Displaying items by tag: ISA youth nationals

3rd February 2011

Mitsubishi ISA Youth Nationals Preview

April 28 - May 01. As part of the build up to the Dublin Bay 2012 sailing competition, the ISA and Dun Laoghaire waterfront clubs are combining to create a new exciting youth championship to be hosted at the 2012 ISAF Youth Worlds venue during the 2011 Easter holidays. The ISA and RSGYC are bringing together the two major youth championships on Irish calendar into the four day ISA Mitsubishi Youth National Championships.

Post event wrap up report here. Ongoing coverage of youth sailing here.

Three hundred sailors from around the country are expected to compete for the six national youth titles, six junior pathway titles and the Mitsubishi coaching grant. Racing for the Boys and Girls titles will be over three courses on Dublin Bay for the 420, Laser Radial, Laser 4.7, Topper, Feva and Optimist classes. The final leg of the Optimist Trials will also take place at the same time.

With interest already from overseas competitors a number of top international sailors, have been invited to compete against the best Irish sailors to raise the level of competition in advance of Dublin Bay 2012.

The Dublin Bay 2012 organisers are not just focused on testing the racing but plan a full range of activities and entertainment ashore to ensure all the sailors, families and friends have fun and enjoy this special once-in-a-year time when all the youth classes come together.

Published in Youth Sailing

Tagged under

About Conor O'Brien, Irish Circumnavigator

In 1923-25, Conor O'Brien became the first amateur skipper to circle the world south of the Great Capes. O'Brien's boat Saoirse was reputedly the first small boat (42-foot, 13 metres long) to sail around the world since Joshua Slocum completed his voyage in the 'Spray' during 1895 to 1898. It is a journey that O' Brien documented in his book Across Three Oceans. O'Brien's voyage began and ended at the Port of Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, where he lived.

Saoirse, under O'Brien's command and with three crew, was the first yacht to circumnavigate the world by way of the three great capes: Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin; and was the first boat flying the Irish tri-colour to enter many of the world's ports and harbours. He ran down his easting in the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties between the years 1923 to 1925.

Up until O'Brien's circumnavigation, this route was the preserve of square-rigged grain ships taking part in the grain race from Australia to England via Cape Horn (also known as the clipper route).

At a Glance - Conor O'Brien's Circumnavigation

In June 1923, Limerick man Conor O’Brien set off on his yacht, the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the two-year voyage from Dun Laoghaire Harbour that was to make him the first Irish amateur to sail around the world.

June 1923 - Saoirse’s arrival in Madeira after her maiden passage out from Dublin Bay

2nd December 1924 - Saoirse crossed the longitude of Cape Horn

June 20th 1925 - O’Brien’s return to Dun Laoghaire Harbour