#ShippingReview - Jehan Ashmore reviews the shipping scene from among the following stories over the last fortnight.

Irish exports to the UK were €9.5bn in the first eight months of 2016, a fall of €300m for same period last year according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Operators of a chemical and products tankers, Ardmore Shipping select the UK P&I Club as its second P&I club.

In the Seanad, Minister for Transport Shane Ross has said the transfer of Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company to the local council is ‘imminent’.

The Irish Maritime Development Office (IMDO) has made two new appointments to the organisations key management team.

#Jellyfish - Organisers of tomorrow's Ironman triathlon in Dublin Bay are currently monitoring the appearance of Lion's Mane jellyfish in the waters of the swimming course.

According to The Irish Times, the Ironman event is scheduled to begin early on Sunday 14 August with a 1.9km swim across the bay from Sandycove, which has been red-flagged since Wednesday after a number of the dangerous jellyfish washed up on the beach.

The Lion's Mane's powerful sting is known to cause anaphylactic shock, which is potentially fatal – and the sting is still potent even days after a jellyfish has died, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

It was difficult to believe that this is the second Tuesday of August considering the weather for this evening’s Fireball race in Dublin Bay writes Cormac Bradley. What started out as a bright day and was still in reasonable shape for a lunch-time walk along the Dun Laoghaire seafront turned into a very cool evening with grey skies over Dublin Bay in a WNW blustery breeze that saw this correspondent almost shivering in the lee of the East Pier wall to bring you this account of the racing. So grey was the scene that the flashing light of the Kish lighthouse, some eight miles offshore was conspicuous in the gloom. The Windfinder app was suggesting 13 knots of breeze, rising to gusts of 18knots and an air temperature of 14˚. With no racing last Tuesday, due to the Bank Holiday Monday, this was a last chance for a race before the Fireball Nationals in Howth this coming weekend.

With high tide just short of 17:00 and a start area that was situated to the east of the 40-foot bathing spot, the furthest east I can recall seeing a start area for a Tuesday night, the right approach seemed to be to get out of the tide and go inshore. The four-boat fleet seemed to concur as they all favoured the pin end half of the line. So far east were they that as they approached the rocks at the 40-foot they disappeared from view relative to the East Pier.

Noel Butler and Stephen Oram (15061) and Louise McKenna and Hermine O’Keeffe (14691) were closest inshore while Conor Clancy and Teddy Byrne (14807) seemed to abandon this tack first and headed significantly offshore. Frank Miller and Grattan Donnelly (14713) looked to be a little off the pace, languishing a short distance behind the others. Heading for a windward mark (with spreader) located in the middle of Scotsman’s Bay, Butler & Oram proved that going inshore was the way to go when they rounded with a comfortable lead. Clancy & Byrne were second, followed by McKenna/O’Keeffe and Miller/Donnelly.

After rounding the spreader mark, Butler & Oram continued inshore before adopting a further two tack- three gybe approach to the leeward mark. Clancy & Byrne followed suit, but fouled up the second gybe under spinnaker and went for a long swim. Long enough for both McKenna/O’Keeffe and Miller/Donnelly to pass them out on the water!

All three upright boats adopted an offshore tack first for their second upwind leg with Butler/Oram so comfortably ahead that they could sail whatever course they wanted. The committee boat was soon on the move and flew a shortened course signal for all classes in just about enough time to get into position for Butler & Oram to go through the finish line. Downwind of them, Miller & Donnelly were gradually reeling in their female competition and passed them out on a starboard tack hitch going offshore. Shortly thereafter they were able to tack onto port to go through the finish line ahead of the ladies. Clancy & Byrne also got a finish after a lengthy swim.

The Nationals will be sailed over Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Howth, with a nine-race programme scheduled for the participants.

#Rescue - Twelve kayakers rescued amid difficult weather conditions in Dublin Bay yesterday had only limited safety equipment and had not logged their trip with the coastguard, as The Irish Times reports.

The kayaking group were recovered by the Howth Coast Guard and lifeguards from nearby Dollymount after high winds and an outgoing tide started pushing them out into the bay off Red Rock in Sutton yesterday evening (Sunday 7 August).

It since emerged that the 12 paddlers had failed to observe the small craft warning issued ahead of yesterday's forecast high winds, on top of setting out without a marine VHF radio and failing to log their journey with the National Maritime Operations Centre.

Elsewhere, four people were rescued after a fire broke out on their cruiser on the River Shannon near Banagher in Co Offaly at the weekend.

According to The Irish Times, the four on board the White Lady raised the alarm on Saturday evening (6 August) after the fire started in the boat's engine system.

The skipper was able to motor the boat to Banagher Harbour where waiting fire service units brought the blaze under control.

As Dublin Bay Mermaid Week starts in Howth Yacht Club tomorrow, a Kestrel that landed in Dan Brennan's Mermaid, Aideen, writes about her experience at the front end of the Dun Laoghaire Fleet's special races around Dalkey Island on Sunday.

Interviewed after the race the Kestrel said “It has always been my ambition to sail in a traditional hand crafted wooden boat. I could land in a modern mass production boat any day of the week, but I wanted the real classic boat experience. I saw the beautiful five boat Mermaid fleet under spinnaker running towards Dalkey Island and couldn’t resist the temptation to try out a Mermaid. I was not disappointed, the Mermaid handled beautifully in the breeze. We were a bit behind when I landed aboard but the fleet came together at the back of the Island where the tide had started to flood and we worked our way into the lead by playing the shifts and getting into the strongest tide as we returned through Dalkey Sound. The breeze was very shifty with lots of holes as we passed through the Sound and beat back to Dun Laoghaire. My skipper did well but was outfoxed by former three times National Champion, Jonathan O’Rourke in Tiller Girl who was the 2016 winner of the Meg Mug.” The Mug is named after Meg of the Muglins and is raced for each year by the Mermaids around Dalkey Island.

She added (because she was a proper lady Kestrel and quite a rare bird) “While I really enjoyed the race I was disappointed that we did not win and I was upset to hear one of the crew, eight year old Charlie Martin say about me ‘this is the scariest thing that ever happened to me’. I have really caught the Mermaid bug and I am looking forward to dropping in on the Mermaid Nationals which are in Howth 4-8 August and maybe doing a few DBSC races. I appreciated the offer to have a few pints with the lads after the race but I had to fly home. ”

The Kestrel circumnavigated Dalkey Island in Aideen and flew away safely when back ashore in the National Yacht Club. Charlie enjoyed his first race and quickly recovered from his Kestrel scare.

A Kestrel is a small bird of prey (raptor) with a distinctive hovering flight which lives on a diet of small mammals. It is not a sea bird. Kestrels are amber listed due to concerns over declining numbers.

If you would like to join the discerning raptor in sailing in a DBSC Mermaid either as a crew or as a Mermaid owner, please contact the Mermaid Sailing Association, any member of the Mermaid fleet or Dan Brennan, Dun Laoghaire Mermaid Class Captain 087 -7985218. You will be most welcome.

Dublin Bay Sailing Club Results for 17 July 2016

IDRA 14 FOOT Race 1- 1. Dunmoanin (Frank Hamilton), 2. Sapphire (Lorcan O’Sullivan), 3. Dart (Pierre Long)

IDRA 14 FOOT Race 2- 1. Dunmoanin (Frank Hamilton), 2. Sapphire (Lorcan O’Sullivan), 3. Diane (B Murphy)

Colleen Deas, from Glandore Harbour Yacht Club, a replica of the traditional Dublin Bay class that dates from the 1800's, was sailing in the summer sunshine in Cork Harbour yesterday.

Last night’s edition of the Dublin Bay Sailing Club’s Fireball racing was, to use the football parlance, a game of two halves. In the first half a reasonable breeze out of the SE (approximately) gave the 8-boat Fireball fleet an interesting time on the water writes Cormac Bradley. By my reckoning high tide was close to race start time but from the east pier, the committee boat appear to be swinging to a combination of tide and wind giving a very curious angle of the start line relative to the weather mark, which was situated in the direction of the 40-foot bathing spot.

Three boats fought to secure the pin-end of the start line – Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854), the Clancy brothers, Conor & James (14807) and Frank Miller & Ed Butler (14713). A second sound signal immediately after the start prompted all three to go back and restart. Thereafter, Power & Barry headed inshore while the balance of the fleet went offshore, before Louis Smyth & Glenn Fisher (15007) became the first boat in the offshore pack to peel off and follow Power & Barry.

After a clean star and good first half of the beat, Darragh McDonagh & crew (15058) were well placed in the pecking order. At the top mark the running order was, rather surprisingly, Team Clancy, Smyth & Fisher and Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (14691). It says a lot about the vagaries of the first beat that one of the three boats that went back at the start was leading! McKenna & O’Keeffe quickly went through Smyth & Fisher and the remainder of the fleet gybed inside these front three…………with the exception of Power & Barry who headed offshore. Given that the tide may just have turned, this did not appear to be the way to go.

Halfway down the run, with gybes aplenty for everyone except the two girls on the offshore track, the fleet was spread across 200m with Power on the outside and Noel Butler & Peter Doherty (15061) on the inside of the course.

At the leeward mark rounding, Power & Barry rounded clear ahead, followed by Team Clancy and McKenna & O’Keeffe rounding simultaneously but hampered by an IDRA 14. Mary Chambers, breaking in a new crew, Ian (14865) rounded fourth, while another IDRA 14 slowed the rounding of Miller & Butler, followed by Butler & Doherty, Smyth & Fisher and McDonagh. All went offshore with the exception of Miller & Butler who went hard inshore. Halfway up the beat Team Clancy appeared to take a penalty on the water.

By the second windward mark Power & Barry were comfortably ahead and again adopted their offshore approach to the downwind leg. McKenna & O’Keeffe rounded second and followed them. Team Clancy were third, followed by Miller, Chambers, Smyth, McDonagh and Butler. Again, the chasing pack used a number of variants to get to the leeward mark, but Power’s simpler approach was still paying dividends. Behind her, the pecking order was altered again when Butler went from 8th to 5th but McKenna & Clancy were unchallenged in 2nd and 3rd respectively.

At the final weather mark, Butler & Doherty had gained another place, to fourth and they would go on to gain another place in the downwind leg. Initially Power & Barry looked very comfortable on the downwind leg, but McKenna & O’Keeffe had a powerful run to close the gap considerably and the leaders may have nibbling at fingernails as their lead was being eroded. They held on to win by a few boat-lengths with McKenna & O’Keeffe second, Butler & Doherty third, Team Clancy fourth and Miller & Butler 5th.

At this stage the ominous grey cloud that had been hovering in the area delivered on its promise of rain and for a short period the wind strength went up as well. It the space of 5-10 minutes a semi-pleasant evening, in terms of temperature, turned blustery, cold and a mist descended over Scotsman’s Bay. It also introduced a 180˚ change in the wind direction with the breeze coming over the east pier wall from the west.

The committee boat relocated itself halfway down the original course and re-set for another windward-leeward. The rain squall cost the fleet two boats, so only six came under starter’s orders for the second race of the evening.

Yet again there was a three-way fight for the pin, with serial combatants Miller and Clancy joined by McDonagh this time. However, as there was a “normal” start line, they kept their noses clean this time. McKenna & O’Keeffe were keeping out of trouble at the committee boat end. In between, Butler & Doherty also negotiated safe passage away from the start-line but the winners of the first race, Power & Barry seemed to be in trouble early on in this race as they headed offshore in the opposite direction to everyone else. From early on Butler & Doherty set the pace working the port hand side of the course, seeming to keep a loose cover on Team Clancy, their closest opposition. At the top weather mark in what seemed to be a “conventional” beat, Butler led from Clancy, Miller, McDonagh, McKenna and Power. At the spreader mark, Clancy gybed and went offshore while the others held an inshore line initially before they too went offshore.

At the leeward mark Butler had a slow drop but got off lightly as Clancy’s rounding was hindered by an IDRA 14. For the following beat, Butler applied a loose cover on Clancy while behind them McKenna and Miller were sailing in close company with Miller having the upper hand at the leeward mark, an advantage he would lose by the second weather mark as McKenna adopted an offshore approach to the second beat.

The second downwind leg saw Butler & Clancy stay within relatively close quarters of each other, nothing aggressive but following similar general directions towards the leeward mark. McDonagh broke the trend of going offshore for the second run, but it didn’t gain him any places. With the fleet running away from my vantage point, it was difficult to see the relative positions of the boats as they worked their way downwind but at the finish it appeared that Team Clancy had out-manoeuvred Butler & Doherty to take the win (subsequently confirmed by Butler) with McKenna & O’Keeffe holding off Miller & Butler and McDonagh & crew being comfortable relative to Power & Barry.

The Fireball “action” this weekend is the Royal St George one-day regatta with two races scheduled on Saturday. The following weekend we travel to Wexford for the Open Championships which will be sailed in conjunction with a Mermaid regatta. If you haven’t already committed to going to Wexford, we would like to hear from you to see if we can help you to get you there.

#DumpingRecordResponse - A record number of submissions to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been received in response to Dublin Port’s most recent application to dump spoil in Dublin Bay, reports Lorna Siggins of The Irish Times. 

A total of 780 submissions from public bodies, non-governmental organisations and individuals have been received in relation to the €230 million Alexandra Basin redevelopment project.

The Irish Underwater Council warns contaminants could damage a special area of conservation (SAC) as previously reported on Afloat.ie in regards to Rockabill Dalkey Island. 

The EPA said this was the highest number of submissions received on a dumping at sea permit application since it assumed responsibility for this function in 2010. However, it will not be holding an oral hearing on the application as this is not allowed for in the current legislation.

An Bord Pleanála has already approved the Alexandra Basin redevelopment. At an estimated cost of €230 million it has been described as the single largest infrastructural investment project in the history of the port.

It aims to facilitate larger cruise ships in the port, including a twin berth farther up the Liffey beside the former Point Depot (now the 3 Arena).

As part of this, Dublin Port plans to dispose of a large part of some 6.4 million cubic metres of material on the Burford bank 5km southeast of Howth, which is in a special area of conservation (SAC) from Rockabill to Dalkey Island.

For more The Irish Times has the story here.  

#DublinBay - A motorway across Dublin Bay? City councillors are opposed, but State policy may make its construction inevitable, as Louisa McGrath writes in the Dublin Inquirer.

Proposals for a new stretch of high-capacity road running across or under Sandymount have been mooted for decades, with the current iteration put forward by the National Transport Authority (NTA) intended as a completion of the M50 as a ring road for the capital.

But it's prompted a stand-off with Dublin City Council, whose members recently passed nine motions to block any bypass connecting the Port Tunnel to the southern section of the M50.

They have modern civic planning – which prioritises public transport over more roads and congestion – on their side, not to mention the potential impact on South Dublin Bay communities, and the area's Biosphere status.

However, national policy has already been signed off in spite of such concerns, and the removal the bypass from the city development plan may even be in breach of the law.

As Green Party leader Eamon Ryan writes in today's Irish Independent, the situation is a "mess".

The Dublin Inquirer has much more on the story HERE.