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A Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: AfloatA Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

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Viking Marine’s Black Friday specials are now available — but be quick as these deals only last till Monday 26 November.

Get the best savings on selected Helly Hansen bags — with up to 50% off — and get 40% off the Wave Regatta Zhik Z-Cru Jacket.

Helly Hansen washbags (black only) and Jack Wolfskin backpacks are discounted by 30%, while you can save 15% on Seago Lifelines and Marine Pool Aero lifejackets, as well as International Cruiser 250 and Precision antifouling.

Viking Marine premisesViking Marine's eye-catching Christmas Window display on Marine Road, Dun Laoghaire

In addition, there’s 10% off binoculars, the Seago offshore lifejacket, Seago inflatable danbury, and the Harken range.

All are available online and in store, with more daily promotions on offer in store at The Pavilion on Marine Road in the heart of Dun Laoghaire.

Be sure to follow Viking Marine on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the latest updates.

Published in Viking Marine

Christmas is less than six weeks away — but no need to fret, as Viking Marine has many wonderful gift ideas for all the sailors in your life.

Whether they’re only starting out or an ‘ancient mariner’, a dinghy enthusiast or yachting fanatic — you can find everything you’ll need for the perfect present in Viking Marine’s online gift guide.

To make your shopping experience even easier, Viking Marine has organised its guide by the type of sailor you’re looking to treat, whether that’s a dinghy sailor or racer, cruiser or offshore sailor.

Don’t miss the selection of stocking fillers for sailors of all stripes. And the new range open sea swimming gear from Orca will also appeal for those who brave the waters over winter.

Published in Viking Marine

Viking Marine is currently looking to recruit some hard-working and experienced sailing enthusiasts to work full time and part time as sales assistants in its Dun Laoghaire store.

If you are an experienced sailor with dinghy and yachts knowledge and are looking to share your passion with others, Viking Marine would love to hear from you.

Full details of the full-time and part-time sales assistant roles can be found on the Viking Marine website or click here.

To apply for either of these jobs, please e-mail your CV to [email protected]

Published in Viking Marine

Viking Marine in Dun Laoghaire has something special in store for this year’s Black Friday sales.

Be sure to visit next Friday 23 November for exclusive savings and major discounts on clothing, safety equipment, boat hardware and more.

And be the first to know about Viking Marine’s Black Friday deals — as well as getting inditer tips on regular discounts, exclusive offers, sailing tips and more besides — by signing up for their email newsletter.

Follow Viking Marine on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the latest updates.

Published in Viking Marine

Western Marine of Dalkey in County Dublin celebrates fifty years in business in 2016 and marked its last day at its waterfront showrooms earlier this month. The landmark Dublin Bay premises has been sold and the long established Irish marine firm is relocating after 48 years at its Bulloch harbour site. 

Doors closed in the Bulloch Harbour showrooms on April 2nd after a 'bonanza' relocation sale. A new location for the chandlery and boat sales store has yet to be announced. 'Details of our new location will be available shortly, but we can confirm we will not be moving very far!', managing director Hogan Magee told Afloat.ie

Published in Marine Trade
It was all smiles last night in Cork Harbour where the Royal Cork fleet enjoyed a wonderful evening of racing in the first race of the Union Chandlery sponsored June League. It was a contrast to last week, when the last race in the McWilliam Sailmakers May League had to be cancelled due to gales.

The conditions were ideal with a 7–knot breeze coming from the S.E. with flat water, blue skies and at the top of the tide. The harbour was looking its best.

The Race Officer set an excellent course. A bit of bias on the line made the start a bit interesting though. Class One got away clean. But Classes two and three had a General Recall.

After the start at Grassy the fleet had a beat out to No.3  The usual debate ensued over which side of the course was favoured. It was a close call in the end. Around No. 3 to starboard, spinnaker up and back to the Cage Bouy. A gybe and then on to No.12 at this stage there was a nice bit of ebb in the tide. It really was a case off keeping the Spinny flying for as long as possible up to the Mark. A nice beat followed, down to Corkbeg and then a nice reach back to the Grassy where the S flag was flying.

It was a good night for Billy Duane in his Sunlight 30 Expression in the White Sail fleet and for Jimmy Nyhan and Maritta Buwalda in their 1/4 Tonner Outrigger in Class 3.

First places also went to Thunderbird a Corby 25 owned by Denis Coleman in Class 2 and Endgame an A35 owned by Frank Doyle in Class 1.

Published in Royal Cork YC

June sees the official launch of a new concept in the marketing of marine equipment in Ireland.

Recognising that certain areas of Ireland are simply not able to support fully fledged marine stores on a year round basis, CH Marine has come up with the 'CH Marine Instore' concept.

This is a network of new micro- chandleries placed within existing businesses offering a range of the day to day requirements for boaters and sailors alike.

Typically, CH Marine Instore outlets are based in businesses such as Supermarkets, Service Stations, Hardware Stores and Boatyards located close to Ports or Marinas and where customers can stroll up for those simple supplies that are always needed on a boat. Life jackets and spares, marine cleaners and polishes, pumps and floats switches, rope and fenders are just some examples of the typical range of items that will be stocked.

CH Marine already supply a vast range of brand name marine products throughout Ireland, either through their own stores or through their network of Star dealers. The Instore program is seen as an extension of this network, improving service and providing an efficient supply to all areas of Ireland.

So far CH Marine has a network of 16 'Instores', eight of which are on the inland waterways. Full store listing here.

When Afloat.ie spoke to CH Marine's Managing Director, Nicholas Bendon, he explained that the recession had made it difficult to maintain a local supply in certain areas of Ireland and that INSTORE is solution to that problem. "The great thing about INSTORES is that they are true convenience stores and some, such as those in Supermarkets, are open 7 days a week.

They have all agreed to a ' price promise', ensuring that the prices charged will always be the same as CH Marine and there is a back up support of next day delivery on the vast range of CH Marine standard stock items "

Having piloted the scheme last year, CH Marine currently have 16 signed up Instore outlets but the list is expanding and a total of 50 is envisaged.

CH_marine_map

For more info on your nearest CH Marine Instore outlet - click www.chmarine.com/instore

 

Published in Marketplace
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How to sail, sailing clubs and sailing boats plus news on the wide range of sailing events on Irish waters forms the backbone of Afloat's sailing coverage.

We aim to encompass the widest range of activities undertaken on Irish lakes, rivers and coastal waters. This page describes those sailing activites in more detail and provides links and breakdowns of what you can expect from our sailing pages. We aim to bring jargon free reports separated in to popular categories to promote the sport of sailing in Ireland.

The packed 2013 sailing season sees the usual regular summer leagues and there are regular weekly race reports from Dublin Bay Sailing Club, Howth and Cork Harbour on Afloat.ie. This season and last also featured an array of top class events coming to these shores. Each year there is ICRA's Cruiser Nationals starts and every other year the Round Ireland Yacht Race starts and ends in Wicklow and all this action before July. Crosshaven's Cork Week kicks off on in early July every other year. in 2012 Ireland hosted some big international events too,  the ISAF Youth Worlds in Dun Laoghaire and in August the Tall Ships Race sailed into Dublin on its final leg. In that year the Dragon Gold Cup set sail in Kinsale in too.

2013 is also packed with Kinsale hosting the IFDS diabled world sailing championships in Kinsale and the same port is also hosting the Sovereign's Cup. The action moves to the east coast in July with the staging of the country's biggest regatta, the Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta from July 11.

Our coverage though is not restricted to the Republic of Ireland but encompasses Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Irish Sea area too. In this section you'll find information on the Irish Sailing Association and Irish sailors. There's sailing reports on regattas, racing, training, cruising, dinghies and keelboat classes, windsurfers, disabled sailing, sailing cruisers, Olympic sailing and Tall Ships sections plus youth sailing, match racing and team racing coverage too.

Sailing Club News

There is a network of over 70 sailing clubs in Ireland and we invite all clubs to submit details of their activities for inclusion in our daily website updates. There are dedicated sections given over to the big Irish clubs such as  the waterfront clubs in Dun Laoghaire; Dublin Bay Sailing Club, the Royal Saint George Yacht Club,  the Royal Irish Yacht Club and the National Yacht Club. In Munster we regularly feature the work of Kinsale Yacht Club and Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven.  Abroad Irish sailors compete in Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) racing in the UK and this club is covered too. Click here for Afloat's full list of sailing club information. We are keen to increase our coverage on the network of clubs from around the coast so if you would like to send us news and views of a local interest please let us have it by sending an email to [email protected]

Sailing Boats and Classes

Over 20 active dinghy and one design classes race in Irish waters and fleet sizes range from just a dozen or so right up to over 100 boats in the case of some of the biggest classes such as the Laser or Optimist dinghies for national and regional championships. Afloat has dedicated pages for each class: Dragons, Etchells, Fireball, Flying Fifteen, GP14, J24's, J80's, Laser, Sigma 33, RS Sailing, Star, Squibs, TopperMirror, Mermaids, National 18, Optimist, Puppeteers, SB3's, and Wayfarers. For more resources on Irish classes go to our dedicated sailing classes page.

The big boat scene represents up to 60% of the sail boat racing in these waters and Afloat carries updates from the Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA), the body responsible for administering cruiser racing in Ireland and the popular annual ICRA National Championships. In 2010 an Irish team won the RORC Commodore's Cup putting Irish cruiser racing at an all time high. Popular cruiser fleets in Ireland are raced right around the coast but naturally the biggest fleets are in the biggest sailing centres in Cork Harbour and Dublin Bay. Cruisers race from a modest 20 feet or so right up to 50'. Racing is typically divided in to Cruisers Zero, Cruisers One, Cruisers Two, Cruisers Three and Cruisers Four. A current trend over the past few seasons has been the introduction of a White Sail division that is attracting big fleets.

Traditionally sailing in northern Europe and Ireland used to occur only in some months but now thanks to the advent of a network of marinas around the coast (and some would say milder winters) there are a number of popular winter leagues running right over the Christmas and winter periods.

Sailing Events

Punching well above its weight Irish sailing has staged some of the world's top events including the Volvo Ocean Race Galway Stopover, Tall Ships visits as well as dozens of class world and European Championships including the Laser Worlds, the Fireball Worlds in both Dun Laoghaire and Sligo.

Some of these events are no longer pure sailing regattas and have become major public maritime festivals some are the biggest of all public staged events. In the past few seasons Ireland has hosted events such as La Solitaire du Figaro and the ISAF Dublin Bay 2012 Youth Worlds.

There is a lively domestic racing scene for both inshore and offshore sailing. A national sailing calendar of summer fixtures is published annually and it includes old favorites such as Sovereign's Cup, Calves Week, Dun Laoghaire to Dingle, All Ireland Sailing Championships as well as new events with international appeal such as the Round Britain and Ireland Race and the Clipper Round the World Race, both of which have visited Ireland.

The bulk of the work on running events though is carried out by the network of sailing clubs around the coast and this is mostly a voluntary effort by people committed to the sport of sailing. For example Wicklow Sailing Club's Round Ireland yacht race run in association with the Royal Ocean Racing Club has been operating for over 30 years. Similarly the international Cork Week regatta has attracted over 500 boats in past editions and has also been running for over 30 years.  In recent years Dublin Bay has revived its own regatta called Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta and can claim to be the country's biggest event with over 550 boats entered in 2009.

On the international stage Afloat carries news of Irish and UK interest on Olympics 2012, Sydney to Hobart, Volvo Ocean Race, Cowes Week and the Fastnet Race.

We're always aiming to build on our sailing content. We're keen to build on areas such as online guides on learning to sail in Irish sailing schools, navigation and sailing holidays. If you have ideas for our pages we'd love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected]