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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: State fisheries

The tender process for Inland Fisheries Ireland’s (IFI) State fisheries for 2024 is now open.

State-owned fishing rights are made available for licence to interested angling clubs every year and IFI generally has licence agreements with over 50 fishing clubs, allowing them to fish on more than 90 fisheries where the rights are State-owned.

If your club wants to tender for one or more fisheries, you can apply online. Alternatively, download and fill out the Condition of Tender Questionnaire and return it to IFI by post; please mark your envelope TENDER APPLICATION and send it to: Paul O’Reilly, Business Development, Inland Fisheries Ireland, 3044 Lake Drive, Citywest, Dublin 24.

If your club is interested in a longer-term licence, please fill out the relevant section on your form and we will be in touch with you. Please tender the ‘per year’ licence fee.

Please also complete the End of Year Report in respect of each fishery held under licence last season if you have not already done so.

Tenders will be accepted up until Friday 19 January 2024; proof of postage on or before this date will be accepted.

If you have any queries relating to State Fisheries or the 2024 tender process, get in touch with Paul O’Reilly at [email protected].

Published in Angling

The tender process for IFI State fisheries for 2023 is now open.

Angling clubs that wish to tender for one or more fisheries should fill out the online questionnaire or download and complete the PDF application form.

Where there is a fishery in freshwater, there is a right to fish, and Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) owns the fishing rights to a wide range of these fisheries in Ireland, ranging from picturesque small lakes to long river stretches and everything in between.

State-owned fishing rights are made available for licence to interested angling clubs every year and IFI generally has licence agreements with over 50 fishing clubs, allowing them to fish on more than 90 fisheries where the rights are State-owned.

Tenders will be accepted up until Friday 6 January 2023; proof of postage on or before this date will be accepted.

Those returning their applications by post should mark their envelope with TENDER APPLICATION and send it to:

Paul O’Reilly,
Business Development,
Inland Fisheries Ireland,
3044 Lake Drive,
Citywest,
Dublin 24

If your club is interested in a longer-term licence, fill out the relevant section on your form and IFI will be in touch with you. IFI also reminds applicants to tender the ‘per year’ licence fee.

Queries relating to State fisheries or the 2023 tender process should be directed to Paul O’Reilly at [email protected].

Published in Angling

The tender process for State fisheries overseen by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) is now open for 2022.

The list of fisheries available in the 2022 tender can be found on the IFI website, as can the 2022 application form. Applications can also be made online.

Postal tenders should be submitted in an envelope marked TENDER APPLICATION to Paul O’Reilly, Business Development, Inland Fisheries Ireland, 3044 Lake Drive, Citywest, Dublin 24.

If your angling club is interested in a longer term licence, fill out the relevant section on your form, including the ‘per year’ licence fee, and IFI will be in touch.

Tenders will be accepted up until Friday 17 December; proof of postage on or before this date will be accepted.

If you have any queries relating to State fisheries or the 2022 tender process, contact Paul O’Reilly at [email protected] or 01 884 2600.

Meanwhile, all clubs who held a licence on any of the State fisheries during the 2021 season need to fill out an End of Year Report Form (PDF and .doc) and return it to IFI at the above address by 17 December. Alternatively you can complete the End of Year form online HERE.

Published in Angling

#Angling - Angling clubs have until this Friday 22 December to submit their tender for rivers opening in the New Year in the State Fisheries Tender Process for 2018.

Tenders will be accepted up until Friday for rivers opening in January 2018, and until 12 January or the remainder. Proof of postage on or before these date will be accepted.

The list of available fisheries can be found on the Inland Fisheries Ireland website. To tender for one or more fisheries, fill out the Condition of Tender and Application Form.

Mark your envelope TENDER APPLICATION and send it to Paul O’Reilly, Business Development, Inland Fisheries Ireland, 3044 Lake Drive, Citywest, Dublin 24.

If your angling club is interested in a longer term licence, fill out the relevant section on your form and IFI will get in touch. In the meantime, the ‘per year’ licence fee should be tendered.

For any queries relating to State Fisheries or the 2017 tender process, contact Paul O’Reilly at [email protected] or at 01 884 2600.

In addition, all clubs who held a licence on a State fishery during the 2016 season will need to fill out an End of Year Report Form and return it to IFI at the above address by 30 December.

End of Year reports may of course be posted together with tender applications, though no envelopes marked ‘TENDER APPLICATION’ will be opened until after the closing date for applications. Any tender cheques enclosed will also not be acknowledged until after 12 January.

Published in Angling

#Angling - The tender process for Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) State Fisheries for 2017 is now open.

Lists of available fisheries can be found on the IFI website HERE.

To tender for one or more fisheries, fill out the Condition of Tender and Application Form 2016.

Tenders will be accepted up until Friday 30 December; proof of postage on or before this date will be accepted. Mark your envelope TENDER APPLICATION and send it to Paul O’Reilly, Business Development, Inland Fisheries Ireland, 3044 Lake Drive, Citywest, Dublin 24.

If your angling club is interested in a longer term licence, fill out the relevant section on your form and IFI will get in touch. In the meantime, however, the ‘per year’ licence fee should be tendered.

For any queries relating to State Fisheries or the 2017 tender process, contact Paul O’Reilly at [email protected] or at 01-884-2600.

In addition, all clubs who held a licence on a State Fishery during the 2016 season will need to fill out an End of Year Report Form and return it to IFI at the above address by 30 December.

End of Year reports may of course be posted together with tender applications, though no envelopes marked ‘TENDER APPLICATION’ will be opened until after the closing date for applications. Any tender cheques enclosed will also not be acknowledged until after 30 December.

Published in Angling

#Angling - The tender process for Inland Fisheries Ireland's (IFI) State fisheries for 2016 is now open.

A list of available fisheries is available to download from the IF website HERE. To tender for one or more fisheries, fill out the Condition of Tender and Application Form 2016.

Tenders will be accepted up until 18 December 2015; proof of postage on or before this date will be accepted. Please mark your envelope TENDER APPLICATION and send it to:

Paul O’Reilly
Business Development,
Inland Fisheries Ireland,
3044 Lake Drive,
Citywest,
Dublin 24

If your angling club is interested in a longer-term licence, fill out the relevant section on your form but ensure to tender the ‘per year’ licence fee.

In addition, all clubs who held a licence on a State fishery during the 2015 season need to fill out an End of Year Report Form and return it to IFI Swords at the above address, or by email, by 31 December 2015.

End of Year Reports may be posted together with tender applications, however, all envelopes marked ‘TENDER APPLICATION’ will not be opened until after the closing date for applications. Any tender cheques enclosed will also not be acknowledged until after 18 December.

If you have any queries relating to State fisheries or the 2016 tender process, contact Paul O’Reilly at [email protected] or at 01 884 2600.

Published in Angling
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#Angling - The 2015 tender process for Inland Fisheries Ireland's State fisheries is open till this coming Tuesday 30 December, with angling fisheries on rivers and catchments across seven districts open for bidding.

Full details of these fisheries, as well as the application form for submitting a tender or tenders, are available to download HERE.

Published in Angling
Tagged under

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]