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Displaying items by tag: MakeAWish

#MarineWildlife - Make-A-Wish Ireland brought six-year-old Ondrej Byrtusova's dreams to life when they whisked him and his family away to Florida to train a killer whale, as the Irish Independent reports.

Ondrej – who was born with Hypoplastic Left-Heart Syndrome – was given the opportunity by the Irish charity to teach a few tricks to orca Malia, who is described as "sweet and playful".

“It was the nicest moment ever when I saw my son so happy and joyful,” said his mother Vlasta. “I am very proud of him that he did it.

"He was absolutely brilliant when he trained Malia showing her how to turn, kiss him, say yes and no, wave and splash, shake her tongue and blow bubbles."

It marked the first ever holiday for the youngster, who has endured years of open heart surgeries.

And while his prognosis is unclear, his family say they are making the most of their time together.

The Irish Independent has more on the story HERE.

Published in Marine Wildlife

New York Yacht Club’s biennial Invitational Cup

Ireland has a proud history in New York Yacht Club’s biennial Invitational Cup, with Irish participation from the very start and a podium result in 2019.

In 2009, two Irish Clubs,  Royal St. George in Dun Laoghaire and Royal Cork in Crosshaven, entered into New York's newest sailing competition that was reminiscent of Newport’s America’s Cup days when 19 yacht club teams from 14 nations descended on this “City by the Sea”.

The Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup is a competition between yacht clubs, with strict eligibility rules ensuring that each team is comprised exclusively of amateur sailors.

The competition, which was first run in 2009, has drawn entries from 49 clubs from 22 nations on all six inhabited continents.

The New York Yacht Club won the inaugural event in 2009, with the Royal Canadian Yacht Club winning in 2011 and 2013, England's Royal Thames Yacht Club winning in 2015 and Southern Yacht Club from New Orleans winning in 2017.

In 2019 the regatta was sailed for the first time in the New York Yacht Club’s fleet of IC37 yachts, and Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, from Australia, became the first Southern Hemisphere club to win the trophy. And it was in this edition that Anthony O’Leary’s Royal Cork team took the bronze medal.