Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Storm Abigail

#Weather - Met Éireann has issued a Status Orange wind warning for north-west counties as the first major storm of the winter sweeps in from the Atlantic.

Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo and Sligo – with coastal areas subject to a 25% rise in risk of extreme weather – can expect to face southerly winds with mean speeds of 55 to 80 km/h, gusting as high as 120 km/h from 9am tomorrow morning (Thursday 12 November).

Lesser Yellow Warnings are in place for Roscommon, Clare, Cork, Kerry and Limerick from 6am.

Small craft and gale warnings are already in effect as of 5am this morning (Wednesday 11 November) as southwest winds are expected to reach Force 6 by this afternoon on all Irish coasts from Fair Head to Mizen Head, with strong gales north of Slyne Head later.

The severe weather system has been dubbed Storm Rachel by the UK's Met Office though this has not been used as yet by Met Éireann despite a recent joint agreement on storm naming, according to TheJournal.ie.

Published in Weather
Tagged under

The Dragon was designed by Johan Anker in 1929 as an entry for a competition run by the Royal Yacht Club of Gothenburg, to find a small keel-boat that could be used for simple weekend cruising among the islands and fjords of the Scandinavian seaboard. The original design had two berths and was ideally suited for cruising in his home waters of Norway. The boat quickly attracted owners and within ten years it had spread all over Europe.

The Dragon's long keel and elegant metre-boat lines remain unchanged, but today Dragons are constructed using the latest technology to make the boat durable and easy to maintain. GRP is the most popular material, but both new and old wooden boats regularly win major competitions while looking as beautiful as any craft afloat. Exotic materials are banned throughout the boat, and strict rules are applied to all areas of construction to avoid sacrificing value for a fractional increase in speed.

The key to the Dragon's enduring appeal lies in the careful development of its rig. Its well-balanced sail plan makes boat handling easy for lightweights, while a controlled process of development has produced one of the most flexible and controllable rigs of any racing boat.