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Displaying items by tag: REACT

#Rescue - The Irish Coast Guard and the RNLI were among the emergency services putting some new communication technology to the test last month.

As Phys.org reports, the emergency exercise in Malahide Estuary was designed to test the effectiveness of REACT, or Resource for Emergency services to Access Command and control data using satellite and hybrid Technologies.

The system, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), employs satellite, mobile and other communications systems to maintain a constant open channel between different response services, even if one network goes down during a crisis.

Rescue teams in the field can also remain in two-way multimedia contact with co-ordinators in the control room to ensure the right people are where they need to be as quickly as possible.

Ritchie Hedderman, head of operations at the Dublin Fire Brigade, which also took part in the exercise, said: "In the event of a major emergency, secure and reliable communications are vital to the emergency services.

"I feel that the satellite communications in time will prove to be the primary and preferred means for communicating as it can supply voice, video and data back to regional and national control centres where strategic commanders can assess situation on the ground and provide the back up resources in order that a successful conclusion to the emergency can be obtained."

Phys.org has much more on the story HERE.

Published in Rescue

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)