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Displaying items by tag: Kish LighthouseBefore the Build

#KishLight@50 – In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Kish Lighthouse off Dublin Bay, the National Maritime Museum of Ireland in Dun Laoghaire is host to a lecture about what is one of Ireland’s most famous and unique lighthouses.

The impressive 12-storey structure of the lighthouse (towering 31 metres high when in situ) was constructed five decades ago in Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

Tugs brought out the 'floating' 7,000 tonnes lighthouse in the summer of 1965 to the the Kish Bank from where it was sunk into position on the sandbank. It was not until November 9th that year that the light was first exhibited having replaced a lightship.

To hear more on the details of how the lighthouse was built, a two-hour lecture takes place in the NMMI this Thursday, 12 November. The lecture “Kish Lighthouse –Before the Build” begins at 8pm and will be co-presented by Brian Kelly and Eoghan Lehane.

Tickets cost €10.00 and for more details including an exhibition held in the NMMI click here.

In addition the RTE Archives has a link, click here for the ‘Newsbeat’ programme from 1965 on the construction of the lighthouse.

Published in Lighthouses

Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Yacht Race Information

The biennial Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race is a 320-miles race down to the east coast of Ireland, across the south coast and into Dingle harbour in County Kerry.

The race is organised by the National Yacht Club.

It never fails to offer a full range of weather, wind and tide to the intrepid entrants, ranging from a 32ft cruiser to a 79ft all-out racer.

Three divisions are available to enter: cruiser (boats equipped with furlers), racing (the bulk of the fleet) and also two-handed.

D2D Course change overruled

In 2019, the organisers considered changing the course to allow boats to select routes close to shore by removing the requirement to go outside Islands and Lighthouses en route, but following input from regular participants, the National Yacht Club decided to stick with the tried and tested course route in order to be fair to large and smaller boats and to keep race records intact.

RORC Points Calendar

The 2019 race was the first edition to form part of the Royal Ocean Racing Club “RORC” calendar for the season. This is in addition to the race continuing as part of the ISORA programme. 

D2D Course record time

Mick Cotter’s 78ft Whisper established the 1 day and 48 minutes course record for the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race in 2009 and that time stood until 2019 when Cotter returned to beat his own record but only just, the Dun Laoghaire helmsman crossing the line in Kerry to shave just 20 seconds off his 2009 time.