Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Completed

#Ports&Shipping - Winners of the annual scholarship scheme in the Welsh Port of Milford Haven, have completed summer work placements experiencing the organisation’s wide range of activities.

Rhiannon Morgan, Rebecca Foster, Elizabeth Jenkins and Isabelle Hughes were interviewed by a panel of judges who took into account their academic achievements, extra-curricular activities and ambitions for the future. They all received £1,500 plus work experience, undertaking projects related to their subject areas and interests.

Rhiannon from Houghton has just completed a Law degree at Aberystwyth University and was placed within the Estates team; Rebecca from Clunderwen is studying History in Durham and worked with the Tourism department; Elizabeth from Pembroke Dock is at Plymouth University studying Geology and spent time with the Environmental team and Isabelle from Roch who’s an Oxford University student reading Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry was placed within the Quayside Operations department.

The university students presented their projects to senior managers along with the scholarship panel which consisted of the Port’s Chairman Chris Martin; Maxine Thomas, Head of Safeguarding and Learner Services at Pembrokeshire College and Yvonne Evans, Chair of Governors at Milford Haven School.

Chris Martin was impressed with the standard of work produced by the students, commenting “The presentations were very thorough and it was clear that they found the placements to be of great benefit. The content was also really thought-provoking and I look forward to exploring some of the suggestions made with my colleagues.”

The 2018/19 Scholarship Scheme will be launched towards the end of September.

Published in Ports & Shipping

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)