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Displaying items by tag: Italian Navy

Italian tallship Amerigo Vespucci, once described by US sailors as the most beautiful in the world, (on Monday) docked at Dublin Port.

As The Irish Times reported, Amerigo Vespucci is a training vessel for Italian Navy cadets who sail for three months at the end of their first year at the Livorno Naval Academy. The period on the ship is intended to give the trainees the skills and world experience needed to become successful mariners.

They spend three or four days in each town or city in which they moor. While in Dublin, they plan on visiting Trinity College, the Guinness Storehouse and the Google building. The trainees sleep in hammocks while on board and there are four rooms below deck for the male cadets, and one for female cadets.

Federica Bellina (19), one of the 133 cadets on the ship, among 35 women, said she had wanted to join the navy since she was very young.

“We are able to open the sails and use the wind in order to navigate,” said Ms Bellina. “It’s a wonderful experience because we are on the masts and we can see the ocean, we can see the sea and we are an active part of the ship.”

They use “nautical observation” to determine the location of the ship relative to the stars and sun. They take care of the ships, train physically — often stopping to row in boats — and monitor the sea for targets or other ships.

Ms Bellina is training as a coast guard, which will see her study for five years in the academy.

For more on the recent visit click here as Afloat adds this morning the tallship departed the capital and is next bound for Bergen in Norway. 

Published in Navy

Dublin Bay Sailing Club Turkey Shoot Winter Series

Dublin Bay Sailing Club's Turkey Shoot Series reached its 20th year in 2020.

The popular yacht series racing provides winter-racing for all the sailing clubs on the southside of Dublin Bay in the run-up to Christmas.

It regularly attracts a fleet of up to 70 boats of different shapes and sizes from all four yachts clubs at Dun Laoghaire: The National Yacht Club, The Royal St. George Yacht Club, The Royal Irish Yacht Club and the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club as well as other clubs such as Sailing in Dublin. Typically the event is hosted by each club in rotation.

The series has a short, sharp format for racing that starts at approximately 10 am and concludes around noon. The event was the brainchild of former DBSC Commodore Fintan Cairns to give the club year-round racing on the Bay thanks to the arrival of the marina at Dun Laoghaire in 2001. Cairns, an IRC racer himself, continues to run the series each winter.

Typically, racing features separate starts for different cruiser-racers but in fact, any type of boat is allowed to participate, even those yachts that do not normally race are encouraged to do so.

Turkey Shoot results are calculated under a modified ECHO handicap system and there can be a fun aspect to some of the scoring in keeping with the Christmas spirit of the occasion.

As a result, the Turkey Shoot often receives entries from boats as large as Beneteau 50 footers and one designs as small as 20-foot flying Fifteens, all competing over the same course.

It also has legendary weekly prizegivings in the host waterfront yacht clubs immediately after racing. There are fun prizes and overall prizes based on series results.

Regular updates and DBSC Turkey Shoot Results are published on Afloat each week as the series progresses.

FAQs

Cruisers, cruising boats, one-designs and boats that do not normally race are very welcome. Boats range in size from ocean-going cruisers at 60 and 60 feet right down to small one-design keelboats such as 20-foot Flying Fifteens. A listing of boats for different starts is announced on Channel 74 before racing each week.

Each winter from the first Sunday in November until the last week before Christmas.

Usually no more than two hours. The racecourse time limit is 12.30 hours.

Between six and eight with one or two discards applied.

Racing is organised by Dublin Bay Sailing Club and the Series is rotated across different waterfront yacht clubs for the popular after race party and prizegiving. The waterfront clubs are National Yacht Club (NYC), Royal Irish Yacht Club (RIYC), Royal St George Yacht Club (RSGYC) and Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club (DMYC).

© Afloat 2020