includes Elaine O'Mahoney and John-Paul Buckley, Donal has a vacant place on the team, so any member who would like to participate are asked to contact the secretary, Elaine on 086 1231864. As far as Foynes Yacht Club are aware only one team representing the Shannon Estuary will be competing.

Published in Shannon Estuary
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Esailing & Virtual Sailing information

The concept of e-sailing, or virtual sailing, is based on a computer game sailing challenge that has been around for more than a decade.

The research and development of software over this time means its popularity has taken off to the extent that it has now become a part of the sailing seascape and now allows people to take an 'active part' in some of the most famous regattas across the world such as the Vendée Globe, Route du Rhum, Sydney Hobart, Volvo Ocean Race, America’s Cup and some Olympic venues too, all from the comfort of their armchair.

The most popular model is the 'eSailing World Championship'. It is an annual esports competition, first held in 2018 and officially recognised by World Sailing, the sports governing body.

The eSailing World Championship is a yearly competition for virtual sailors competing on the Virtual Regatta Inshore game.

The contract to run the event was given to a private company, Virtual Regatta that had amassed tens of thousands of sailors playing offshore sailing routing game following major offshore races in real-time.

In April 2020, the company says on its website that it has 35,000 active players and 500,000 regattas sailed.

Virtual Regatta started in 2010 as a small team of passionate designers, engineers, and entrepreneurs gathered around the idea that virtual sailing sports games can mix with real races and real skippers.