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Displaying items by tag: video

#HOW TO - Sail Magazine have posted a valuable video guide demonstrating how to set a kedge anchor for your vessel.

Every boat should carry a minimum of two anchors to give you security should the wind shift or pick up overnight and cause the boat to sway.

The second anchor should always be a different design to the primary anchor - an aluminium Fortress anchor would be perfect for this, being light to carry should it be needed.

Choice of rope is also important for a kedge anchor, with nylon being the better bet for its strength despite its lightness.

Get all of Sail Magazine's tips for setting a kedge anchor HERE.

Published in Boat Maintenance

#FUNGIE - A new video posted to YouTube celebrates 30 years of Fungie the dolphin in Dingle.

The male bottlenose dolphin appeared from out of nowhere in the Co Kerry fishing village in 1983 and soon made it his home, quickly becoming an integral part of the local community.

Since his arrival Fungie has made friends and warmed hearts with people both local and across the world, such as Dutch couple Jeannine Masset and Rudi Schamhart who have been meeting him for more than 20 years.

Meanwhile, locals hope that new measures for harbour users proposed earlier this year won't bring an end to boat trips to meet Dingle's most famous resident.

Published in Marine Wildlife

#TALL SHIPS - TheJournal.ie this week highlighted this wonderful video of the Tall Ships Races fleet as they departed Dublin Bay on Sunday 26 August.

Filmmaker Rachel O'Connor captured this footage on board the racing sloop Sceolaing along with its owners the Delaps.

"Nearly everyone who had a boat was out at sea," says O'Connor. "The spectacle was breathtaking."

Judging by the sights she captured here, we're inclined to agree!

Published in Tall Ships

#SURFING - Surfing website MagicSeaweed captured French surf pro Justine Dupont in top form at Aileens off the West of Ireland on Sunday 21 October.

The 21-year-old paddled out to the secret big wave surfing spot with 2011 Billabong XXL Biggest Wave Award winner Benjamin Sanchis, where they promptly broke their boards caught in the biggest barrels of the day.

Turning their attentions instead to the "infamous cold water right-hander", Dupont was towed into a stunning 12-foot tunnel of water - as the video above shows.

"It was more than a session, it was a mission," said Dupont. "From getting smashed paddling out to surfing that perfect beautiful wave, it was a day I’ll never forget."

MagicSeaweed has photos and video of Dupont's Aileens adventure HERE.

Published in Surfing

#SURFING - WorldIrish brings us another gem of a video as surf pros take on the challenging waves off the west coast of Ireland.

It's just the latest praise for the Emerald Isle as a world-class surfing destination.

Published in Surfing

#SURFING - A documentary charting Easkey Britton's history-making surfing trip to Iran will premiere on French TV later this month, according to The Irish Times.

The hour-long film was shot by French filmmaker Marion Poizeau during the Donegal surf champion's visit in September last year to Chabahar, a coastal town in southern Iran on the Pakistan border.

Britton - of the northwest surfing dynasty - became the first woman ever to surf in Iran when she donned a full-length 'hijab swimsuit' and took to the waves in near 40 degree temperatures - attracting much attention from the locals.

“Iran is not known as a surf destination," she says, "but experiencing a country through surf gives you a different perspective. It was a leap into the unknown, but I thought I’d give it a go.”

Britton is now hoping to encourage more women and girls in the Middle East to take up surfing, noting its growing popularity in the Gaza Strip.

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

Published in Surfing

#DIVING - WorldIrish have done it again with another great video find - this time following a team of divers off Donegal as they explore the wreck of the RMS/HMS Carinthia.

On 6 June 1940, during the Second World War, the transatlantic steam-powered cruise liner turned armed merchant ship was sunk by a German U-boat off Tory Island.

The video above shows some of the sights seen by Michael McVeigh and his diving team, including the ship's bow, the anchor telegraph and its wartime addition 6" gun.

Published in Diving

#SURFING - Top Irish surfer Richie Fitzgerald was on hand for a special open-air screening of the award-winning surfing documentary Waveriders on Inchydoney beach in West Cork, as the Irish Examiner reports.

Fitzgerald, who stars in the 2009 film, attended the Movies on the Beach event on Saturday evening to help boost fundraising efforts for the Clonakilty Flood Relief Fund.

The former champion surfer has been witness to some of the most spectular waves off the Irish coast, including the biggest rollers in years recorded off Mullaghmore Head this past March.

Published in Surfing

#KITESURFING - WorldIrish has posted video highlights of the recent Irish National Kite Surfing Championships on Duncannon Beach as part of the annual Wexford Kite Surfing Festival.

Though the event was marred somewhat by a lack of strong winds which saw the cancellation of the men's competition, the women's and junior divisions made the best of the bad weather, with Tereza Siminova and 15-year-old James Hayden taking the top honours respectively.

Published in Kitesurfing

#VOLVO OCEAN RACE - The official film of the latest edition of the Volvo Ocean Race - which had its finale in Galway last month - has been posted on YouTube.

Originally broadcast in late July on TG4, the documentary takes a look back at the 2011/2012 race as the boats left Alicante last October, sailing around the world and visiting ports and cities such as Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya, Auckland, Itajaí, Miami, Lisbon, Lorient and Galway. 

Delving into the world’s premier global race and one of the most demanding team sporting events in the world, VOR bosses say the film gets close to the action in the ultimate mix of world class sporting competition and on-the-edge adventure, a unique blend of onshore glamour with offshore drama and endurance.

Published in Ocean Race
Page 9 of 15

Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta

From the Baily lighthouse to Dalkey island, the bay accommodates six separate courses for 21 different classes racing every two years for the Dun Laoghaire Regatta.

In assembling its record-breaking armada, Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta (VDLR) became, at its second staging, not only the country's biggest sailing event, with 3,500 sailors competing, but also one of Ireland's largest participant sporting events.

One of the reasons for this, ironically, is that competitors across Europe have become jaded by well-worn venue claims attempting to replicate Cowes and Cork Week.'Never mind the quality, feel the width' has been a criticism of modern-day regattas where organisers mistakenly focus on being the biggest to be the best. Dun Laoghaire, with its local fleet of 300 boats, never set out to be the biggest. Its priority focussed instead on quality racing even after it got off to a spectacularly wrong start when the event was becalmed for four days at its first attempt.

The idea to rekindle a combined Dublin bay event resurfaced after an absence of almost 40 years, mostly because of the persistence of a passionate race officer Brian Craig who believed that Dun Laoghaire could become the Cowes of the Irish Sea if the town and the local clubs worked together. Although fickle winds conspired against him in 2005, the support of all four Dun Laoghaire waterfront yacht clubs since then (made up of Dun Laoghaire Motor YC, National YC, Royal Irish YC and Royal St GYC), in association with the two racing clubs of Dublin Bay SC and Royal Alfred YC, gave him the momentum to carry on.

There is no doubt that sailors have also responded with their support from all four coasts. Running for four days, the regatta is (after the large mini-marathons) the single most significant participant sports event in the country, requiring the services of 280 volunteers on and off the water, as well as top international race officers and an international jury, to resolve racing disputes representing five countries. A flotilla of 25 boats regularly races from the Royal Dee near Liverpool to Dublin for the Lyver Trophy to coincide with the event. The race also doubles as a RORC qualifying race for the Fastnet.

Sailors from the Ribble, Mersey, the Menai Straits, Anglesey, Cardigan Bay and the Isle of Man have to travel three times the distance to the Solent as they do to Dublin Bay. This, claims Craig, is one of the major selling points of the Irish event and explains the range of entries from marinas as far away as Yorkshire's Whitby YC and the Isle of Wight.

No other regatta in the Irish Sea area can claim to have such a reach. Dublin Bay Weeks such as this petered out in the 1960s, and it has taken almost four decades for the waterfront clubs to come together to produce a spectacle on and off the water to rival Cowes."The fact that we are getting such numbers means it is inevitable that it is compared with Cowes," said Craig. However, there the comparison ends."We're doing our own thing here. Dun Laoghaire is unique, and we are making an extraordinary effort to welcome visitors from abroad," he added. The busiest shipping lane in the country – across the bay to Dublin port – closes temporarily to facilitate the regatta and the placing of six separate courses each day.

A fleet total of this size represents something of an unknown quantity on the bay as it is more than double the size of any other regatta ever held there.

Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta FAQs

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is Ireland's biggest sailing event. It is held every second Summer at Dun Laoghaire Harbour on Dublin Bay.

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is held every two years, typically in the first weekend of July.

As its name suggests, the event is based at Dun Laoghaire Harbour. Racing is held on Dublin Bay over as many as six different courses with a coastal route that extends out into the Irish Sea. Ashore, the festivities are held across the town but mostly in the four organising yacht clubs.

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is the largest sailing regatta in Ireland and on the Irish Sea and the second largest in the British Isles. It has a fleet of 500 competing boats and up to 3,000 sailors. Scotland's biggest regatta on the Clyde is less than half the size of the Dun Laoghaire event. After the Dublin city marathon, the regatta is one of the most significant single participant sporting events in the country in terms of Irish sporting events.

The modern Dublin Bay Regatta began in 2005, but it owes its roots to earlier combined Dublin Bay Regattas of the 1960s.

Up to 500 boats regularly compete.

Up to 70 different yacht clubs are represented.

The Channel Islands, Isle of Man, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland countrywide, and Dublin clubs.

Nearly half the sailors, over 1,000, travel to participate from outside of Dun Laoghaire and from overseas to race and socialise in Dun Laoghaire.

21 different classes are competing at Dun Laoghaire Regatta. As well as four IRC Divisions from 50-footers down to 20-foot day boats and White Sails, there are also extensive one-design keelboat and dinghy fleets to include all the fleets that regularly race on the Bay such as Beneteau 31.7s, Ruffian 23s, Sigma 33s as well as Flying Fifteens, Laser SB20s plus some visiting fleets such as the RS Elites from Belfast Lough to name by one.

 

Some sailing household names are regular competitors at the biennial Dun Laoghaire event including Dun Laoghaire Olympic silver medalist, Annalise Murphy. International sailing stars are competing too such as Mike McIntyre, a British Olympic Gold medalist and a raft of World and European class champions.

There are different entry fees for different size boats. A 40-foot yacht will pay up to €550, but a 14-foot dinghy such as Laser will pay €95. Full entry fee details are contained in the Regatta Notice of Race document.

Spectators can see the boats racing on six courses from any vantage point on the southern shore of Dublin Bay. As well as from the Harbour walls itself, it is also possible to see the boats from Sandycove, Dalkey and Killiney, especially when the boats compete over inshore coastal courses or have in-harbour finishes.

Very favourably. It is often compared to Cowes, Britain's biggest regatta on the Isle of Wight that has 1,000 entries. However, sailors based in the north of England have to travel three times the distance to get to Cowes as they do to Dun Laoghaire.

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is unique because of its compact site offering four different yacht clubs within the harbour and the race tracks' proximity, just a five-minute sail from shore. International sailors also speak of its international travel connections and being so close to Dublin city. The regatta also prides itself on balancing excellent competition with good fun ashore.

The Organising Authority (OA) of Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta is Dublin Bay Regattas Ltd, a not-for-profit company, beneficially owned by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club (DMYC), National Yacht Club (NYC), Royal Irish Yacht Club (RIYC) and Royal St George Yacht Club (RSGYC).

The Irish Marine Federation launched a case study on the 2009 Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta's socio-economic significance. Over four days, the study (carried out by Irish Sea Marine Leisure Knowledge Network) found the event was worth nearly €3million to the local economy over the four days of the event. Typically the Royal Marine Hotel and Haddington Hotel and other local providers are fully booked for the event.

©Afloat 2020