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Displaying items by tag: Cliff Rescue

The Irish Coast Guard has cited safety reasons for its temporary suspension of cliff rescues, as RTÉ News reports.

A spokesperson said the move is in line with its safety management system “and the function will be resumed when it has been is deemed safe to do so”.

Areas affected by the suspension will be serviced by existing coastguard units and the SAR helicopter network, the spokesperson added.

The move comes just weeks after some coastguard cliff rescue team members claimed they had not received any training in six months amid pandemic restrictions, as previously noted on Afloat.ie.

Published in Coastguard

Irish Coast Guard training needs “will be addressed” after units expressed concerns about their safety with exercises suspended under lockdown, as TheJournal.ie reports.

While limited coastguard training resumed earlier this month, the likes of cliff units have not been able to take part in in-person training since Level 3.

And it’s been claimed that some members of the specialist cliff rescue teams have not received any training in six months.

TheJournal.ie has much more on the story HERE.

Published in Coastguard

#Howth - The Irish Coast Guard cliff rescue team at Howth sprang into action yesterday afternoon (Saturday 16 July) after reports that a man in his 30s had fallen from the cliff path on Howth Head in North Co Dublin.

Working with paramedics from the Dublin Fire Brigade, the coastguard team evacuated the casualty to a waiting ambulance from the spot where he had fallen, some four metres from the cliff path near Drumleck Point.

The casualty had suffered a head injury but was conscious and breathing. He is currently being treated at Beaumont Hospital.

Howth RNLI and the Irish Coast Guard's Waterford-based helicopter Rescue 117 were also tasked to the incident but stood down.

Published in Coastguard

The Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) Information

The creation of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) began in a very low key way in the autumn of 2002 with an exploratory meeting between Denis Kiely, Jim Donegan and Fintan Cairns in the Granville Hotel in Waterford, and the first conference was held in February 2003 in Kilkenny.

While numbers of cruiser-racers were large, their specific locations were widespread, but there was simply no denying the numerical strength and majority power of the Cork-Dublin axis. To get what was then a very novel concept up and running, this strength of numbers had to be acknowledged, and the first National Championship in 2003 reflected this, as it was staged in Howth.

ICRA was run by a dedicated group of volunteers each of whom brought their special talents to the organisation. Jim Donegan, the elder statesman, was so much more interested in the wellbeing of the new organisation than in personal advancement that he insisted on Fintan Cairns being the first Commodore, while the distinguished Cork sailor was more than content to be Vice Commodore.

ICRA National Championships

Initially, the highlight of the ICRA season was the National Championship, which is essentially self-limiting, as it is restricted to boats which have or would be eligible for an IRC Rating. Boats not actually rated but eligible were catered for by ICRA’s ace number-cruncher Denis Kiely, who took Ireland’s long-established native rating system ECHO to new heights, thereby providing for extra entries which brought fleet numbers at most annual national championships to comfortably above the hundred mark, particularly at the height of the boom years. 

ICRA Boat of the Year (Winners 2004-2019)