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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: Engineers Ireland

The importance of renewable energy to Ireland’s future is among the topics that will be discussed at next week’s Engineers Ireland National Conference.

Time for Inspiration, Engineering Innovation and Leadership is the theme of this year’s conference, which will be held at the O’Reilly Hall at University College Dublin on Wednesday 25 October and will hear from a range of influential thought leaders on the role engineering is playing, and can play, in key areas of our society.

Decarbonising Ireland’s energy infrastructure will be the focus of contributions from Dr Tanya Harrington, chair of Renewable Energy Ireland, who will provide an up-to-date picture of how renewable energy is developing in Ireland and what changes are required over the coming years to achieve an effective transition to a net zero future.

Other presenters relevant to Afloat.ie readers include Niall Gleeson, CEO of Uisce Éireann (formerly Irish Water), who will address the engineering challenges the company encounters while protecting Ireland’s water supply and providing a safe, secure and sustainable water system to a rapidly growing population.

And Seán Atkinson, managing director of ESB International, a leading global engineering consultancy with experience across 120 countries, will speak about the provision of services in transmission and distribution, thermal and renewable power generation, utility management and strategic advisory while placing focus on transition to low-carbon solutions.

Details of the day’s other speakers can be found on the Engineers Ireland website, and tickets for Engineers Ireland members to attending this premier learning and networking event priced at just €30 can be purchased HERE.

Published in Power From the Sea

The East Tip Haulbowline Island Remediation Project in Cork Harbour, was voted the National Engineering Project of the Year for 2019 at a ceremony held in Dublin. 

As Afloat previously reported, Engineers Ireland invited members of the public to cast their vote in the shortlist of projects nominated in the awards' flagship category. 

According to Engineers Ireland, the project in Cork Harbour was conducted by Cork County Council, RPS, PJ Hegarty & Sons and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. 

The local authority engineering project that transformed the East Tip on the island (opposite Cobh) took the the lead at the 2019 Engineers Ireland Excellence Awards held in association with the ESB.

The remediation project, delivered on time and under budget, has seen 22 acres of the island’s East Tip transformed from a desolate, toxic, industrial site into a magnificent public recreational facility for local residents, workers and visitors in what has been one of the biggest environmental works in the history of the state.

The site at Haulbowline Island in Co Cork, formerly the home of Irish Steel, has been used for waste disposal for decades, with an estimated 650,000 cubic metres of slag and other waste metal from the steelworks deposited on the site from the 1960s until steel making ended at the plant in 2001.

Adopting the most innovative and customised engineering solutions throughout to overcome many challenges, the East Tip now boasts new playing pitches, walkways, cycleways, seating areas and the planting of hundreds of trees, woodlands and wildflower areas.

The Engineering Project of the Year category is sponsored by Transport Infrastructure Ireland and is voted for by a panel of judges and the public.

To read much more on the project click here (scroll down) to sub-heading: 'Immensely Challenging' 

Published in Cork Harbour

Two projects in Dublin Port have been shortlisted for the 'Engineering Project of the Year' and both are located within Alexander Basin which is undergoing a major redevelopment as part of the port's Masterplan 2040.

The port projects shortlisted are Ocean Pier Berth 31-34 (see: another 'Brexit-Buster) located to the east of Alexandra Basin and a new Ro-Ro Jetty. The latter is sited on the opposite west side of the basin nearby to the Tom Clark Toll-Lift Bridge, otherwise widely known as the East-Link.

Construction of these particular projects within the Alexandra Basin Redevelopment (ABR) works were carried out by Keating as part of the Roadbridge Keating Joint Venture which has been shortlisted at the Engineers Ireland Excellence Awards 2019.

The Awards recognises the highest level of achievement in the engineering field and provides peer recognition of outstanding Irish engineering work.

Engineers Ireland is calling on the Irish public to vote online for what they consider to be the Engineering Project of the Year. To take part, voting must be cast before the deadline of (tomorrow) midnight, Friday, November 8, 2019. To find out more about casting your vote click this link.

Published in Dublin Port

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]