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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: Schull Harbour Sailing Club

Growler (G. Horgan) took home the trophy at the Schull Harbour Sailing Club's Summer cruiser league's Tadg Dwyer Trophy Race on Saturday.

Dave O’Brien’s Aphrodite came in second, while John McGowan’s Mackey G took third place.

This was the eighth race of the league, which has Barry Quinlan’s Capella in the overall lead with 20 points, followed by Tony O’Brien’s Tighey Boy with 30 points. Tadg Dwyer’s Brazen Huzie, with 33 points, comes in at third place.

The club is preparing for next week's CD Environmental-sponsored Calves Week Regatta, which should see 75 boats come to the line for West Cork's biggest sailing event.

Published in West Cork

Tom Newman’s Sitelle won the Ronan Long Island Trophy Race at Schull Harbour Sailing Club in West Cork.

Don McCarthy’s VSOP was second, and Brian Ronan’s Kopper Too was third.

Published in West Cork

The Mulloy Trophy Race on Saturday at Schull Harbour Sailing Club in West Cork was won by Tony O’Brien’s J109 Tighey Boy, with Tadgh Dwyer’s Brazen Huzie second and John McGowan’s Mackey G third.

SHSC is now in the final stage of preparations for its CD Environmental Calves Week Regatta from 8 - 11 August 2023.

Published in West Cork

Don McCarthy's Sovereign 'V.S.O.P.' won the Barnett Trophy at Schull Harbour Sailing Club in West Cork on July 1.

Fine sailing conditions off Schull saw McCarthy beat Barry Quinlan's Dehler 35 Capella in a strong breeze of over 20 knots. 

The one-hour, forty-minute Barnett Trophy fixture was race four in the  All-in-Club ECHO 2023 Summer League.

Dave O'Brien's First 32 Aphrodite was third.

Overall Quinlan leads the summer league by a margin of three points.

Published in West Cork

At Schull Harbour Sailing Club's All-In cruiser ECHO racing in West Cork, the Windbourne Trophy was won by Kevin Daly's Jamaro.

The Geneveve Trophy winner was Tony O'Brien's J109 Tighey Boy, and Alan Dwyer's Joxer won the Rosbrin Trophy.

The Barnett Trophy is scheduled for this Saturday.

Summer League leader is John McGowan's Mackey G, with Barry Quinlan's Capella second and Tadg Dwyer's Brazen Husie third.

Published in West Cork

After three races in Schull Harbour Sailing Club’s Autumn League, Don McCarthy’s Sovereign VSOP leads on 13 points, with Simon Nelson’s Witchcraft second on 14 and Alan Dwyer’s Sally in Stitiches third on 16.

Published in West Cork

Schull Harbour Sailing Club in West Cork has thirteen yachts racing its weekly Saturday league series. Flor O’Riordan’s Elan 31 ‘3 Cheers’ won the fifth race of the series under All-In Club Standard ECHO/IRC handicap, with Tony O’Brien’s J109 Tighey Roy second and Manzanita, John Molloy, third.

The win for ‘3 Cheers’ places it third in the series which is led overall by Martin Lane’s Oceanis 33, Chatterbox, on 8 points. Second overall is Tighey Boy on 8 points, with Flor O’Riordan on 10. Manzanita is in fourth place, one behind on 11.

Fifty for Calves Week 2022

Fifty yachts have entered for Calves Week at Schull, which will be raced from August 2 to 5, the top West Cork event of the Summer sailing season.

Racing will be under IRC and ECHO handicaps and there will be a White Sail class, also scored under ECHO and IRC.

Registration will be on Monday, August 1, at the Fastnet Outdoor Education Centre from 2 to 5 p.m., with a briefing for Skippers to follow at 6 p.m.

Published in West Cork

Martin Lane’s Chatterbox won the May Cruiser League at Schull Harbour Sailing Club (SHSC) in West Cork.

Michael Murphy’s Shelly D was second and Frank O’Hara’s Samphire third.

The Summer Series begins at SHSC on Saturday, June 11th.

Published in West Cork

A 12-mile "gentle reintroduction" started the racing season at Schull Harbour Sailing Club in West Cork.

The 'Saturday Morning Taste of Sailing' sessions were restarted, with thirteen junior sailors in five boats bringing youngsters onto the water for club training. This will continue until the end of August.

That afternoon, eleven cruisers came to the start line for the cruiser season's opening race, which is traditionally for the 1st Commodore Trophy.

Conditions were ideal with sunshine and light to moderate Westerly winds. They raced a 12-mile course around Goat Island and club marks - "providing a gentle reintroduction to all points of sailing," said club Commodore Sean Norris.

ECHO Handicap was won by Gaby Hogan's 'Growler' with the 'experimental' IRC/Standard Echo Handicap winner being Flor Riordan's '3 Cheers.'

Next Saturday's Race is for the Applebe Trophy.

Published in News Update

Schull Sailing Club was founded in the West Cork harbour in 1977. Once a thriving fishing community, like other coastal areas that aspect of the village has diminished, but sailing has continued to develop.

However, when Cork County Council didn't put forward the planned marina at Schull as a project for funding, it was a setback for the development of facilities that sailing needed.

That has not deterred the club, though Commodore Sean Norris says it leaves an "uncertain position" about the hopes for a marina there.

Sailing at Calves Week in West Cork Sailing at Calves Week in West Cork Photo: Bob Bateman

The club's major organisational effort is Calves Week Regatta and that is going ahead this year, scheduled for August 3-6 with entries already in and strong support coming from the smaller and older boats, which is at the biggest level seen for the event in recent years. There is also a good level of interest from visiting East Coast boats.

Sailing round the Fastnet Rock at Calves Week 2019 Photo: Bob BatemanSailing round the Fastnet Rock at Calves Week 2019 Photo: Bob Bateman

Commodore Norris is my guest on this week's Podcast, where he urges visitors to bring with them going ashore transport and says that, though onshore arrangements have to be mitigated because of Covid restrictions, he is optimistic for the Summer sailing season and positive about the future of the club.

Listen to the Podcast below

Published in West Cork
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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]