Displaying items by tag: Archangel

19th April 2013

Aran Islands RNLI Rescue Fishermen in Galway Bay

#RNLI - Aran Islands RNLI in Galway Bay assisted six fishermen from a 24m trawler yesterday Thursday 18 April.

The volunteer lifeboat crew launched their all-weather lifeboat at 4.20pm following a report that a fishing vessel, the Archangel, with six crew on board had got into difficulty and broken down one mile north west of Inishmore.  

There was a six-metre swell at the time with a force seven to eight wind.

  The lifeboat crew under coxswain John O’Donnell arrived on scene accompanied in the air by Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 115 - the subject of its own documentary TV series currently showing on RTÉ One - and established a tow line removing the vessel from any immediate danger.  

The trawler was then towed back to Rossaveal in Connemara.   

Speaking following the call-out, Aran Islands RNLI lifeboat operations manager Michael Hernon said: "Thanks to the speed and efficiency of the crew in launching the lifeboat, we were able to arrive on scene in good time to assist the fishermen and successfully tow the trawler safely to shore."

Published in RNLI Lifeboats

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About the 29er Skiff Dinghy

The 29er is a one-design double-handed, single trapeze skiff for youth sailors.

There is an active class in Ireland, just one of the 38-countries from across all continents now racing the high-performance skiff.

The 29er is one of the latest dinghy classes to arrive in Ireland and has a 50/50 split between boys and girls.

The class like to describe the boat as "The most popular skiff for sailors who want to go fast!".

Derived from the Olympic class 49er class and designed by Julian Bethwaite the 29er was first produced in 1998.

Two sailors sail the 29er, one on trapeze.

The 6.25-metre high rig features a fractional asymmetrical spinnaker; a self-tacking jib decreases the workload of the crew, making manoeuvres more efficient and freeing the crew to take the mainsheet upwind and on two-sail reaches.

The 15.00 m2 spinnaker rigging set-up challenges crews to be fit and coordinated, and manoeuvres in the boat require athleticism due to its lack of inherent stability and the high speed with which the fully battened mainsail and jib power up.

The 74kg weight hull is constructed of fibreglass-reinforced polyester in a foam sandwich layout.

The fully battened mainsail and jib are made from a transparent Mylar laminate with orange or red Dacron trimming, while the spinnaker is manufactured from ripstop Nylon.

The mast is in three parts - an aluminium bottom and middle section, with a polyester-fibreglass composite tip to increase mast bend and decrease both overall weights, and the capsizing moment a heavy mast tip can generate. Foils are aluminium or fibreglass.

About the ILCA/Laser Dinghy

The ILCA, formerly known as the Laser, is the most produced boat in the world, with 220,000 units built since 1971.

It's easy to see why the single-handed dinghy has won the title of the most widely distributed boat of all time.

The Laser is a one-design dinghy, the hulls being identical but three rigs that can be used according to the size and weight of the sailor.

The class is international, with sailors from 120 countries. The boat has also been an Olympic class since 1996, being both the men's and women's singlehanded dinghy.

Three rigs are recognised by the International Laser Class Association (ILCA):

ILCA 4: sail of 4.70m2

ILCA 6: sail of 5.76 m2

ILCA 7: sail of 7.06 m2