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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: Marina

This important new potoon facility on Clew Bay is located approximately 30 metres from the edge of the permanent pier will allow users of the pier to board and disembark from their boats in a convenient and safe manner.

Mayo Sailing Club, islanders, boatmen and County officials gathered at Rosmoney Pier for the opening for public use of the new floating Pontoon at Rosmoney in April 2013.

Rosmoney near Westport is the base for the Mayo Sailing Club whose members enjoy the excellent sailing grounds that exists among the archipelago of islands in the east of Clew Bay.

Rosmoney is located 8km from Westport town and adjoins Clew Bay. Rosmoney Bay is currently the centre of access to Clew Bay for a wide number of users. Currently there are over 100 marine craft of various descriptions moored in Rosmoney.

The pontoon is made up of a floating pontoon and ramp with safety railings, a water source and power facilities which makes it possible for boats to moor at Rosmoney including local fish farm vessels. Islanders will be allowed to tie their boats to the pontoon while on business on the mainland while other boat users are to use it for loading and uploading.

Published in Irish Marinas
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Valentia Harbour is on the south side of the entrance to Dingle Bay, in a sheltered area between the Valentia Island and the mainland. Knightstown is a fishing port and is the Island's only settlement. It provides visiting yachts with a sheltered anchorage and moorings. There is the outline of a marina (the floating breakwaters) there and they are sometimes used for berthing.

Published in Irish Marinas

Cranagh marina is located on the Bann Estuary below Coleraine, a four miles sail of the mouth of the Bann, the gateway to the North Coast from inland Ireland.  It has an 18–berth jetty that is in the process of being extended to accommodate a further 60 berths.

cranaghmarina

Cranagh marina on the river Bann. Photo W M Nixon

Published in Irish Marinas
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Rathmullan marina is a small marina pontoon at Rathmullan, a village in County Donegal is located on the western shore of Lough Swilly and is part of the Fanad Peninsula, situated roughly 12.5 miles from the Lough's entrance and 34 miles northwest of Londonderry/Derry.

The pontoon is suitable for small vessels to berth alongside at a reasonable fee and where fresh water is laid on.  There is a concrete slipway suitable for dinghy landing. The Lough Swilly ferry also operates from the pier between Rathmullan and Buncrana, a journey of 45 minutes.

Published in Irish Marinas

Copeland Marina is one of Ireland's first marinas. Located on the northeast coast of Ireland two miles south of Copeland Island, that lies outside the entrance to Belfast Lough, and is immediately south of Donaghadee Harbour. It is a compact marina mostly occupied by local boats.  It is an ideal destination to enjoy Donaghadee and the Ard's Peninsula with the vessel completely protected in the marina from all conditions.

Manager: Gerald Nicholas.
Copelands Marina Phone: +44 2891 992184 Mobile: +44 7802 36 3382
VHF: Ch 16 ,11, 80
Email - [email protected]

Published in Irish Marinas

Glenarm has long been a port of call for sailors and yachtsmen travelling to and from Scotland's island-studded western coast and has proved a welcoming haven to visitors from all over the world.
Glenarm Harbour offers 40 fully serviced pontoon berths within the village's historical limestone harbour, which is ideally situated within a day's sail of the Western Isles and Clyde. Visiting vessels welcome.

Glenarm Harbour
Glenarm, Co.Antrim, BT44 0EA

Telephone: 028 2884 1285

Published in Irish Marinas

#greystonesharbourmarina – The Irish Sea's newest marina opens in Wicklow on Easter Monday. Greystones Harbour Marina will open on 1st April 2013 with 100 berths available initially.

Since arriving on site in December operators BJ Marinas Ltd have been working around the clock to ensure they met their target of being open for the start of the boating season on 1st April.

Managing Director Bernard Gallagher said "We're delighted to be appointed as harbour and marina operators. It's a unique and stunning site and we're looking forward to opening this new marina on Monday'

BJ started taking bookings in late January and have had a steady stream of commitment from berth holders since then.

There will be 100 berths initially ranging from six metres to 30 metres. Once completed there will be 230 berths.

Published in Greystones Harbour

#greystonesharbour – It's full steam ahead at Greystones Harbour where operators BJ Marinas Ltd are putting the final touches to the marina ready for opening in 11 days time on April 1.

Our exclusive photo (taken yesterday) shows recent progress in the marina basin with piling complete and furniture being installed.

BJ, will operate the marina and boatyard,  say they are 'really happy with the progress' and confirm the marina will open on schedule.

The pontoon installation will be completed shortly with 100 berths initially and the access bridge should also be complete by the weekend.

Office and facilities will be in place early next week and other services and the access road are also well under way.

Local boaters have already being eyeing up the new facility. Greystones Sailing Club has put together a provisional programme for Keelboat racing this season, a new era for the club.

The County Wicklow marina has received '85 serious enquiries' for berths over the Christmas and New Year Period. Berthing details are here.

The newest addition to boating on Ireland's east coast is operated by BJ Marinas Ltd, a company owned by senior marine industry figure Bernard Gallagher.

The firm are operating the new site under contract from developers Sispar and Wicklow County Council.

greystonesmarinapontoon

Greystones Harbour Marina takes shape – pontoons are installed this week to give Ireland a new addition to its coastal marina network

 

Published in Greystones Harbour

#greystones – A piling barge to install steel poles for Greystones Harbour marina has arrived on site at the East coast harbour in County Wicklow.

Piling will take most of March to complete and the initial 100-berth marina is planned to open in April. The marina will be operated by BJ Marinas Ltd. Local councillor Derek Mitchell welcomed the arrival of the works that will provide a new destination for Irish sea boaters.

'I'm very pleased that BJ Marinas Ltd are now building the marina which they will operate from April. Its MD, Bernard Gallagher, who was Chairman of the Irish Marine Industry Federation, has provided very useful advice to the project when it was in its formative stages a decade ago' Mitchell told Afloat.ie.

 

Published in Greystones Harbour
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#greystones – Soon to open Greystones Harbour marina in County Wicklow has received '85 serious enquiries' for berths over the Christmas and New Year Period according to BJ Marinas Ltd, the recently appointed operators of the marina that is due to open on April 1st.

The marina will open initially with 100 berths and work to install the pontoon berths in the new harbour will start with pile driving in two weeks time.

The firm will operate the marina and boatyard on the purpose built site under contract from developers Sispar and Wicklow County Council. Bernard Gallagher of BJ Marinas Ltd is reporting 'a steady stream of enquiries'. Interest is mixed between sail and power craft owners.

The enquiry for the biggest vessel so far being a 55-footer. After piling on February 1st, pontoons are expected to be on site in the third week of February. Access roads are also to be completed at the site.

Published in Greystones Harbour
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Page 9 of 13

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]