Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Dublin Dockers Preservation Society

#OnTheRadio – A talk about Dublin Port and the life and work of dockers will be broadcast from the decks of the Jeanie Johnston today between 3-5pm on Near 90.3FM

Those involved in the broadcast are from the Dublin Dockworkers Preservation Society. At last year's Tallships Festival, the society held a photographic display depicting port scenes down through the decades.

 

Published in Dublin Port

#DUBLIN PORT PHOTOS - Starting today and tomorrow (Sat 6th July) is a photographic exhibition of 'Dublin Docks' which captures the daily lives of those working in the port spanning five decades (1940-1990).

The exhibition is organised by the Dublin Dockworkers Preservation Society and will be shown at the Sean O'Casey Community Centre on St Mary's Road, East Wall, in the heartland of the north inner city close to the older 'Docklands' now dominated by the financial sector.

The exhibition opens officially this evening at 7pm and besides the 40 images selected for display, visitors will be able to view a slide show that shows over 1,000 other photographs donated by dockers and their families. The images will remain on display on the Saturday too from 10am to 4pm.

Also tomorrow at 2pm in the same venue, Labour historian Francis Devine will give an illustrated talk on Dublin Dockworkers and their Trade Unions. Later in the evening at 9.30pm, musician Paul O'Brien ("Songs from the North Lotts" and "Port to Port") will perform at the Green Room Bar on Lower Sheriff Street.

There will be a further opportunity to see the exhibition during the Dublin Talls Ships Race Festival (23-26 August) as previously reported. The large collection of beautiful black and white photographs depicting the maritime history of the port through the ages will be shown in the CHQ Building at George's Dock.

Published in Dublin Port

The Dragon was designed by Johan Anker in 1929 as an entry for a competition run by the Royal Yacht Club of Gothenburg, to find a small keel-boat that could be used for simple weekend cruising among the islands and fjords of the Scandinavian seaboard. The original design had two berths and was ideally suited for cruising in his home waters of Norway. The boat quickly attracted owners and within ten years it had spread all over Europe.

The Dragon's long keel and elegant metre-boat lines remain unchanged, but today Dragons are constructed using the latest technology to make the boat durable and easy to maintain. GRP is the most popular material, but both new and old wooden boats regularly win major competitions while looking as beautiful as any craft afloat. Exotic materials are banned throughout the boat, and strict rules are applied to all areas of construction to avoid sacrificing value for a fractional increase in speed.

The key to the Dragon's enduring appeal lies in the careful development of its rig. Its well-balanced sail plan makes boat handling easy for lightweights, while a controlled process of development has produced one of the most flexible and controllable rigs of any racing boat.