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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

Displaying items by tag: Cork Harbour

From a sad scene of what appeared to be nearly certain destruction for a racing yacht, a Cork Harbour Coastguard led team has successfully refloated the J/109 that grounded at the mouth of the harbour this afternoon.

As Afloat reported earlier, the Jelly Baby came to grief at Weavers Point during the final race of Royal Cork Yacht Club's Autumn League around noon.

After the yacht broached and hit rocks, all ten crew made it ashore safely, some climbing the harbour rocks to do so.

The grounded yacht stood on its keel at Bull Rock and was being pounded by the waves for several hours until the Coastguard and a salvage team could successfully get her off the rock and refloat her on a rising tide.

Jelly Baby under tow back to CrosshavenJelly Baby under tow back to Crosshaven

Jelly Baby is hauled out at Crosshaven Boatyard with hull damage clearly visible following her afternoon on the rocksJ109 Jelly Baby is hauled out at Crosshaven Boatyard with hull damage clearly visible following her afternoon on the rocks

Published in Cork Harbour

All crew are reported safe, but a top racing yacht of the Royal Cork Yacht Club is on the rocks at Cork Harbour after a Mayday emergency incident on the final day of racing in the Club's Autumn League.

After the race rounded a weather mark, the Class One yacht Jelly Baby broached, and it is understood that a crew member from the boat went overboard.

According to eyewitness accounts, the crewman was recovered safely by the ten strong J/109 crew, but the rescue manoeuvres, brought Jelly Baby close inshore and near the rocks at the harbour mouth. 

Despite efforts to clear the lee shore, the yacht ended up on the rocks at Weaver's Point at a point known locally as Bull Rock.

Two crew went overboard. One was picked up by a competitor and the other by a RIB. 

The incident led to to an emergency Mayday call responded to by the RNLI at Crosshaven and the local Coastguard Unit and the Port Of Cork Pilot launch.

Coastguard attend the scene at Weaver's Point where a yacht went agroundCoastguard attend the scene at Weaver's Point where a yacht went aground

The rest of the crew made their way to safety by climbing the rocky cliff at Weaver's Point, an elevation of approximately 20 metres, at the mouth of Cork Harbour.

Jelly Baby on the rocks

The J109 yacht Jelly Baby at Weavers PointThe J109 yacht Jelly Baby at Weavers Point

Racing has been abandoned. 

Coastguard Hopes to Refloat 'Jelly Baby' at high Water

Coastguard volunteers attend the J109 Jelly Baby aground at Weaver's PointCoastguard volunteers attend the J109 Jelly Baby aground at Weaver's Point

Update at 3.20 pm:  The yacht remains aground and an attempt to re-float it will be made by the Crosshaven Coastguard team closer to high water.

The Coast Guard has set up a cordon near the boat.

Update: 6.30 pm: The yacht is successfully refloated. See vid here.

Jelly Baby on the rocks

Jelly Baby on the rocks

Published in Cork Harbour

Royal Cork Yacht Club Admiral Colin Morehead was aboard Royal Cork's Jap for some pre-race preparations before next Saturday's big race from Cobh to Blackrock. 

'She's So light, so responsive, an absolute joy to sail' was the verdict from the Admiral as the immaculately restored but engineless Cork Harbour One Design was put through its paces just south of Spike Island.

As Afloat previously reported the yacht that has been gifted to RCYC was originally built in Cork Harbour at Carrigaloe in 1897.

Jap is stored ashore by RCYC in its own special container and launching trailer. Plans are afoot to introduce more people to the historic craft over the course of the winter and next season.

See Bob Bateman's Jap photo slideshow below

Published in Cork Harbour

Crosshaven RNLI Lifeboat in Cork Harbour was requested to launch yesterday evening at 9.45pm to reports of a speedboat broken down and adrift approximately one km south west of Trabolgan.

In calm conditions with a slight sea,the volunteer crew, under the command of Alan Venner with Ian Venner, Aoife Dinan and Vince Fleming on board headed to the area at best speed.

On arrival, the two anglers onboard the vessel had attempted remedial work with no results. The crew of the lifeboat then established a tow and landed the casualty at Crosshaven boatyard.

The lifeboat returned to station at 11.30pm and is currently being washed down and refuelled by the shore crew before being declared ready for service.

 

Published in RNLI Lifeboats

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]