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Displaying items by tag: Sailing Raid

#INLAND WATERWAYS - The Lakelands & Inland Waterways Ireland Sailing Raid is a unique event combining sailing, adventure, exploration and racing in the setting of some of the most stunning countryside in Western Europe.

On 14-21 September a fleet of about 40 'open' boats – including the 5.5-metre Shannon One Design, the 4.5-metre Water Wags and various traditional styles and new builds all under 7.5 metres long – will sail 190km from Lough Erne in Northern Ireland, through the River Shannon and across the great lakes of Lough Ree and Lough Derg to Killaloe.

Although it will be a competitive race, there will be some time left to enjoy the scenery and the Irish hospitality of the three participating yacht clubs along the way. Some will come for the racing, some for the scenery, some for the spirit of comraderie – but everyone is sure to enjoy the craic.

To maintain the maritime nature of the event, the Lakelands & Inland Waterways Ireland Sailing Raid will be based as much as possible on the water.

Accommodation will be provided in motor cruisers for those who want it, while some will be able to camp near the river bank and others will make their own arrangements. Each stopover will therefore bring together participants in a 'floating village', with several receptions and festivities in the evenings.

The event is being organised in close collaboration with Waterways Ireland, with logistical support will be provided by the three main yacht clubs on the route: Lough Erne Yacht Club, Lough Ree Yacht Club and Lough Derg Yacht Club.

Members of the local clubs are being invited to take part at a preferential rate, while raid competitors from all over Europe will provide an international element to the event. 

For more information and application details, visit the Sailing Raid website at www.sailing-raids.com.

Published in Inland Waterways

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.