Volvo Ocean Race 2008. Ian Walker to skipper Irish Entry
December 13, 2007
Irish entry Green Team has been confirmed as the seventh entry to the 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean Race. The Yacht, designed by Reichel Pugh and being built by McConaghy Boats in China will be skippered by British Olympian Ian Walker.
Walker has been at the helm of very successful Irish Yacht Patches, in the TP52 series for the last three years.
The objective is to have the boat commissioned in June 2008. With a stopover in Galway at the end of the Atlantic leg in May-June 2009, towards the end of the race, expect a great deal of interest in Green Team.
National Yacht Club to host first World SB3 Championships in 2008
December 3, 2007
The National Yacht Club will host the first ever World SB3 World Championships on Dublin bay from 20th to 26th September next year. Over 120 boats from around the world are expected to compete.
Warning. Waves of up to 15m off the West Coast of Ireland this weekend
November 30, 2007
Computer generated wave forecasts by the Marine Institute and Met Eireann for tomorrow afternoon 1st December 2007 predict that waves with a significant height of up to 14m could occur in the seas to the West of Ireland.
The conditions are expected to be hazardous to all marine users including ships and fishing vessels, as well as individuals who might be walking close to the shoreline, or fishing from the shore in exposed areas of the west.
Artemis Wins. Patches takes second in Rolex TP52 Global Championships
October 2, 2007
Patches has taken second place in the Rolex TP 52 Championships. Swedish yacht Artemis, with Russels Coutts on board finished in first place with 23.25 points, well ahead of Patches in second with 50 points. Artemis, after a sixth place in the first race, went on to display incredible consistency by placing 1,1,2,4,1,4,2,2, in the subsequent races.
Patches leads Rolex TP 52 World Championships
September 25, 2007
Eamonn Conneely and his team on Patches are leading the TP 52 World Championships after the first days racing. (The event organisers get my award for the most difficult to remember domain name that I have ever seen) Patches has an account of the first two races on its site.
Photo from earlier this year by Thierry Martinez. Sailing Photographer.
NorthWest Passage Sailing. Babouche.
September 14, 2007
A French team led by Sebastain Robinet have just completed the Northwest Passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic in very unusual yacht.
It’s a 7.5m catamaran designed both to sail on water AND slide over ice. The team left Anchorage on the 19th May and made it to Greenland on September 9th.
For the ice, Yacht named Babouche, had
- A Rippled bow to mount on the ice
- Retractable rudder blades
- 2 skis mounted underneath the floaters
- 2 skates mounted under the rudder blades
Expedition Site. The Northwest Passage by Sailboat.
2007 Dragon World Championships Live
September 3, 2007
Photo: Gareth Craig. fotosail.com
Race two and three of the 2007 Dragon World Championships take place on Dublin Bay today. The organisers are providing pretty much live updates on the Championship web site.
With winds gusting to 29 knots yesterday morning, the first race didn’t get underway until 15.10.
Left For Dead.
August 31, 2007
Probably prompted by the recent Fastnet race, I picked up a copy of Left For Dead, the Untold Story of the Tragic 1979 Fastnet Race. It was written by Nick Ward who was one of the crew on the Yacht Grimalkin in the race and co-authored by Sinead O Brien.
I didn’t really expect a lot from this book, but once I began to read, I literally could not put it down. Nick Ward tells the story of his personal experience on board the Yacht Grimalkin.
It is impossible to do justice to the book in this review, but it it makes for compelling even emotional reading. The owner of the Yacht and one of the crew died in the storm. The description of the skies before the storm hit made my blood run cold at what was to come.
…The horizon was looking stranger, more uneven, almost ruffling itself up by the minute. I was mesmerised. I wondered if I was experiencing some kind of optical illusion, so I turned away and looked back, several times - but it wasn’t an illusion. Rapidly, in front of our eyes, it was becoming more and more distorted, the weird colours of the sky reflecting off the clouds.
I can not recommend this book highly enough, even if you have no interest in sailing.
Left for Dead: The Untold Story of the Tragic 1979 Fastnet Race
Howth Yacht Club Autumn League
August 30, 2007
The very popular Autumn League run by Howth Yacht Club gets underway in just over two weeks time on Sunday 16th September. The club is expecting 170 boats over 12 classes to take part in the six race series. The series will end on Saturday 20th October.
Visit the HYC site for more information on the Autumn League and entry forms
Howth Harbour and Yacht Club Satellite View
RNLI Digital Rescue Pager
August 29, 2007
From our friends on the Team Geared Up Blog comes news of the RNLI Digital Rescue Pager. It basically alerts you (with a short delay) everytime a lifeboat is launched anywhere in the UK or Ireland. It’s a little widget that you download to your laptop or desktop. If you want, you can change the settings to just receive alerts from selected stations.
The pager links to a page on the RNLI site where you can share memories of people who have passed on. The page also allows you to make a donation in memory of your loved one or friend.
The thing is its incredibly effective. When it goes off you immediately think that somewhere someone is in trouble and it reinforces the thought that the RNLI is there to help when you get into trouble at sea. It frightens the life out of you when it goes off.
I think the RNLI should test a big donate button on the pager itself. Very well done to whoever came up with that idea.
RNLI Ad