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Looking for a SCUBAPRO Aladin square Dive wrist watch? One's just been added to Afloat's marketplace at a discounted price. Seller Jeremy Leighton is offering a brand new, unused watch that's still in original packaging. He says this Aladin 2 dive watch normally retails for €425 but is yours for €250. Check it out here

SCUBAPRO say the Aladin Square Dive Computer gives divers the latest in decompression technology in a clean, easy-to-navigate format. Its large screen and sharp numeric readout are highly visible and will appeal to divers who want to focus more on their surroundings than their gear.

Anyone can add items to the marketplace. Click for more info here

Published in Diving

#sub-aqua – In the year of its 50th anniversary, the NUIG/GMIT Sub-Aqua Club officially launched its new Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB), Alice Perry, at a special ceremony in NUI Galway recently. Launched by NUI Galway's Vice-President for the Student Experience, Dr Pat Morgan, the RIB was blessed by the University's Chaplain, Fr Diarmuid Hogan.

In 2009 work began on raising funds to purchase a new offshore class RIB for the Club to allow greater access to some of the fantastic offshore dive sites that lie around Ireland. In late 2011, the NUI Galway Students Project Fund granted the remaining funds required.

The new 6.5m XS-650 RIB is named after NUI Galway graduate Alice Perry, who graduated with a first class honours degree in Civil Engineering in 1906. Alice was the first female to graduate with an engineering degree in Ireland or the UK. She went on to hold the position of County Surveyor for Galway, where her work included the inspection of Galway's piers, before later moving to London and eventually Boston.

Speaking at the launch, Martin Timoney of the NUIG/GMIT Sub-Aqua Club said: "I thank all those who helped in procuring the Clubs new RIB; from attaining the required funds, through the NUI Galway Students Project Fund, to the deriving the final specification for the RIB to is final delivery in late June. It has taken a lot of time and effort but the new RIB, Alice Perry will allow access to some fantastic dive sites for the club."

Annual events for the NUIG/GMIT Sub-Aqua Club include a Charity Fundraiser Dive with all the proceeds donated to local charities and groups involved in water safety where divers from the Club cumulatively spend 30 hours in the 3.5m deep tank in one hour time slots. This year over €1,600 was raised for the Galway RNLI Station and the Search and Recovery Unit of the Galway Sub Aqua Club. The Club also provides safety boat cover at a number of events, including Tri the Burren Triathlon and the Cope Triathlon, and this year the Volvo Ocean Race finale. Working with Galway Sub-Aqua Club, the Club provided safety boat cover in Galway Bay for each of the inshore practice and race days, as well as within the docks in the evenings.

The Club dives locally on a regular basis to such sites as Coral Beach, Bóthar Buí and Killary Fjord. Larger weekend trips also take place to dive sites all along the west coast, from Donegal to Cork. The Club is open to all current students, alumni or staff of NUI Galway or GMIT and training starts each year in September. For further information on the NUIG/GMIT Sub-Aqua Club, or to join, visit website www.galwaydiving.com.

To celebrate its 50th Anniversary the NUIG/GMIT Sub-Aqua Club are hosting a black tie gala ball in the Galway Bay Hotel on Saturday, 27 October. To find out more, or to purchase tickets for the ball visit www.galwaydiving.com.

Founded in 1962, the NUIG/GMIT Sub-Aqua Club is one of the oldest sub aqua clubs in the country. The UCG Diving Society was formed primarily by staff members of the then, University College Galway. In the 1990s, the Club formed an alliance with what was then the Regional Technical College, Galway, and when both colleges later changed their name, the Club became the NUIG/GMIT Sub-Aqua Club, as it is known today.  Over the years, the Club has grown from strength to strength and in 2003, was named by Comhairle Fo-Thuinn (CFT), the agency under which the Club affiliates itself and trains under, as the largest training Club in the country, with more trainee certificates issued than any other CFT club in Ireland.  The Club continues this success with a large number of current students, staff and alumni joining each year.

Published in Diving
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The body of award winning cave diver Artur Kozwolski has been recovered six days after he was reported missing in a Galway cave. His body was brought to the surface yesterday by a Brititsh specialist cave team who were hampered by siltation in the cave system. Lorna Siggins in the Irish Times has the story here.
Published in Diving
Dive Ireland, Ireland's dedicated dive show is taking place this coming weekend on the 5th & 6th March. The venue is the City North Hotel off the M1 Northbound and just 15 minutes from Dublin airport and 25 minutes from Dublin city.

CFT who are the national governing body for sports diving in Ireland will hold it's AGM and National Dive Conference at this event.

Some of the speakers include the following:

Jack Ingle Kit configuration

Barry McGill Deep wreck diving off the Donegal Coast

Nigel Motyer Underwater photographer

Tim Carey & Eoin Mc Garry Dive expedition to Asgard II in 2010

Ken O'Sullivan Irish ocean wildlife series Showing January 23rd TG4

Shane McArdle Sports Partnership and what it could mean for CFT clubs

More details and timetable HERE

Published in Diving

Dive Ireland, Ireland's only dedicated dive show is taking place on the 5th & 6th March. The venue
is the City North Hotel just off the M1 Northbound. Just 15 minutes from Dublin airport and 25 minutes from Dublin city.

CFT who are the national governing body for sports diving in Ireland will hold it's AGM and National Dive Conference at this event.

Some of the speakers include the following:

Jack Ingle Kit configuration

Barry McGill Deep wreck diving off the Donegal Coast

Nigel Motyer Underwater photographer

Tim Carey & Eoin Mc Garry Talk on the dive expedition to Asgard II in 2010

Ken O'Sullivan Irish ocean wildlife series Showing January 23rd TG4

Shane McArdle Sports Partnership and what it could mean for CFT clubs

Published in Diving

Dublin Bay 21s

An exciting new project to breathe life into six defunct 120-year-old Irish yachts that happen to be the oldest intact one-design keelboat class in the world has captured the imagination of sailors at Ireland's biggest sailing centre. The birthplace of the original Dublin Bay 21 class is getting ready to welcome home the six restored craft after 40 years thanks to an ambitious boat building project was completed on the Shannon Estuary that saved them from completely rotting away.

Dublin Bay 21 FAQs

The Dublin Bay 21 is a vintage one-design wooden yacht designed for sailing in Dublin Bay.

Seven were built between 1903 and 1906.

As of 2020, the yachts are 117 years old.

Alfred Mylne designed the seven yachts.

The total voting population in the Republic's inhabited islands is just over 2,600 people, according to the Department of Housing.

Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) commissioned the boat to encourage inexpensive one-design racing to recognise the success of the Water Wag one-design dinghy of 1887 and the Colleen keelboat class of 1897.

Estelle built by Hollwey, 1903; Garavogue built by Kelly, 1903; Innisfallen built by Hollwey, 1903.; Maureen built by Hollwey, 1903.; Oola built by Kelly, 1905; Naneen built by Clancy, 1905.

Overall length- 32'-6', Beam- 7'-6", Keel lead- 2 tons Sail area - 600sq.ft

The first race took place on 19 June 1903 in Dublin Bay.

They may be the oldest intact class of racing keelboat yacht in the world. Sailing together in a fleet, they are one of the loveliest sights to be seen on any sailing waters in the world, according to many Dublin Bay aficionados.

In 1964, some of the owners thought that the boats were outdated, and needed a new breath of fresh air. After extensive discussions between all the owners, the gaff rig and timber mast was abandoned in favour of a more fashionable Bermudan rig with an aluminium mast. Unfortunately, this rig put previously unseen loads on the hulls, resulting in some permanent damage.

The fleet was taken out of the water in 1986 after Hurricane Charlie ruined active Dublin Bay 21 fleet racing in August of that year. Two 21s sank in the storm, suffering the same fate as their sister ship Estelle four years earlier. The class then became defunct. In 1988, master shipwright Jack Tyrrell of Arklow inspected the fleet and considered the state of the hulls as vulnerable, describing them as 'still restorable even if some would need a virtual rebuild'. The fleet then lay rotting in a farmyard in Arklow until 2019 and the pioneering project of Dun Laoghaire sailors Fionan De Barra and Hal Sisk who decided to bring them back to their former glory.

Hurricane Charlie finally ruined active Dublin Bay 21 fleet racing in August 1986. Two 21s sank in the storm, suffering the same fate as a sister ship four years earlier; Estelle sank twice, once on her moorings and once in a near-tragic downwind capsize. Despite their collective salvage from the sea bed, the class decided the ancient boats should not be allowed suffer anymore. To avoid further deterioration and risk to the rare craft all seven 21s were put into storage in 1989 under the direction of the naval architect Jack Tyrrell at his yard in Arklow.

While two of the fleet, Garavogue and Geraldine sailed to their current home, the other five, in various states of disrepair, were carried the 50-odd miles to Arklow by road.

To revive the legendary Dublin Bay 21 class, the famous Mylne design of 1902-03. Hal Sisk and Fionan de Barra are developing ideas to retain the class's spirit while making the boats more appropriate to today's needs in Dun Laoghaire harbour, with its many other rival sailing attractions. The Dublin Bay 21-foot class's fate represents far more than the loss of a single class; it is bad news for the Bay's yachting heritage at large. Although Dún Laoghaire turned a blind eye to the plight of the oldest intact one-design keelboat fleet in the world for 30 years or more they are now fully restored.

The Dublin Bay 21 Restoration team includes Steve Morris, James Madigan, Hal Sisk, Fionan de Barra, Fintan Ryan and Dan Mill.

Retaining the pure Mylne-designed hull was essential, but the project has new laminated cold-moulded hulls which are being built inverted but will, when finished and upright, be fitted on the original ballast keels, thereby maintaining the boat’s continuity of existence, the presence of the true spirit of the ship.

It will be a gunter-rigged sloop. It was decided a simpler yet clearly vintage rig was needed for the time-constrained sailors of the 21st Century. So, far from bringing the original and almost-mythical gaff cutter rig with jackyard topsail back to life above a traditionally-constructed hull, the project is content to have an attractive gunter-rigged sloop – “American gaff” some would call it.

The first DB 21 to get the treatment was Naneen, originally built in 1905 by Clancy of Dun Laoghaire for T. Cosby Burrowes, a serial boat owner from Cavan.

On Dublin Bay. Dublin Bay Sailing Club granted a racing start for 2020 Tuesday evening racing starting in 2020, but it was deferred due to COVID-19.
Initially, two Dublin Bay 21s will race then three as the boat building project based in Kilrush on the Shannon Estuary completes the six-boat project.
The restored boats will be welcomed back to the Bay in a special DBSC gun salute from committee boat Mac Lir at the start of the season.
In a recollection for Afloat, well known Dun Laoghaire one-design sailor Roger Bannon said: "They were complete bitches of boats to sail, over-canvassed and fundamentally badly balanced. Their construction and design was also seriously flawed which meant that they constantly leaked and required endless expensive maintenance. They suffered from unbelievable lee helm which led to regular swamping's and indeed several sinkings.

©Afloat 2020