Crosshaven Coast Guard unit received a call on Saturday afternoon to investigate a boat aground near Drakes Pool in Cork Harbour.

It turned out the boat was actually on its own mooring but had gone aground 'due to astronomically low tides at the moment', according to the Coastguard.

Crosshaven Coast Guard remind readers "if you see something unusual or someone in trouble or think they maybe then don’t hesitate to call 999/112 and ask for the Irish Coast Guard it could save a life!"

Seven thousand people from forty countries are reported to have signed a petition protesting planning permission for a wind farm overlooking the historic spot where the River Lee begins its course to the sea at Cork Harbour. The petition describes Bord Pleanala’s approval of the wind farm, with 178-metre high turbines, as an “act of national self-harm” against “a special place in the hearts of Irish people and many others around the world.”

Cork County Council, which originally refused planning permission has agreed in cross-party political support to tell Environment Minister Eamon Ryan of their “frustration that a highly intrusive, visually domineering form of development that debases the integrity and the landscape character” of Gougane Barra is being permitted.

It is the West Cork location where the Patron Saint of Cork lived as a hermit and gathered disciples, according to history, “before he moved to Cork to found a monastery at the mouth of the Lee which became a centre of learning.”

The Council refused permission to Wingleaf Ltd. to build a seven-turbine windfarm at Curraglass/Derreendone.

An Bord Pleanala was told by its own Inspector “in the strongest possible terms” that the development should not be allowed.

Rejecting that, the board said the wind farm would “make a positive contribution to the implementation of Ireland’s national strategic policy on renewable energy and its move to a low energy carbon future”.

“This is in contravention of our county development plan”, said Fianna Fáil councillor Deirdre Kelly. ”Everyone is appalled by this.”

In the Dáil Cork T.D. Aindrias Moynihan said: “You cannot make another Gougane Barra, but you can find other locations for a wind farm.”

Twenty-knot blustery conditions brought the six-week Monkstown Bay Sailing Club Laser Winter League to a close in Cork Harbour yesterday.

The host club's Ronan Kenneally successfully defended the MBSC Yard of Ale Trophy with the experienced Rob Howe (also an SB20 sailor) taking second overall in the 20-boat dinghy fleet.

Paul O'Sullivan of the host club came up to third. One time series leader Kieran Dorgan of Cove Sailing Club slipped to fifth and Brendan Dwyer finished fourth. 

Rob Howe (centre) with Race Officer Alan Fehily (left) and MBSC Commodore Sandy Rimmington

Paul O'Sullivan (centre) with Race Officer Alan Fehily (left) and MBSC Commodore Sandy Rimmington

The National Maritime College of Ireland (NMCI) will host a hybrid conference/webinar on Friday 4 March 2022 entitled ‘Our Offshore Renewable Energy Opportunity – Is Ireland Ready?’. The conference, sponsored by Simply Blue Group, will bring together representatives from across Ireland’s maritime and supply chain workforce to explore their preparedness to the Offshore renewables’ opportunity.

The conference will seek specifically to put the spotlight on the qualifications and certifications for the fishing industry to ensure it is fit for the dual purpose of keeping fishermen fishing, while simultaneously ensuring that our coastal communities mariners and infrastructure are best placed to contribute to and benefit from this developing maritime industry.

Minister for Agriculture and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, will open the event, which will be Chaired by Feargal Keane from RTE Radio 1 programme ‘Seascapes’. Speakers include Noel Cunniffe, CEO of Wind Energy Ireland, Dr Alan Power, Assistant Principal, Labour Market and Skills Unit, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, as well as Dr Val Cummins, Simply Blue Group, Damien Turner (IS&WFPO), Wind Europe, and a representative from BIM will participate.

Among the topics for discussion are the Policy Regime for Renewable Energy; the Expert Group on Future Workforce Skills Report on the Low Carbon Economy; A Developer Case Study – Floating Offshore Wind off Ireland’s Coasts; Co-existence of Offshore Renewable Energy with the Fishing Industry; and the future opportunities for Ireland’s fishing Industry.

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Michael McGrath TD said: “The Government is committed to Ireland achieving its ambitious 2030 targets of generating 5GW of offshore wind and 80% renewables as a critical element of our national strategy to address climate change. The enactment of the Maritime Area Planning Bill will be central to this strategy. Of equal importance will be ensuring we have the requisite skills in the maritime and supply chain workforce to realise the full potential of this exciting opportunity for our coastal communities. This conference, bringing together a wide range of stakeholders will be an excellent showcase for the potential of this rapidly evolving sector.”

Speaking about the event, Captain Brian Fitzgerald, Director of External Affairs and Stakeholder Liaison, Simply Blue Group said “As Ireland struggles to meet the challenges of climate change, and fishing communities struggle with an unknown future, offshore renewable energy developments will have a far greater chance of delivering a sustainable future for all, including the incentivization of our youth to get involved, if the solutions are co-created. Ireland needs its best team on the field."

Cormac Gebruers, Head of College, NMCI, said “We look forward to hosting this significant discussion for the maritime community. We hope the event will awaken Ireland’s mariners to an exciting and co-existing future that sees a thriving and growing fishing industry working in harmony with Ireland meeting its climate action targets.”

Mark O'Reilly, MD Fishery Liaisons said “The stakeholders most affected by Ireland’s development of its ocean wealth are those in our fishing industry and associated coastal communities. It is well known that they face increasing challenges and fears for the future. In the areas suitable for offshore wind development, nobody knows the sea and the seabed better than the fishers that work there. The sensible approach is for the industry and developers to work together to harness the possibilities from offshore wind.”

To attend this conference in-person or online please contact [email protected] Full programme available below.

The overall leader of the Monkstown Bay Sailing Club Laser Winter League Ronan Kenneally (right) has a six-point lead going into next Saturday's final races in Cork Harbour.

Kenneally took the advantage on the penultimate Saturday to oust Cove's Kieran Dorgan from the top spot in the 20-boat fleet.

Races 13, 14 and 15 were solid races with some great gusts for fast downwind sailing that produced three different race winners in the competitive outing.

The first race was a windward-leeward course over three rounds on Monkstown Bay.

The wind rose from the southwest rose for the second and third races and Race Officer Alan Fehily added a triangle for the second round in both these races giving high speed reaches and a number of spills.

Sunday's Well sailor Paul O'Sullivan capsizes Photo: Bob Bateman

Scroll down for a photo gallery of Saturday's races plus vids by Mary Malone of the racing and a short interview with the MBSC Officer of the Day. 

MBSC Laser Winter League results

Photo Gallery By Bob Bateman of Monkstown Bay Sailing Club Laser Winter League

An Rás Mór, Cork harbour’s Ocean to City race, returns to the water this June after a break of two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Registration will open on March 1st for the multi-craft rowing and paddling race set for June 4th, 2022.

Now in its 18th year, the all-inclusive rowing event welcomes traditional wooden working boats, gigs, skiffs, sloops, lifeboats, longboats, cutters and currachs, kayaks, canoes, ocean sliding-seat boats and stand-up paddleboards.

The last ”in-person” event attracted 600 participants in over 200 craft, a third of which came from abroad, the organisers state. The virtual events over the past two years involved over a dozen countries across four continents, they state.

Billed as Ireland's largest long-distance rowing and paddling race, Ocean to City has four-course distances to choose from across the 28 km course - as in two, seven, 12 and 15 nautical miles, all finishing in Cork city centre.

Budding participants are advised to check the terms and conditions of travel and accommodation arrangements.

This is “just in case Covid forces us to change tack”, the organisers state.

A “spot the boat” brochure has been published, and early bird deals are available. More details of this and registration are on the website here

Cove Sailing Club expect another vintage Quarter Tonner to join its fleet this season with the purchase of the UK yacht, 'Illegal'.

Former CSC Commodore Kieran Dorgan team is part of the syndicate to purchase the new boat that replaces their recently sold Quarter Tonner Diamond late last year.

Illegal is out of the water at present in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. According to CSC, the crew plan to do some early season racing in the UK before having her shipped home.

Cork Harbour sailors will be watching closely to see how she performs, given the success of sistership Diamond last season especially in the recently concluded RCYC December League where she was fast straight out of the box in the hands of new owners. 

The arrival of Illegal is another feather in the cap for the '25-footers' that are on the rise in Cork Harbour thanks to the fact that you can race with a small crew, often made up of just family and friends as Afloat reported previously here

Cove Marina has been given further protection with new anchors and moorings on the popular facility located in the heart of Cork Harbour at Cobh.

2021 saw the further enhancement of the marina with the addition of a new 20-metre breakwater located to the west of the marina.

As regular Afloat readers will know, in August 2020, Storm Ellen damaged boats and the facility itself shortly after it opened earlier that summer.

Along with many other upgrades and maintenance, further protection was also installed to the west with new anchors and moorings in 2021.

Cove Sailing Club says it has two available berths for the 2022 season in its latest newsletter. if you would like to apply for a berth, email [email protected] 

We’ve become sadly inured to reports of Denis Doyle’s exquisitely-varnished Crosshaven-built Frers 51 Moonduster of 1981-vintage mouldering mossily in the harsh climate of northern Norway. So when a certain nautically-minded antiquarian bookseller of the Roughty Valley in southwest Kerry mentioned he’d heard from Scandinavia of the super-star of 1974, the Ron Holland One Tonner Golden Apple built in Cork with Bushe family brilliance for Hugh Coveney, we prepared ourselves for bad news.

Not so. After going through a couple of post-Coveney ownerships in the south of England, many years ago Golden Apple went to Denmark. There, she has been much loved and kept in extremely good order thanks to wintering in one of those classy Baltic boat-sheds where the heating comes on if freezing temperatures threaten.

Were it not for the fact that we know so well when she was built, you’d think she was ten years old at most. But this is indeed the boat in which Harold Cudmore properly launched his stellar international sailing career, and he and she made such an impact in the Worlds at Torquay that everyone now tends to remember Golden Apple even though another boat was the actual winner, with Cudmore’s first Ton Class Worlds title coming two years later in 1976 with the Half Tonner Silver Apple - now owned by Conor Fogerty of Howth.

Golden Apple meanwhile - the pioneer of them all - is now a very manageable classic, and for sale at €60,400 – details and more photos here 

One year on since completion, the Haulbowline Island Recreational Amenity in the heart of Cork Harbour is the largest project of its kind to date in Ireland.

The Haulbowline Remediation by Cork County Council has transformed the former East Tip site into a 22-acre People’s Park in the middle of the Harbour.

And, as we celebrate the first anniversary of the park, Afloat's 'before' aerial photos below show what an amazing transformation has been carried out by Cork County Council. 

650,000 cubic metres of by-products from steel production were deposited here over a 40-year period Photos: Bob Bateman

Haulbowline, home to the headquarters of the Irish Naval Service, was also formerly the location of Ireland’s only steelworks from 1939 until its closure in 2001. 650,000 cubic metres of by-products from the steel production was deposited here over a 40-year period.

The extensive remediation of the site saw the delivery onto the island of over 15,000 HGV loads of material, 47,000 tonnes of rock armour material to protect the shoreline, 180,000 tonnes of subsoil and 37,000 tonnes of topsoil, transforming the site into the scenic landscaped recreational amenity it is today.

As Afloat previously reported, complete with 4kms of fully accessible pathways, a 1 km jogging circuit, playing pitches and seating areas that lend themselves to remarkable views of the harbour and wildlife observation, the island has hundreds of native tree mixes and plants to promote biodiversity.