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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: west cork

The ten competitors in the Crosshaven to Schull overnight race had a glorious spinnaker run out of Cork harbour as far as Cork Head before settling in for the long trip west with the freshening western breeze writes Claire Bateman. The trip was uneventful until the Class One fleet had passed Galley Head when in the early hours of Saturday morning Aidan Heffernans 'Indulgence' developed a steering problem. With three of his fellow competitors standing by a call was put out to Baltimore Lifeboat who towed the casualty safely to Baltimore.

The race continued to Schull where Donal O'Learys 'D Tox' took line honours finishing shortly after 7am. With numerous requests for redress, the race committee had a busy time sorting Class One results, which resulted in 'D Tox' taking first in both IRC and Echo, with Exhale and Saxon Senator filling second and third.

The spoils were shared in Class Two With Kieran O Briens 'Magnet' taking the IRC trophy, with the Barrett/Conlon team in 'Y Knot' winning Echo.

In the combined Classes Three and Four dogged determination finally paid off for Eddie Higgins and the crew of La Maraquita who, sailing the smallest boat in the race, crossed the Schull line in an elapsed time of sixteen and a half hours to capture the Echo trophy, with David Kenefick's 'Tiger' winning IRC.

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West Cork bound. Photo: Robert Bateman

Compared with their companions from the previous night, the five White Sail boats that started from Kinsale on Saturday morning had an uneventful long slog to Schull where Bryan Heffernans 'Aisling' took first ahead of Doherty and Co in 'Free Spirit' and Julian Dockery's 'Flying Fish',while Kieran Dwyer's 'Brazen Huzzie' was the sole finisher in White Sail Two.

On Sunday the Wind Gods totally deserted Schull, where Race Officer Neill Prendeville was finally forced to fly the abandonment flag after a four hour postponement.

Published in Calves Week

With over 60 confirmed entries at present, the 2010 Calves Week in Schull is expected to top the 80 boat mark for the annual West Cork festival of sailing. The week long sailing event is once again supported by the local business community together with sponsorship from Saab, Airtech Security and A&L Castors.

This year’s event will feature racing for eight cruiser classes, together with the growing West Cork 1720 fleet of sportsboats

Due to the dramatic increase in numbers, the White Sail fleet will be split into two, with a cut off point of approximately 35ft. Both fleets will begin the series in Kinsale, where they will start a daylight race to Schull at 8am on Saturday morning July 31st.

The cruiser fleets in Classes Zero, 1 and 2 will start the traditional Crosshaven/ Fastnet/Schull overnight race at an earlier time of 19.30 on Friday 30th from the Weavers Point line, while Classes 3 and 4 will sail a shorter course direct to Schull.

The opening reception and briefing has been moved from the event headquarters at the Fastnet Marine Centre to the Harbour View Hotel in Schull and will take place at 8.00 pm on Saturday 31st, and this venue will also host the final overall presentation of prizes on Sunday August 8th.   

The first race from Schull will start on Sunday 1st August when the fleets will sail a variety of courses which will all finish in Baltimore in the late afternoon. Some of the boats will stay overnight for Monday’s regatta with the full fleet again resuming for battle in Schull on Tuesday morning where a costal race is scheduled. 

On Wednesday the fleet will sail to Cape Clere Island for the fun regatta of the week. The racing boats will anchor in South Harbour while the support craft will tie up in North Harbour. This infamous event is run by the secret committee of the Cape Clere Yachting Association and has always proved to be the ideal location for the crews to “leave their hair down”

On Thursday the racing returns to Schull with a mid week presentation of trophies in the Courtyard on main street, while on Friday the fleet will round the Fastnet Rock with a finish in Crookhaven, where some of the  boats remain overnight for the following days regatta.

The exhausting week will finally conclude on Sunday August 8th with Schull Regatta where racing will take place on a variety of courses in Roaring Water Bay, with the closing ceremony and overall presentation of trophies at 8.00 pm at the  Harbour View Hotel.

 

 

 

 

Published in 1720

Royal Cork Boats were well represented today (Sun) at Glandore Harbour Yacht Club At Home writes Claire Bateman. Mediterranean conditions prevailed with sun, wind and sparkling blue water. When conditions such as existed today prevail this is a little piece of paradise tucked away in West Cork surrounded by glorious scenery. It was apt that they were rewarded with these conditions for the celebration of their 25th anniversary. The mouth of the harbour is marked by the Adam and Eve Islands and the cruisers had a start south east of this point using Neil Prendeville's Mary P as committee boat and a race officer team that included event organiser Cormac O'Carroll. The 16 knot breeze outside the harbour was from the south west, while inside the harbour there was a lighter breeze that one would guess was more from the north west and this was where the Squibs were sailing their two day championship.

The club is a hive of activity in furthering its amenities and they are very actively raising funds for a new club house. They had a raffle for a new car on offer today to further this project. Also they had a novel event of a Pig Roast-Barbeque with great music by the Roaring Forties and were looking forward to a great night of entertainment.

 

Published in Royal Cork YC
Page 27 of 27

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]