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A Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: AfloatA Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

Displaying items by tag: Catamarans

Kilrush RNLI’s volunteer crew were called out yesterday morning (Sunday 8 November) to a report of a capsized catamaran drifting near Corlis Point on the Shannon Estuary.

The lifeboat crew launched within minutes of the 11.30am call and quickly reached the five-metre sailing catamaran on the Co Clare shore of the estuary.

Due to technical issues, the two on board the catamaran were unable to right the vessel and were drifting with the tide.

Both were found to be unharmed, and the lifeboat crew assisted in righting the vessel before escorting it back to Poulnasherry Bay, from where it had launched.

This was the second callout of the week for Kilrush RNLI, who previously launched on Wednesday (4 November) to a speedboat which was adrift between Glin and Tarbert on the Shannon Estuary and was a danger to navigation. Volunteers located and towed the vessel, which had no occupants, to Tarbert Island.

Charlie Glynn, Kilrush RNLI helm, says: “During Covid-19 restrictions, Kilrush RNLI’s readiness to launch has not changed and [we] continue to be fully operational and on call 24/7.”

Published in RNLI Lifeboats
24th September 2009

Irish Multihull Association

Cat Classes Sailed in Ireland

Racing Classes

Dart 18 – Blessington SC, Ballyholme YC, Swords S&BC

Dart 16 – Blessington SC, Ballyholme YC, Galway Bay SC, Swords S&BC, Mullingar SC

The Dart 16 and Dart 18 performance catamarans are raced in Irish Clubs by crews of all ages and are also ideal for fun 'off the beach' sailing. The Dart 16, with its furling jib and quickly reefed mainsail, is perfect for safe fun sailing. 

Irish International Dart Association, c/o Marjorie Mangan, Secretary, 47 Willington Crescent, Templeogue, Dublin 6w. Tel: 01 456 5060, email: [email protected]

 
Hurricane 5.9 – Swords S&BC, Blessington SC, Ballyholme YC

 

dart_hawk.jpgLeft: A Dart Hawk

Formula 18 – Dart Hawk, Blessington SC; and Hobie Tiger, Royal Cork YC, Galway Bay SC, Blessington SC

Spitfire – Blessington SC, Ballyholme YC

Shadow – Blessington SC,  Galway Bay SC

A-Class – Royal Cork YC

Hobie 18 and Hobie 16 – Blessington SC, Ballyholme YC, Swords S&BC, Galway Bay SC

Hobie have something to suit everyone, from youth to Adults, beginners to high performance racing – a double-handed and single-handed class for the more adventurous. Racing is available at home and there's a strong International circuit in Europe. Cruising, the class have been known to make the occasional coastal voyage from Cork to Glandore and Cong to Galway. Cruising around Belfast Lough

Irish Hobie Class Association, c/o Yvonne Sheehan, Secretary, Avonmore, Cork Road, Mallow, Co Cork. Fax: 087 747 6051, email: [email protected]

 

Multihull Cruisers – Racers

Catamarans and Trimarans over 20ft (6m)

In the mid-80s there was a growing fleet of Cruiser-Racers between 22ft and 35ft. These catamarans and trimarans raced at Multihull events with the smaller racing catamarans, usually racing on a longer offshore course.

Some were damaged in Hurricane Charlie and the fleet dispersed in the late eighties. There are quite a few of the larger catamarans and trimarans in clubs around the Country.

We would like to establish contact with the owners of these Multihulls with a view to keeping a database of these boats and hopefully, organising some events, maybe in conjunction with one of the events on the Catamaran Racing Calendar. This could take the format of a Rally, perhaps with some handicap racing.

If you have a Cruising or Racing Multihull over twenty feet in length, based in Ireland, please email us at [email protected] or telephone 353 1 4565060.

If you have stories and photos of your cruises and trips around Ireland or abroad, we will print them on this page.

We hope for a good response and we will keep our website page updated.

(Above information courtesy of the Irish Multihull Association)
 

Graham Smith wrote, in Afloat's March 2009 issue: "There are 43 multihulls – comprising various catamaran types – racing actively in Ireland in six locations, statistics which confirm that there has been a small increase over the past year and underlining the ongoing passion which the multihullers have for their particular branch of the sport.

Almost half of them made it on average to the five regional events held during the season, which saw four different winners. Andrew Gallagher of Royal Cork ended up as National Champion in a 25-strong fleet on his home territory, having also won the Easterns on Dublin Bay with crew Jimmy Nyhan.

Clubmate Rob Doyle won the Southerns (also at RCYC) and Blessington’s Simon Kearns took the Western title, but 2008 was otherwise the year of the Ballyholme pairing of Adrian and Mike Allen. Together they won the Northerns and Inlands but also had the distinction of topping the leaderboard at the Brightlingsea Open British Hurricane 5.9 event. National Champion: Andrew Gallagher and Jimmy Nyhan, Royal Cork YC"

Irish Multihull Association, c/o Yvonne Sheehan, Secretary, 'Avonmore', Cork Road, Mallow, Co. Cork. Tel: 087 7476051

There is a space for Irish boating clubs and racing classes to use as their own bulletin board and forum for announcements and discussion. If you want to see a dedicated forum slot for your club or class, click here   

Published in Classes & Assoc

How to sail, sailing clubs and sailing boats plus news on the wide range of sailing events on Irish waters forms the backbone of Afloat's sailing coverage.

We aim to encompass the widest range of activities undertaken on Irish lakes, rivers and coastal waters. This page describes those sailing activites in more detail and provides links and breakdowns of what you can expect from our sailing pages. We aim to bring jargon free reports separated in to popular categories to promote the sport of sailing in Ireland.

The packed 2013 sailing season sees the usual regular summer leagues and there are regular weekly race reports from Dublin Bay Sailing Club, Howth and Cork Harbour on Afloat.ie. This season and last also featured an array of top class events coming to these shores. Each year there is ICRA's Cruiser Nationals starts and every other year the Round Ireland Yacht Race starts and ends in Wicklow and all this action before July. Crosshaven's Cork Week kicks off on in early July every other year. in 2012 Ireland hosted some big international events too,  the ISAF Youth Worlds in Dun Laoghaire and in August the Tall Ships Race sailed into Dublin on its final leg. In that year the Dragon Gold Cup set sail in Kinsale in too.

2013 is also packed with Kinsale hosting the IFDS diabled world sailing championships in Kinsale and the same port is also hosting the Sovereign's Cup. The action moves to the east coast in July with the staging of the country's biggest regatta, the Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta from July 11.

Our coverage though is not restricted to the Republic of Ireland but encompasses Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Irish Sea area too. In this section you'll find information on the Irish Sailing Association and Irish sailors. There's sailing reports on regattas, racing, training, cruising, dinghies and keelboat classes, windsurfers, disabled sailing, sailing cruisers, Olympic sailing and Tall Ships sections plus youth sailing, match racing and team racing coverage too.

Sailing Club News

There is a network of over 70 sailing clubs in Ireland and we invite all clubs to submit details of their activities for inclusion in our daily website updates. There are dedicated sections given over to the big Irish clubs such as  the waterfront clubs in Dun Laoghaire; Dublin Bay Sailing Club, the Royal Saint George Yacht Club,  the Royal Irish Yacht Club and the National Yacht Club. In Munster we regularly feature the work of Kinsale Yacht Club and Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven.  Abroad Irish sailors compete in Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) racing in the UK and this club is covered too. Click here for Afloat's full list of sailing club information. We are keen to increase our coverage on the network of clubs from around the coast so if you would like to send us news and views of a local interest please let us have it by sending an email to [email protected]

Sailing Boats and Classes

Over 20 active dinghy and one design classes race in Irish waters and fleet sizes range from just a dozen or so right up to over 100 boats in the case of some of the biggest classes such as the Laser or Optimist dinghies for national and regional championships. Afloat has dedicated pages for each class: Dragons, Etchells, Fireball, Flying Fifteen, GP14, J24's, J80's, Laser, Sigma 33, RS Sailing, Star, Squibs, TopperMirror, Mermaids, National 18, Optimist, Puppeteers, SB3's, and Wayfarers. For more resources on Irish classes go to our dedicated sailing classes page.

The big boat scene represents up to 60% of the sail boat racing in these waters and Afloat carries updates from the Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA), the body responsible for administering cruiser racing in Ireland and the popular annual ICRA National Championships. In 2010 an Irish team won the RORC Commodore's Cup putting Irish cruiser racing at an all time high. Popular cruiser fleets in Ireland are raced right around the coast but naturally the biggest fleets are in the biggest sailing centres in Cork Harbour and Dublin Bay. Cruisers race from a modest 20 feet or so right up to 50'. Racing is typically divided in to Cruisers Zero, Cruisers One, Cruisers Two, Cruisers Three and Cruisers Four. A current trend over the past few seasons has been the introduction of a White Sail division that is attracting big fleets.

Traditionally sailing in northern Europe and Ireland used to occur only in some months but now thanks to the advent of a network of marinas around the coast (and some would say milder winters) there are a number of popular winter leagues running right over the Christmas and winter periods.

Sailing Events

Punching well above its weight Irish sailing has staged some of the world's top events including the Volvo Ocean Race Galway Stopover, Tall Ships visits as well as dozens of class world and European Championships including the Laser Worlds, the Fireball Worlds in both Dun Laoghaire and Sligo.

Some of these events are no longer pure sailing regattas and have become major public maritime festivals some are the biggest of all public staged events. In the past few seasons Ireland has hosted events such as La Solitaire du Figaro and the ISAF Dublin Bay 2012 Youth Worlds.

There is a lively domestic racing scene for both inshore and offshore sailing. A national sailing calendar of summer fixtures is published annually and it includes old favorites such as Sovereign's Cup, Calves Week, Dun Laoghaire to Dingle, All Ireland Sailing Championships as well as new events with international appeal such as the Round Britain and Ireland Race and the Clipper Round the World Race, both of which have visited Ireland.

The bulk of the work on running events though is carried out by the network of sailing clubs around the coast and this is mostly a voluntary effort by people committed to the sport of sailing. For example Wicklow Sailing Club's Round Ireland yacht race run in association with the Royal Ocean Racing Club has been operating for over 30 years. Similarly the international Cork Week regatta has attracted over 500 boats in past editions and has also been running for over 30 years.  In recent years Dublin Bay has revived its own regatta called Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta and can claim to be the country's biggest event with over 550 boats entered in 2009.

On the international stage Afloat carries news of Irish and UK interest on Olympics 2012, Sydney to Hobart, Volvo Ocean Race, Cowes Week and the Fastnet Race.

We're always aiming to build on our sailing content. We're keen to build on areas such as online guides on learning to sail in Irish sailing schools, navigation and sailing holidays. If you have ideas for our pages we'd love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected]