Foynes Yacht Club on the Shannon estuary was a hive of activity recently as it played host to the Munster Mermaid Championships and Commodores Day. The highly-anticipated annual O'Brien Cup race around Foynes Island had to be called off due to the championships running late, but the day was not without its highlights.

Under clear skies and glorious sunshine, Canon Tim Curtin conducted a special blessing of the boats at 4:30 pm, followed by a lively BBQ and music session at the clubhouse.

Amidst the festivities, Bev took the opportunity to extend his heartfelt thanks to all who attended Commodores Day. He expressed his delight at the presence of numerous past Commodores and the mixture of familiar and new faces, locals, and sailors who chose to extend their stay to soak up the sunshine and enjoy the lively atmosphere.

Meanwhile, Foynes Yacht Club will stage this year's WIORA championships from June 12th to 15th.

Foynes Yacht Club will stage this year's WIORA championships from June 12th to 15th

The recent Darkness Into Light event at Foynes Yacht Club on the Shannon Estuary proved to be a tremendous success, raising an impressive €3,000 in donations. The event, which took place in May, saw the participation of several skippers and their crews from boats such as Alpara, Battle, Big Deal, Elantic, Excalibur, Kilteery, Luisa, Marengo, and Poitin. Their involvement, along with the support of family, friends, and visitors, contributed to the event's overwhelming success.

The event began with a beautiful morning as participants gathered to watch the sunrise over the river Shannon, with the added delight of dolphins joining in on the experience. Following the river trip, walkers from Foynes joined the event at the club grounds. Master chef Tadgh O’Shea fired up the BBQ, serving plenty of hot food, freshly baked scones, and other delicious treats to warm up the participants.

Foynes Yacht Club Commodore Bev Lowes has presented a cheque for €2,100 to the RNLI raised at a table quiz held earlier in the year.

The cheque presentation was made on behalf of Foynes Yacht Club during its Commodores Day on the Shannon Estuary last Sunday.

Foynes Yacht Club on the Shannon Estuary continues to receive donations ten days after completing its charity Sail for Darkness into Light. 

"To date, we have collected nearly €3,000, but donations are still coming in, so the final figure will be issued when all monies are counted",  Patricia McCormack, Foynes Yacht Club, Vice-Commodore, told Afloat.

"There was a great turnout on the 6th of May. An early start but for a great cause", she added.

After the fundraising sail, the Foynes Yacht Club fleet returned to the clubhouse for breakfast.

Foynes Yacht Club's March Chill Series came to an end last Sunday on the Shannon Estuary, with the host club's Killian Reidy in first place in the Doyle Shipping Group-sponsored event.

Second was Fionn McGibney of the neighbouring Tarbert Island Maritime Club.

Tralee Bay Sailing Club's Billy Doyle was third.

Fionn McGibney, Tarbert Island Maritime Club, who took second place at the DSG March Chill Series, with Mary McCormack, Dinghy Class Captain, and Bev Lowes, Commodore

Billy Doyle, Tralee Bay Sailing Club, who took third place at the DSG March Chill Series with Mary McCormack, Dinghy Class Captain, and Bev Lowes, Commodore.

Foynes Yacht Club's annual RNLI Quiz has raised €710 for the lifesaving charity. 

The quiz winners were the Foynes Yacht Club Sailing Instructors; Mary McCormack, Amelie Brogan, Bev Lowes (Commodore), Isabel O’Shea, and Sarah Guina.

Tonight, the Shannon Estuary club will hear speaker Vincent Murphy's account of the life and times of Foyne's own solo circumnavigator, Conor O'Brien.

Foynes Yacht Club on the Shannon Estuary welcomes Vincent Murphy on Friday evening, 13th January, at 7.30 pm, to give a 100th-anniversary presentation on the life of the late circumnavigator Conor O’Brien.

In 1923-25, O'Brien became the first amateur skipper to circle the world south of the Great Capes.

O'Brien's boat Saoirse was the first small boat (42-foot, 13 metres long) to sail around the world since Joshua Slocum completed his voyage in the 'Spray' from 1895 to 1898.

O'Brien documented it as a journey in his book Across Three Oceans. The voyage ended at the Port of Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, where he lived on Foynes Island.

The Foynes Yacht Club poster for the100th-anniversary presentation on the life of the late circumnavigator Conor O’Brien

Born in 1880, Conor was a heroic sailor with a huge commitment to Irish Home Rule and a fluent Irish speaker. In 1914 he assisted Erskine Childers in the famous gun-running saga of Irish history before circumnavigating the world.

The FYC entry fee is €5 and proceeds to the RNLI.

There was great excitement at Foynes Yacht Club on the Shannon Estuary for the return of their SRL Frostbite Open Dinghy Series, after a two-year hiatus writes FYC Dinghy Class Captain, Mary McCormack

Six races were held over four weekends. Conditions were somewhat perfect throughout apart from the second weekend where racing was abandoned due to a lack of wind.

Dylan Reidy led the Series through with picture-perfect results. Dylan was challenged by another local laser sailor Christopher McDaid and Killaloe’s RS400 with Govan Berridge and David Coleman on board, and his younger brother Killian and Conor Daly on their Topaz Omega. Other boats battled further down the fleet.

Class 2 was led by Kate O’Regan followed closely by Ivan Joyce in his Skipper 14, which unfortunately was demasted during week 3, as well as her younger brother Brendan and another local sailor Abbie Fitzgerald.

The month brought fantastic racing as well as fantastic fun and club spirit which was sorely missed over the two-year break due to covid.

The Series could not have taken place without Sponsors SRL Refrigeration Ltd, OODs Donal McCormack and Raymond McGibney, the club members, volunteers, both on the water and onshore, as well as the competitors, especially travelling boats.

Results

Class 1
Dylan Reidy - FYC - Laser
Govan Berridge & David Coleman - KSC - RS400
Killian Reidy & Conor Daly - FYC - Topaz Omega

Class 2
Kate O’Regan - FYC - Topaz
Ivan Joyce - FYC - Skipper 14
Brendan O’Regan - FYC - Oppie

A luxury cruiseship nickmamed the 'Elegant Explorer' celebrated its final call to Foynes, Co. Limerick by anchoring off the port on the Shannon Estuary.

The call of Prinsendam operated by Holland America Line was according to SFPC a welcome tourism boost for the mid-west region as cruise passengers arrived by tender to visit Foynes (via Foynes Yacht Club). The unique event to anchor off Foynes Island took place on June 13th. 

Prinsendam was making a nostalgic call after a career spanning 17 years sailing around the world under HAL colours. Afloat adds the ship was sold to German cruise company Phoenix Reisen and the acquistion actually took place last year. This saw the 37,938grt chartered back to HAL until expiring next week (Monday, July 1st).

The 204m ship with a capacity for 800 passengers took anchorage at 6.30am off Foynes Island and remained for 12 hours during. Hundreds of tourists were tendered ashore to visit the west Limerick town and attractions beyond among them west Clare and to Dingle in neighbouring Kerry.

Approximately 100 passengers stayed local, making their way to Foynes village where they enjoyed the must-loved, award winning Foynes Flying Boat & Maritime Museum.

Shannon Foynes Port Company (SFPC) CEO, Pat Keating said they were delighted to facilitate the cruise ship in the busy port. “We’ve had cruise ships dock in Foynes before but this is the first time a cruise vessel anchored specifically off Foynes Island. Passengers ferried by tender to the pontoon at Foynes Yacht Club where they boarded coaches for various destinations or simply enjoyed Foynes itself on foot. “It delivered a really nice tourism boost for the area, with the passengers visiting Limerick, Clare and Kerry. It was great to see the Flying Boat & Maritime Museum getting an extra boost. It’s a fantastic tourism attraction and deserves as much recognition as it can get and all those who visited it will pass on the good word about it.”

Mr Keating added that while cargo is the core activity, the port authority was delighted to welcome this business. “It was a busy morning and the cruise ship brought a great buzz to the area. From an operational perspective, all passengers were transferred safely and comfortably to and from the vessel. “By anchoring at Foynes Island, cruise liners can easily be accommodated at Foynes as it gives us more capacity in addition to the actual docks itself. Hopefully we will get to welcome many more cruise vessels to Foynes.”

Despite the relatively small size of Prinsendam and low height the cruiseship has during a career dating to 1988 (Afloat will have more) been able to navigate interesting routes where most other such ships cannot. The most recent voyages have included the Amazon, the Caribbean, South America, Antartica and now finally Europe where the ship with a crew of 340 will spend this week with the HAL fleet.

The last voyages include the Mediterranean, Iberian Peninsula, British Isles, Ireland before making her final farewell on a 14-day expedition to the Norwegian North Cape.

Another cruiseship is scheduled to dock on the Shannon Estuary next week on Friday, July 5th.

Foynes Yacht Club boat Innocence, helmed by Darragh McCormack and crew Nigel and Jack Young, claimed their fourth Munster Mermaids title in a row at the regional championships held at their home club on the Shannon Estuary his past June Bank Holiday weekend, writes Patricia McCormack.

The weekend got off to a bit of a slow start with racing postponed ashore for an hour in the hope that more breeze would fill in. Thankfully a breeze of 12-15 knots arrived, making for perfect racing conditions for the Mermaids.

Nine boats took to the start line for the first warning signal as 12.25pm. The first upwind proved to be very competitive with 121 Red Seal, helmed by Darragh Dineen and crew Conor and Louise Magner, and 188 Innocence rounding the windward mark first and second respectively.

There was a bit of a change-up in races on the first downwind with Innocence taking the lead and holding it comfortably for the rest of the race.

Meanwhile, there was a serious battle going on for second, third and fourth place between 100 Zest, helmed by Anna Lowes and crew Bev Lowes and Conor Clifford; 135 Cara II, helmed by Frankie Browne Snr and crew Frankie Browne Jnr and Brendan Dunne; and 119 Three Chevrons, helmed by Vincent McCormack and crew Michael Lynch and Roisin McCormack. The first race was definitely an exciting start to the championship.

The second race saw 10 boats on the start line with 54 Hycilla, helmed by Mark McCormack and crew Cathal McMahon and Luke McCormack, making its way to the start line for its debut after nine years out of the water.

The rest of the day didn’t fall short with excitement. The close racing was a magnificent sight for spectators and fantastic fun for everyone taking part.

With the forecast for Sunday not looking great the OOD Raymond McGibney made the executive decision to hold all four races scheduled for the weekend on Saturday. This came with no bother with swift mark layers and a good crew around the OOD.

The last race was certainly an interesting one for Three Chevrons and 134 Jill, helmed by Paul Smith and crew Anne Smith and Pat Mangan, battling for third overall. 161 Pearl helmed, by Noel McCormack and crew Tadhg O’Loinsigh and Mary McCormack, managed a second in Race 4.

Meanwhile, 165 Seafox, helmed by Oisin Finucane and crew Christopher McDaid and Sean Finucane, and 191 Maybee, helmed by Paddy Archer and crew Packer Thorne and Breda Magner, continued to battle with one another.

Overall it was a clean sweep for Innocence with four bullets on the day, and their fourth Munster title in as many years. Second place went to Cara II followed closely behind by Three Chevrons. Once again a fantastic weekend of racing for the Mermaid fleet.