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Displaying items by tag: silt–up

Following a campaign by Bray Harbour Action Group (BHAG) to deal with a silt–up of the county Wicklow Harbour, BHAG met with Bray Municipal District Councillors yesterday.

Speaking after the meeting BHAG chairman Ger Crowley said” We have a duty of care to maintain and enhance Bray Harbour for our youth and future generations as a vibrant active leisure, sports and commercial area.

BHAG are very pleased, he continued, with the opportunity to share our vision for Bray Harbour with key decision makers of Bray.

The harbour is a great asset that can be put to use to benefit all the people of Bray. Many seaside towns would envy the infrastructure that we already have already in place by way of harbour walls within which to develop, easy access to the promenade and the town and we are readily accessible to visitors by road and rail.

Bray harbour silt upStakeholders - (from left) John McNulty, Bray Adventures Ronan Laffan, Bray Sailing Club, Tony Foran, Bray Harbour Mooring Holders' Association, Greg Mulvaney, Bray Head Fishing and Social Club, Ger Crowley, Chairman BHAG with a model to show how Bray harbour could be improved

We believe, he continued, that for a relatively modest investment the harbour can again become a safe docking and berthing facility for coastal cruises and visiting boats bringing many visitors to the town. It can also become a centre for water sports and commercial water based activities.

Bray harbour silt upAn aerial view of Bray harbour showing the current silt–up of sand in the Wicklow leisure port

Speaking after the meeting, Ger said, BHAG welcomes the invitation from Bray Municipal District Councillors to form a Joint Working Group to explore how to maximise the potential of Bray Harbour and looks forward to working in close cooperation with Councillors and Officials to achieve positive outcomes.

He cautioned, however, that failure to deal with the build-up of sand in the harbour quickly and efficiently would not only put plans for the future in jeopardy but could lead to the early demise of the harbour as a valuable recreational amenity

Published in Coastal Notes
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Esailing & Virtual Sailing information

The concept of e-sailing, or virtual sailing, is based on a computer game sailing challenge that has been around for more than a decade.

The research and development of software over this time means its popularity has taken off to the extent that it has now become a part of the sailing seascape and now allows people to take an 'active part' in some of the most famous regattas across the world such as the Vendée Globe, Route du Rhum, Sydney Hobart, Volvo Ocean Race, America’s Cup and some Olympic venues too, all from the comfort of their armchair.

The most popular model is the 'eSailing World Championship'. It is an annual esports competition, first held in 2018 and officially recognised by World Sailing, the sports governing body.

The eSailing World Championship is a yearly competition for virtual sailors competing on the Virtual Regatta Inshore game.

The contract to run the event was given to a private company, Virtual Regatta that had amassed tens of thousands of sailors playing offshore sailing routing game following major offshore races in real-time.

In April 2020, the company says on its website that it has 35,000 active players and 500,000 regattas sailed.

Virtual Regatta started in 2010 as a small team of passionate designers, engineers, and entrepreneurs gathered around the idea that virtual sailing sports games can mix with real races and real skippers.