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Displaying items by tag: Bicentenary

#RoyalCanal - A forthcoming exhibition in Mullingar Library will celebrate 200 years of the Royal Canal through images and drawings from the Waterways Ireland archive.

Featuring a selection of images from the archive and from the Ruth Delany and Ian Bath Collections, the exhibition reveals the fascinating history of the Royal Canal over the past 200 years.

The photographs on display are a snapshot of the long history of the inland waterway but they are also testament to the work and efforts of individuals like Ruth Delany and Ian Bath to personally document its deterioration from the 1970s onwards and to highlight an awareness of the canal during the years of lobbying for support for its restoration.

The exhibition will be on display in Mullingar Library from next Monday 27 November to Friday 8 December during library opening hours:

Monday 10am to 5:30pm
Tuesday 10am to 8pm
Wednesday 11am to 5.30pm
Thursday 10am to 8pm
Friday 10am to 5pm
Saturday 10am to 1.30pm

Published in Inland Waterways

#DLHarbour - Here’s a reminder for your calendar that President Michael D Higgins will officiate the opening ceremony of Dun Laoghaire Harbour’s bicentenary celebration.

President Higgins will formally launch the programme of events celebrating the harbour’s 200 years — which includes July’s Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta — from 2.30pm this Wednesday 31 May at Carlisle Pier.

The commemoration will be followed at 3pm by a 21-gun salute from the East Battery as well as a fly-past by two Air Corps aircraft from the direction of Killiney Hill, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

#RoyalCanal - Dun Laoghaire Harbour isn’t the only aquatic attraction in Ireland celebrating a bicentenary this year, as the Royal Canal’s 200th anniversary also takes place this summer.

Waterways Ireland, in association with the Royal Canal Amenity Group, will shortly announce an events programme marking two centuries since the opening of the inland waterway to the Shannon, with festivities set to begin from 27 May.

Published in Inland Waterways

#dlharbour200 - To mark the 200th anniversary of Dun Laoghaire Harbour (formerly Kingstown) a summer of celebrations have been organised. The Dun Laoghaire Harbour Bicentenary Steering Group has announced its programme of activities to coincide with the milestone event.

The Opening Ceremony will be officiated by President Michael D Higgins & the groups Patron Minister Mary Mitchell O Connor on 31st May. Other featured events include an International Harbour Food Festival featuring over 25 unique vendors (4th & 5th June), The Kingstown 200 Classic Boat Race (8th July) and a live Viking Invasion re-enactment with longboats as seen on the hit TV Show ‘Vikings’ (20th August). 

100,000 visitors are expected to visit the harbour this summer to participate in the free public events. The Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company in collaboration with a range of local stakeholders have put in place a schedule of exhibitions, workshops, lectures and events to mark the Bicentenary. For further information visit www.dlharbour200.ie

Gerry Dunne, CEO of Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company: said “the programme of events throughout the summer reflects the cultural and historical role the harbour has played not just in Dun Laoghaire but in its wider environs over the past 200 years”. Thanking all those who worked tirelessly on the project, Mr Dunne said “the Bicentenary will bring a welcome boost to the local economy and reinforce the sense of public pride in one of the country’s greatest landmarks”.

#Kingstown200 - In this bicentenary year of the founding of Kingstown Harbour, a lecture “The History of Dun Laoghaire Harbour” is to take place this Wednesday, 22 March in the south Dublin Bay town.

In what is expected to be a fascinating talk organised by the Dun Laoghaire Borough Historical Society is to commemorate the harbour over the past two hundred years 1817- 2017. The foundation stone having been laid by King George IV in what was then to become the world’s largest artificial built harbour hewn out of Dalkey granite.

The talk to be presented by maritime expert Cormac Lowth, is to be held in the appropriate venue of the Royal Marine Hotel. The venue dating to the later Victorian period is located off Marine Road is where the talk will take place beginning at 8pm. Admission to non-members is €3.

To mark the occasion of the commemorative lecture, a special journal has been published by the Society to celebrate the harbour’s 200th. The journal booklet titled “A Safe Anchorage Dun Laoghaire/Kingstown Harbour 1817-2017” will be launched at the lecture and available at a price of €8.00.

In addition copies of the booklet that has a front cover depicting the iconic ‘Mail-Boats’ alongside Carlisle Pier, will be stocked in the nearby Eason's bookstore on Marine Road.

Alternatively, you can order from the Society’s secretary Anna Scudds, for details Tel 280 6213

Dublin Bay 21s

An exciting new project to breathe life into six defunct 120-year-old Irish yachts that happen to be the oldest intact one-design keelboat class in the world has captured the imagination of sailors at Ireland's biggest sailing centre. The birthplace of the original Dublin Bay 21 class is getting ready to welcome home the six restored craft after 40 years thanks to an ambitious boat building project was completed on the Shannon Estuary that saved them from completely rotting away.

Dublin Bay 21 FAQs

The Dublin Bay 21 is a vintage one-design wooden yacht designed for sailing in Dublin Bay.

Seven were built between 1903 and 1906.

As of 2020, the yachts are 117 years old.

Alfred Mylne designed the seven yachts.

The total voting population in the Republic's inhabited islands is just over 2,600 people, according to the Department of Housing.

Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) commissioned the boat to encourage inexpensive one-design racing to recognise the success of the Water Wag one-design dinghy of 1887 and the Colleen keelboat class of 1897.

Estelle built by Hollwey, 1903; Garavogue built by Kelly, 1903; Innisfallen built by Hollwey, 1903.; Maureen built by Hollwey, 1903.; Oola built by Kelly, 1905; Naneen built by Clancy, 1905.

Overall length- 32'-6', Beam- 7'-6", Keel lead- 2 tons Sail area - 600sq.ft

The first race took place on 19 June 1903 in Dublin Bay.

They may be the oldest intact class of racing keelboat yacht in the world. Sailing together in a fleet, they are one of the loveliest sights to be seen on any sailing waters in the world, according to many Dublin Bay aficionados.

In 1964, some of the owners thought that the boats were outdated, and needed a new breath of fresh air. After extensive discussions between all the owners, the gaff rig and timber mast was abandoned in favour of a more fashionable Bermudan rig with an aluminium mast. Unfortunately, this rig put previously unseen loads on the hulls, resulting in some permanent damage.

The fleet was taken out of the water in 1986 after Hurricane Charlie ruined active Dublin Bay 21 fleet racing in August of that year. Two 21s sank in the storm, suffering the same fate as their sister ship Estelle four years earlier. The class then became defunct. In 1988, master shipwright Jack Tyrrell of Arklow inspected the fleet and considered the state of the hulls as vulnerable, describing them as 'still restorable even if some would need a virtual rebuild'. The fleet then lay rotting in a farmyard in Arklow until 2019 and the pioneering project of Dun Laoghaire sailors Fionan De Barra and Hal Sisk who decided to bring them back to their former glory.

Hurricane Charlie finally ruined active Dublin Bay 21 fleet racing in August 1986. Two 21s sank in the storm, suffering the same fate as a sister ship four years earlier; Estelle sank twice, once on her moorings and once in a near-tragic downwind capsize. Despite their collective salvage from the sea bed, the class decided the ancient boats should not be allowed suffer anymore. To avoid further deterioration and risk to the rare craft all seven 21s were put into storage in 1989 under the direction of the naval architect Jack Tyrrell at his yard in Arklow.

While two of the fleet, Garavogue and Geraldine sailed to their current home, the other five, in various states of disrepair, were carried the 50-odd miles to Arklow by road.

To revive the legendary Dublin Bay 21 class, the famous Mylne design of 1902-03. Hal Sisk and Fionan de Barra are developing ideas to retain the class's spirit while making the boats more appropriate to today's needs in Dun Laoghaire harbour, with its many other rival sailing attractions. The Dublin Bay 21-foot class's fate represents far more than the loss of a single class; it is bad news for the Bay's yachting heritage at large. Although Dún Laoghaire turned a blind eye to the plight of the oldest intact one-design keelboat fleet in the world for 30 years or more they are now fully restored.

The Dublin Bay 21 Restoration team includes Steve Morris, James Madigan, Hal Sisk, Fionan de Barra, Fintan Ryan and Dan Mill.

Retaining the pure Mylne-designed hull was essential, but the project has new laminated cold-moulded hulls which are being built inverted but will, when finished and upright, be fitted on the original ballast keels, thereby maintaining the boat’s continuity of existence, the presence of the true spirit of the ship.

It will be a gunter-rigged sloop. It was decided a simpler yet clearly vintage rig was needed for the time-constrained sailors of the 21st Century. So, far from bringing the original and almost-mythical gaff cutter rig with jackyard topsail back to life above a traditionally-constructed hull, the project is content to have an attractive gunter-rigged sloop – “American gaff” some would call it.

The first DB 21 to get the treatment was Naneen, originally built in 1905 by Clancy of Dun Laoghaire for T. Cosby Burrowes, a serial boat owner from Cavan.

On Dublin Bay. Dublin Bay Sailing Club granted a racing start for 2020 Tuesday evening racing starting in 2020, but it was deferred due to COVID-19.
Initially, two Dublin Bay 21s will race then three as the boat building project based in Kilrush on the Shannon Estuary completes the six-boat project.
The restored boats will be welcomed back to the Bay in a special DBSC gun salute from committee boat Mac Lir at the start of the season.
In a recollection for Afloat, well known Dun Laoghaire one-design sailor Roger Bannon said: "They were complete bitches of boats to sail, over-canvassed and fundamentally badly balanced. Their construction and design was also seriously flawed which meant that they constantly leaked and required endless expensive maintenance. They suffered from unbelievable lee helm which led to regular swamping's and indeed several sinkings.

©Afloat 2020