An attempt to sail down the Grand Canal, in aid of DLR Special Needs activities

A 200 km trip in the beautiful new Shannon One Design “SOD” lake boat, armed with a special sail, the spinnaker pole and eight fenders from the newly restored Dublin Bay 24 – both traditional boats recently completed by Brittany wooden boat building school Skol Ar Mor.

Chris Craig & crew will take on the 130 km & 44 canal locks in stage 1 of this epic journey from Dun Laoghaire and Ringsend Harbours to Shannon Harbour - assisted by a new electric outboard motor kindly supplied by Irish Ship & Barge Fabrication Co. Then a 60 km lake sail onwards to Dromineer in time for their annual regatta.

A new and revised Code of Practice for the Safe Operation of Recreational Craft booklet was published by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport in November 2017.

The Code of Practice is a valuable source of information, advice and best practice operational guidance for owners, masters, operators and users of a range of pleasure and recreational craft operating in Irish coastal and inland waters.  It also includes updated information on relevant legislation that applies to recreational craft and should be of interest and benefit to our Club members.  For more detail on the content and structure of the Code of Practice, please see Marine Notice No. 9 of 2018 which is available on the Department’s website here.
A useful Checklist of Basic Safety Requirements and Advice can be found on page 5 of the Code and is also attached as an Annex to the Marine Notice.

All recreational craft users are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the Code and to heed the safety advice and recommendations including the need to take personal responsibility for their actions on the water.

Click here to download the full document (or by Chapter)

The support structure for the DBSC hut on the West Pier was demolished and washed away by storm Emma.  The hut itself is removed every winter so that was not affected.
The attached photo shows Club members Chris Moore (Commodore, DBSC) and Michael Creedon planning a new support structure. 

Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan has revealed plans to compete in the hotly-contested Figaro class in 2018 – a move that takes him one step closer to his ultimate goal of the Vendee Globe.

Dolan will join the gruelling Figaro circuit, which features some of the world’s best single handed sailors, after a successful tenure in the Mini 6.50 class.

At the recent ISA Sailing Awards held in the RDS on 9^th February, Our very own Carmel Winkelman, a nonagenarian of the National Yacht Club who has been at the forefront of the junior sailing training since the 1960s, received the Irish Sailing President’s Award.

Here is the video link of the presentation to Carmel by Jack Roy.   
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uN52sG_GniWwUxpYrmJ0zplkdLPFHWc_/view

Volvo Irish Sailing Awards which is a free to attend event and a good evening which will take place in the RDS Concert Hall on Friday 9^th February at 6.30pm.

The awards consist of Drinks/Canapes reception followed by the awards and it will finish approximately 9pm. Read the full post for the programme details. To support this event, you simply have to register with Irish sailing by emailing communications@sailing.ie

With every great win comes a ripple effect. Annalise Murphy’s silver medal in sailing at the Rio Olympics in 2016 was good news for the country, for sport, and the sailing community in general. But how has the bounce been felt one year on?

President of Irish Sailing, Jack Roy commented: “it’s interesting to look at the figures to see what impact, if any, Annalise’s medal has had on increasing awareness of sailing or attracting new people to our sport. We know that Olympic medals increase people’s enthusiasm for trying out a new sport, boxing and rowing being prime examples and it appears from our figures at the end of 2017 that there certainly has been a very positive effect that can be attributed to Annalise’s success in Rio”

For the full article, please visit Afloat.ie