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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: Sir Ernest Shackleton

Hello and welcome aboard this week’s edition of your maritime programme Seascapes .....this week we hear about efforts afoot to assist in the restoration of “Moonduster”; we have the results of our recent competition for copies of Carsten Kriegers ‘ “This Is the Burren” courtesy of The Collins Press ; we talk to Donal Boland whom we met last weekend in Athlone whilst we were at The Dive Ireland Conference about a gathering in Lynches of Tullamore this weekend focussing on The Mid Shannon with a wide range of speakers; how the British Ambassador to Ireland HE Mr Dominick Chilcott earlier this week paid homage to Sir Ernest Shackleton and members of the Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition and the Centenary of their return home with Tom Crean and our many maritime heroes celebrated by author Michael Smith who addressed the large gathering in the Ambassadors’ residence with descendants of the Shackleton and Crean families present, the Shackleton Mueseum in Athy and all branches of the forces including Chief of Staff of The Defence Forces – Vice Admiral Mark Mellett just returned from Mali..... ....first this week to last weekend’s Skipper Expo in Galway – Seascapes was there on Saturday where we met many regular listeners and contributors – one man whom I remember reading as a young boy was there, the veteran journalist and founding editor of The Skipper now in his eighties Arthur Reynolds had this to say....

Read also WM Nixon: Why Moonduster Should Not Make Ireland Her Home After Restoration 

Published in Seascapes

#JEANIE LECTURES – Having started this month, the 'Below the Surface' series of six lectures is a celebration of Ireland's maritime heritage and archaeology. They are held on the first Wednesday of each month on board the replica 19th century barque Jeanie Johnston in Dublin Docklands. The next lecture on 5th December is about Sir Ernest Shackleton, one of Irelands greatest polar explorers.

The talk presented by historian and guide - Jonathan Shackleton will give a unique insight by delving into his family background of the polar explorer and for his reputation and growth in four expeditions to Antarctica.

Doors open at 7.15pm (lecture starts 8pm) and those attending will experience an intimate space ideal for maritime tales, oozing with seafaring ambience with the creaking sounds of the hull.

It is advisable to arrive early as entry to venue will not be possible upon commencement of the lecture venue.  The emmigrant famine museum ship is berthed alongside Custom House Quay. To book online tickets costing €15 each, click the link HERE

Published in Boating Fixtures

Visitors to the Merseyside Maritime Museum have just over a fortnight to view Endurance: Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure! writes Jehan Ashmore.

The exhibition which has been running since last July, tells the epic story of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914 expedition and the incredible real life tale of survival. For over two years, Shackleton and his men became castaways during their Antarctic ordeal.

Also featuring in the exhibition are 150 compelling images taken by the ships photograph, Frank Hurley who saved the negatives from perishing in the icy waters.

The Endurance exhibition ends on Sunday 27 February and admission is free. For further details logon to the National Liverpool Museums website here

Last year the Dublin Port Company named a new tug, Shackleton in honour of the Athy-born, polar explorer and a sister tug was named Beaufort after the Navan-born innovator, Sir Francis Beaufort.

To read about the tugs in their starring role in an advertisement made for the National Lottery last year click this link and to see the tugs in Making Magic mode click video

Published in Boating Fixtures

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]