Irish Cruising Club Fly the Flag for Responsible Cruising
20th February 2021
Irish Cruising Club s Honorary Editor Maire Breathnach at the helm of the Swan 42 King of Hearts at Cape Horn.
The Irish Cruising Club has been producing a printed Annual collating its members doings afloat and ashore through logs and narratives for ninety years now. And while these days this substantial collection is in circulation before Christmas as a matter of course - thanks to the succession of Honorary Editors being notably on top of production technology and sticking to a rather fierce deadline - it isn t until after the Club s AGM in February that any of it goes public, following which the many logs – and particularly the award-winning ones – are available online on the club s website.
Galway Port is Round Britain & Ireland Race Stopover for 2022
4th February 2021
Racing in a past edition of the Round Britain & Ireland Race
Credit: Royal Western Yacht Club
Galway Bay Sailing Club in conjunction with The Royal Western Yacht Club (Plymouth) has announced that Galway Port has been selected as a stopover port for The Round Britain and Ireland Race in 2022.
This classic Round Britain and Ireland race which will be entering its 56th year will see over 40 boats competing in various classes over a three week period in May 2022. Starting in Plymouth, The Round Britain and Ireland Race has compulsory stopovers in Galway, Lerwick, and Blyth before finishing back in Plymouth.
The Royal Western Yacht Club is delighted announce that the entry process is now open for the RB&I 2022.
Following an extensive review of this established race, numerous enhancements are made to embrace the recent surge of interest in short-handed offshore racing. A more balanced course is set, to encourage those aiming to participate in the double-handed offshore event of the Paris Olympics, 2024. The number of stopovers is reduced to permit a more time-effective and challenging event. Starting and finishing in Plymouth, the clockwise course will have three compulsory 48-hour stop overs in Galway, Lerwick and Blyth.
Acting Rear Commodore Oceanic and Race Director, Adrian Gray said, We are excited to announce the new format for this classic, well known race. We are also delighted to announce our stop over hosts; the Galway Bay Sailing Club, the Royal Northumberland Yacht Club, our long-term friends in Shetland and those at the Lerwick Boating Club. This new course provides safer
Galway Honours Memory of Skerries Mermaid Stalwart Jim Dempsey
25th January 2021
Mermaid Week 1982 at Galway Bay SC with (left to right) Pierce Purcell (GBSC), 1982 Champion Jim Dempsey (Skerries SC), and Mermaid Association President Michael Lysaght
Credit: courtesy Pierce Purcell
The recent death of Skerries SC stalwart and longtime Mermaid Class ace Jim Dempsey has evoked fond memories throughout Irish sailing, and Galway Bay SC s Pierce Purcell speaks for many with his insights into Jim s special qualities of encouragement and enthusiasm, which contributed so much to today s Mermaid Class being made very welcome when they seek out a fresh venue for their annual championship.
16th December 2020
Summer evening sunshine greets the Galway Bay Sailing Club fleet as they welcome home the Transatlantic-voyaging ketch Danu (at centre) at Kilronan in the Aran Islands at the end of July 2020
Credit: Vera Quinlan
Galway Bay Sailing Club, comfortably ensconced in their fine clubhouse at Renville New Harbour near Oranmore at the head of Galway Bay, can look back at many ups and downs during the fifty years of sailing development they ve experienced from small beginnings in the city in 1970, until now they re one of the pre-eminent clubs on the West Coast in all areas of sailing.
Yet even the most sadistic theatrical director would scarcely have green-lighted a storyline in which – just as the final details for a year s long Golden Jubilee celebration in 2020 were being put into place by Commodore John Shorten and his committee – the Black Beast from the East, otherwise the Pandemic, crept into place to dominate everyone s lives and blast lovingly-crafted pro