This weekend's 'Foyle Days' in the north-west city is set to welcome two offshore patrol vessels (OPV) the Naval Service LE Emer (P21) and the Royal Navy's HMS Severn (P 283), writes Jehan Ashmore.

On the naval front, LE Emer was built in Cork's Verolme Dockyard in 1978. She represents the oldest of the eight-strong fleet and is designed from the Naval Service's first purpose built patrol vessel OPV LE Deirdre (P20) but was modified to improve her stability and speed. This vessel was decommissioned several years ago and was converted into a private yacht.

The original BOFORS 40mm L60 gun of the LE Emer was recently upgraded to a BOFORS 40mm L70 to improve range and accuracy of her main armament. She alongside her 65m sisters LE Aoife (P22) and LE Aisling (P23) where all built primarily to patrol the Irish section of the European Economic Zone (EEZ).

During their careers the 'Emer' class vessels have also completed numerous re-supply missions to Irish troops serving overseas with the United Nations and in particular in the Lebanon. A crew compliment of 46 (5 officers) operate the vessels which are all now in their fourth decade of service.

OPV HMS Severn is the third of four 'River' class offshore patrol vessels and like her Irish counterpart is deployed on fishery duties. The 1,677 displacement tonnes vessel was built in 2001 in the UK'S south coast port of Southampton at Woolston Docks. Her home port for the 30 crew is at HM Naval Base in neighbouring Portsmouth.

She becomes the fifth ship to bear the name and with sisters HMS Mersey (P 282) and HMS Tyne (P 281) they are assigned to the Fishery Protection Squadron. Click the ship's diary to follow the ship news. The final member of the River class HMS Clyde (P 257) serves as a Falklands Islands Patrol Vessel (FIPV).

Howth Yacht Club Tuseday and Saturday series 1 17/05/2011 17 Footer SCRATCH: 1, Aura I Malcolm; 2, Leila R Cooper; 3, Isobel B & C Turvey; 17 Footer HCAP: 1, Leila R Cooper; 2, Isobel B & C Turvey; 3, Aura I Malcolm TUESDAY SERIES 1 (RACE) 17/05/2011 Puppeteer SCRATCH: 1, Trick or Treat A Pearson; 2, Harlequin Clarke/Egan; 3, Mojo Stanley/Callen; Puppeteer HPH: 1, Haemoglobin Mullen/O'Dea; 2, Arcturus McAuliffe/McDermott; 3, No Strings T Harvey; Squib SCRATCH: 1, Shadowfax P Merry; 2, Whipper Snapper M Cantwell; 3, Puffin E Harte; Squib HPH: 1, Shadowfax P Merry; 2, Puffin E Harte; 3, Whipper Snapper M Cantwell; Etchells SCRATCH: 1, Fetching Quinn/O'Flaherty; 2, Jabberwocky S Knowles; 3, Northside Dragon J Bourke; SB3 SCRATCH: 1, Investwise G May; 2, Dinghy Supplies S Murphy

A north-easterly force 3 wind accompanied the flotilla of yachts that set out from Foynes Yacht Club, who sailed to Limerick city on Saturday afternoon to participate in the Riverfest celebrations.

Daniel Butler co-ordinator took members of the Northside We're Ok youth group from Moyross, who experienced another view of Limerick from the river. John Prendergast and his wife, Maureen, were guests of the club on this cruise.

The yacht's that journeyed were Mweeloon, Whyte Dolphin, Alphara, Inizi, Mariposa, Lady Shanannah, Hello, Kilteery, Kerry Dream, Battle, Dexterity, Coral Dos and Blue Ribbon. Unfortunately, Marengo had to turn back at Aughinish because of engine trouble, the skipper, Pat Finucane and crew changed boats and were transported on on Ger Reidy's, Kilteery.

The sun shone all the way for the sight-seeing journey up this magnificent of stretch of water. The Islands on the Shannon Estuary Cannon and Horseshoe are one of the first sights that can be seen on this stretch of the river. The bauxite smelting factory, Aughinish Alumina and the famous Beeves Rock lighthouse, no more in use gives an added pictureesque setting to this journey.

Further on the right-hand side the entrance into the Deel Boat Club in Askeaton can be seen on the the same shore the pre-Norman Beagh Castle is standing overlooking the Shannon. Ringmoylan, and Pallaskenry can be seen down a mile from the castle, and opposite Rineanna with the famous Shannon Airport, who hosted several US President's who stopped off to visit this country.

As we continued our journey up river the landmark, Carrigagonnell Castle is visible, also the giant chimneys of the Cement factory in Mungret and the giant-sized structure of Thomond Park.

Nearer to the city Riverpoint and the Clarion Hotel, two of the tallest buildings in Limerick, rise up to the blue sky and sunshine of May.

When the flotilla approached the Clarion Hotel, they berthed for an hour to give the public a chance to see these water vessels in their bunting and memorabilia.

After the inspections were it was into Limerick Docks for an overnight stay, and then on to Dolan's Bar and Restaurant for a much sought-after meal.

On Sunday afternoon the junior members of the club, Ailish Chawke, Claire Lowes, Ciara McCormack, Mary McCormack and Anna Lowes gave a display of sailing kayaks and Topaz boats at Howley's Quay to an array of spectators, who came to see the other craft on the water, Jet-Ski's and Clark Clifford's rib who gave the public a trip up and down the Shannon. Members of the yacht club also gave out flyers promoting Foynes Yacht Club.

When the sailing adventures were over it was time to head back down river to Cooleen Point, where a Bar-b-Que followed in the Clubhouse the sailors and their families. Overall, the reaction from everybody was excellent!

Club racing continus every Wednesday evening with first gun at 7pm. On Saturday, May 14 and Sunday, May 15 the Estuary Bell will be raced in Foynes. Two races on Saturday and one of Sunday are pencilled in.

The John Corby designed 38 one off, Gloves off, was the winner in class zero of Kinsale Yacht Club's Spring Series League. In Class One, the X- yacht Eos skippered by David Scott had a 16-point winning margin over Dan Buckley's J109 Justus. In class two another Corby design, a 25-footer, Yanks and Franks skippered by Vincent O'Shea beat Brian Goggin's sister ship Allure. Provisional overall results are published below class by class. Photos of the event by bob Bateman are here. All the latest Kinsale news and photos including updates on June's Sovereign's Cup.

 

Kinsale's Spring Series Class IRC Zero Overall

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Handicap	Series Points
1	IRL2003	GLOVES OFF	CORBY 38 ONE-OFF	Kieran Twomey	1.115	8
2	IRL4477	FREYA	X-442	Conor Doyle	1.098	17
3	IRL4475	GODOT	Dufour 44	Godkin & O'Donovan	1.099	24
4	IRL4076-2	MERIDIAN	SALONA 45	Tom Roche	1.131	29

Kinsale Yacht Club Spring Series Class IRC One Overall

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Handicap	Series Points
1	IRL6695	EOS	X-362 SPORT	David Scott	1.022	10
2	IRL2067	JUSTUS	J 109	Dan Buckley	1.027	16
3	IRL1843	ANTIX BEAG	1720mod	Anthony O'Leary	1.005	27
4	IRL2805	INDULGENCE	DEHLER 36 [JV]	Aidan Heffernan	1.023	30
5	IRL1583	CHANCER	ELAN 40	Carroll Bros	1.033	39
6	IRL4430	SAMBA	SUNFAST 40.3	John Downing	1.030	41

Kinsale Yacht Club Spring Series Class IRC Two Overall

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Handicap	Series Points
1	IRL2525	YANKS & FRANKS	CORBY 25	Vincent O'Shea	0.938	14
2	IRL2506	ALLURE	CORBY 25	Brian Goggin	0.936	22
3	IRL4170	SLACK ALICE	GK 34	Shane Statham	0.953	26
4	IRL16859	BAD COMPANY	SUNFAST 32	Desmond-Ivers-Deasy	0.939	29
5	IRL4506	SEA HAWK	SIGMA 33ood	Clem McElligott	0.915	34
6	GBR7525R	Thunderbird	Corby25	Denis Coleman	0.940	43
7	IRL1121	MAC MAGIC II	First 31.7	McCarthys	0.956	62
8	IRL78	NO-GNOMES	NICHOLSON 30 mod	Leonard Donnery	0.910	67
9	IRL9732	Wicked	Sun Fast 32i	Mark Mendel	0.940	70
10	IRL692	GEMINI	FIRST 310	Salter/O'Regan/Minihan	0.930	82
11	IRL329	GUNSMOKE 11	FIRST 32	Sammy Cohen	0.910	89
12	IRL3492	BIG DEAL	DEHLER 34	Derek Dillon	0.925	90
13	IRL6676	Y KNOT	FIRST 32S5	Barrett_Conlon	0.933	95

Kinsale Yacht Club Spring Series Class IRC Three Overall

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Handicap	Series Points
1	GBR506R	ANCHOR CHALLENGE	Farr 1/4 tonner	Eamonn Rohan	0.917	13
2	IRL1771	Shillelagh	BLAZER 23	John Twomey	0.868	15
3	IRL9600	IMPACUNIOUS	IMPALA	Eddie Rice	0.888	21
4	IRL4206	POWDER MONKEY	SIGMA 33	Liam Lynch	0.909	31
5	IRL6002	STAGEFRIGHT	FORMULA 28	STAGEFRIGHT	0.912	47
6	IRL6564	MONKEY BUSINESS	Formula28	Bill McConnell	0.912	49
7	IRL152	CHAMELEON	FASTNET 34	Padraig O'Donovan	0.896	52

Kinsale Yacht Club Spring Series Class IRC Four Overall

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Handicap	Series Points
1	GBR9625R	SUNDANCER	DYNAMO 25	Alan Mulcahy	0.841	8
2	148	SHELLY D	MOODY 30	Mick Murphy	0.859	16
3	A191	LA MARAQUITA	ACHILLES 24	Eddie Higgns & Kevin Morrisson		32

Kinsale Yacht Club Spring Series Class IRC White Sail Overall

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Handicap	Series Points
1	IRL3450	Val Criss	First 345	Murphy Hennessy Dann	0.965	13
2	IRL4004	OBJECTION	SUN ODYESSY 35	Kevin & Celia Murray	0.953	17.5
3	IRL7880	Windrose	Nicholson 26	Bill Joyce	0.850	20
4	IRL1176	MAGIC ELFIN	Hanse 371	Peter Kelly	0.992	22
5	IRL6006	CIMARRON VI	OCEANIS 42.3	Dave O'Sullivan	1.009	33
6	IRL4369	Charisma	Sigma33	Des Lyons & Aine Dunne	0.957	35
7	IRL7305	Delos	First 305	Dave Cullinane	0.914	40
8	IRL2123	WHEELS	SUN ODYESSY 42	John Whealan	1.013	40
9	IRL3910	Sonas	Sun Odyssey 39i	David Ross	1.011	44
10	IRL1424	Roloco	Oceaniis 343	Brian Rose	0.917	45
11	IRL109	Ragtime	GK 24	John Alexander	0.811	57
12	IRL4003	Aoife	Oceanis 350	John O Mahony	0.911	62

Although the sailing numbers entered to date are smaller than usual for the SB3 fleet, what it lacks in quantity it will more than up for in quality when racing starts off Howth next Saturday (April 30th).

Unless last year's champion Gareth Flanigan and his crew can beg, steal or borrow a boat, they won't be able to defend their title and a new winner will be crowned on May 1st. The recent Spring Warmer Series saw some boats post inconsistent results while two teams in particular stepped up from last year to place themselves in the running.

Eoin Quinlan's decision to team up with Mike Evans and Peter Frane with 'Shockwave' looked like a smart one, with consistent results putting them on top of that series, and giving them the confidence to make the top 3 or 4 places at the Easterns.

John O'Driscoll of the Royal St.George is another skipper in flying form and will be hopeful of a good overall result next weekend. HYC's own 'Sharkbait' (Ben Duncan/Brian Moran/Rick Morris) can never be under-estimated and will be tipped to be among the prime contenders.

A feature of the event is the entry of several women helms, the most notable being Olympic hopeful Annalise Murphy of the National YC with her mother (and former Olympian) Cathy MacAleavey crewing.

Bob Bateman was afloat today to capture the latest Spring sailing off Kinsale Yacht Club, a month long sailing series that has been sailed in sunshine so far each Sunday and today's Bank holiday Monday race was no different. Scroll down for photos, there are some nice shots of John Twomey's Sonar, Shillelagh.

Today's racing was sailed in a north east 8 knot breeze. An ebb tide flowing out of Kinsale harbour gave a good beat on the windward/leeward course, leaders tacking up the western shore.

The first round the weather mark was Anchor sailed by Ian Travers with sailmaker Nigel Young on board.

Winds dropped during the day but filled in again from the South East.

Classes 0, 1, 2 were on a round the cans course taking the Bullman buoy as weather mark before going on a two sail reach to Sovereigns Islands and  a run out to SE mark.

Racing co ntinued all day and a weary class 2 only returned to the harbour after 5pm.

Racing concludes next saturday followed by a prize giving Dinner.

 

Up to 40 yachts form the backbone of the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association fleet (ISORA).  Although the 2011 entry list (below) shows a large number of Beneteau models it also reveals a wide range of other marques, largely between 30 and 50 foot. Prominent types are J109s, Sigma 33s and a number of Jeanneau yachts too.

ISORA 2011 Racing Fleet

Boat Name	Sail no	Hull / Mast Col	Model
Lancastrian	GBR7682T	White	Starlight
Yahtzee	IRL 1068	White/Gold	Oceanis 41
Rebellion	IRL 6001	Blue/Silver	Nicholson 58
Miss Scarlett	IRL 4763	White/Gray	Sunfast 40.3
Orna	IRL532	Blue	40C
Mistral of St Helier	K8337	White	3800D
Poppy	GBR4183	Red/White	Contention 33
Dinah	IRL 3508	White/Aluminium	Jeanneau
Raging Bull	IRL 9666	White/Silver	Sigma 400
Tsunami	IRL 4007	Grey/Silver	First 40.7
GFT Adventurer	GBR 23161	White/Silver	First 45
Jedi	IRL 8088		J109
English Mick	GRB 4771R	Blue/Silver	First 47.7
Galileo	IRL1944	Blue	First 47.7
Lula Belle	IRL3607	White	Beneteau 36.7
Finnigans Wake	IRL2008	White	37B
Obsession	IRL 4513	White/Aluminium	Sigma 3300
Katanca	IRL 31310	White/Aluminium	Elan 31
Just Enough	GBR6912T		J92
Big Hillie Style	IRL 3208	White	Sun Fast 3200
Adelie	FRA 9631	White/Black	First 34.7
Mojito	IS 36L	White/Aluminium	Bavaria
Calypso	IRL 5643	White/Silver	Oceanis E51
Legally Blonde	IRL 3175	Grey/Aluminium	Beneteau
GWAWR	GRB 8330	White/Aluminium	Sigma
First of September	IRL 8581	White/Silver	First 435
Rollercoaster	IRL 9109	White/Aluminium	J109
Quite Correct	IRL 5405	White/White	Jeanneau D5 54
Sarnia	IRL 2260	White/Gold	36
Sailing West Intuition	GBR 9383R	Blue/Aluminium	Reflex 38
Sailing West One Life	GBR 3708R	White/Silver	Sunfast 37
Temper Tantrum	6909T	White	40
Wennol 3	GBR1347R	White/Black	First 34.7
African Challenge	IRL 2649	White/Silver	Fast
Windshift	IRL37737	White/Aluminium	Sunfast 37
Oystercatcher	IRL 1177	White/ Silver	Gib'sea 37
Aztec 3	IRL29832	White/Silver	A35

The yacht sailed by late former Taoiseach Charles Haughey has been offered as gift to the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) as a research vessel.

The Irish Times reports that 52ft Celtic Mist had been on sale in the Isle of Wight for €175,000 since last year, but with the market at a low ebb, son Conor Haughey invited the IWDG to take over the vessel, subject to negotation.

The IWDG's Simon Berrow said the group's membership showed "overwhelming support" for the gift, and is currently looking into sponsorship to support the yacht for research, as maintenance costs would run around €20,000 per year.

The Celtic Mist was once the subject of some controversy when it emerged during the Moriarty Tribunal that businessman Dermot Desmond had paid refurbishment costs of €75,000, a sum that exceeded Haughey's then salary as Taoiseach.

Glorious sailing conditions prevailed for the second day of the Kinsale Cruiser Spring Series yesterday writes Claire Bateman. Scroll down for Bob Bateman's sailing photos of yesterday's cruiser action. The only sailing factor missing was the wind! However but after a wait of two and a half hours, the breeze filled in from the south- west giving some 15 knots and enabling racing to commence. Classes 0, 1 and 2 sailed the round the cans course, Classes 3 and 4 were on the windward leeward course and the White Sail Fleet sailed in the harbour. To add to the spectacle the Optimist dinghies in large numbers were sailing further east in trials for international competition. 

A European Sailing Championship, four national championships, four regional championships and a dozen local regattas/events are the central features of a hectic year afloat being organised by Howth Yacht Club in 2011 which will bring thousands of sailors and their families to the town and contribute significantly to the local economy.

At a launch reception in the club on Thursday 31st March attended by representatives of local commerce, tourism and community bodies, HYC Commodore Roger Cagney announced that in addition to junior and adult sail training courses and club racing four days a week in the summer months, the Club would host over 20 open events during the year.

"We are used to sailing being a year-round activity," he said, "but even by our standards this will be an exceptionally busy year for Howth Yacht Club. We are fortunate in the number of talented volunteers we can call upon to help make these events successful and we have an enviable track record in this regard. We are also extremely grateful for the sponsorship of individual events from commercial concerns, details of which will be released in due course."

The major event on the 2011 calendar is undoubtedly the European Championship of the J24 Class, the world's most popular racing keelboat, when over 200 sailors from six or more countries will compete in the four-day regatta in September.

Howth will also host the Irish Championships of four classes – Puppeteer, Squib, Howth 17 and Optimist – between July 1st and late-August, with the latter attracting up to 200 competitors, together with their families, coaches and supporters. In addition, HYC will run the SB3 Eastern Championships (end April), the RS Feva Leinsters (late May) and the Dublin Match Racing Open (in J80s in early September).

The club's programme also comprises the Spring Warmer series in April, the annual Lambay Races on June 11th, the Dinghy Regatta a week later and the ever-popular Autumn League over five weekends in September/October.