Mullingar Sailing Club

Thurs. 20th Dec.

Sailing will feature in RTE’s half-hour documentary feature on the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2007. 

The production, entitled The Regatta, was shot over four days in Dublin Bay during this year’s Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta and  features "spectacular on-board footage from a range of craft competing in the event".
The Regatta takes viewers both on board the competing craft, and behind the scenes, to examine the challenges thrown up by organising such a large-scale event on the bay. Involving over 3,000 competitors, and 25 different classes, the regatta was one of the largest participant sports events in Ireland this year. 

The Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta will be broadcast on RTE 1 on Saturday, December 22, at 4.20pm. 

Mon. 19th Nov.

I called into the Club of Friday and was amazed to see how low the level of the lake had fallen in the last month. picture
Ground works have started, the foreshore edge of the compound has been concreted and the area around the slip cleaned up. picture

Thurs. 8th Nov.
Some  video clips of the GP14 Autumn Open Weekend in Sligo have been uploaded  to YouTube @ http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=-c723wt0jpc

For Sale: GP14 Mk2 Sail No. 13314 2 sets of sails. Combi trailer Garaged during winter Very little during last 2 years Good condition Very fast boat (ex nationals winner) Price €3500 Contact Diarmaid Mullen Eire Mobile: 086 3553655 Posted; 8th November 2007 -- (advert from www.gp14ireland.com )

Thurs. 1st Nov.
The Club Annual General meeting was held on Friday 26th in the Officers Mess, Columb Barracks.
At the meeting the following were elected to serve the Membership: committee page

Commodore: Keith Pinder
Vice-Commodore and P.R.O.: John J.Smyth
Honorary Secretary: Kieran Milner
Honorary Treasurer: Katie Johnston
Junior Sailing Officer : Dermot Hogan
Fleet Captain: Brian Walker
Committee members: Gearoid O'Bradaigh, Veronica Lucy, Pat McArdle

Some adverts from www.gp14ireland.com

For Sale: GP14 "Sweet P" Sail no 12136 Good condition. 2 sets of sails excluding spinnaker. New launching trolley and boom never used. Road trailer and over boom cover. Sailed very little over last 3 years. Price €1,200. Contact Vernon O'Byrne Tel 01-2956787 or 087 - 2253828 Posted; 8th October 2007

Proctor mast for sale, square foot, with rigging, never used. Charles Lawn Tel: 0906478013. Mobile 087-9852324 Posted; 17th September 2007

GP14 Speed Sails FRP Mk2 # 13510 For Sale. Comes complete with combi-trailer. Fully rigged for racing. Contact Michael Sheridan Email: sheridan.michael@itsligo.ie Eire Mobile:087 7431560 Posted: 13th September 2007

GP14 Sails For Sale 1 Season Old Contact Alistair Duffin for Full details; From Northern Ireland Tel: 028 90457381 From Rep. of Ireland Tel: 048 90457381

GP14 Series 2 For Sale Harper built in 2000, GP14 #13673. Sailed on fresh water for 4 years, laid up for a year. Always garaged stored. 2 suits of sails, combi trailer. Contact Gavin @ 086 073 4567

Thurs. 25th Oct
MCNAMARA GP14 TRAINING WEEKEND

With the 2007 Season barely over, the GP14 Ireland Association are running a coaching weekend  to prepare for the World Championships in 2008.

A training weekend is planned for the weekend of the 10th and 11th of November 2007. These dates are a week earlier than the original dates previously announced due other commitments which our trainer could not re-schedule.
To book a place on the weekend please contact the GP14 Hon. Secretary; Ossian Geraghty Mob: 087 7970499

Mon. 15th Oct.
Crewsaver Life jacket, product recall of automatically operated inflatable Lifejackets, , manufactured prior to 1997. 

Crewsaver Information Bulletin - United Moulders MK3 Head

source : www.crewsaver.co.uk/Crewsaver/Latest_News/index.html?newsarticleid=59

Wed. 10th Oct.
The Annual General Meeting will be held in the Officers' Mess, Columb Barracks on Friday 26th October at 8.00pm. Please note that all nominations for the committee must be handed to the Hon. Secretary before the  commencement of the meeting.

Boat owners are requested to remove their boats from the boat park before Saturday 13th October, in order to facilitate groundworks which will commence in mid. October.

The showground's shed is again available this winter and the committee have increased their charge to €50.00 per boat, payment in advance. The caretaker will not accept boats that do not have owners name and contact number together with evidence of payment. Payments can be made to Garry Walshe or the caretaker with cheques made out to Mullingar Show Committee.

Members will appreciate that the shed is a great facility and the least they might do is pay for the privilege of using it. Garry can be contacted at (087) 2706916 or (044) 48363

Mon. 10th Sept.
The Club Championships for GP14's and Mirrors was run on sat. 8th and Sun 9th, in light to moderate
Westerly winds. The GP14's had five races over the two days, and Alan Pinder was a convincing winner, bagging 4 firsts. Stuart McCormick and Andy Vambeck tied on points, Stuart taking second place by virtue of a race win in the third race.

The mirrors competed in two races on Saturday, with the following result:

1st :  Kevin Hackett / Hugh Broderick

2nd : Josh McCormick / Hugh Potterton

3rd : Darren and Allen Smith

Remaining GP14 Events
GP14 Class Autumn Open & Youth Championships on the 22nd & 23rd of September 2007 at Sligo Yacht Club.  (Members are strongly encouraged to support this event at Sligo ).  Notice of Race
Hot Toddy 2007 on the 13th & 14th October at Lough Erne Yacht Club.     Notice of Race 

Remaining Mirror Events
Spring Trophy (O'Dowd Cup) which was rescheduled to the 15th & 16th of September at Lough Derg Yacht Club.

End of Season note
While the weather has been almost "Summer" like over the last two weeks, the sailing season is fast approaching an end. Owners should move their boats to winter storage, sooner rather than later.

Last year some boats were over-wintered at the club, with predictable results, a boat would need to be heavily anchored to the ground to survive the high winds and lake water levels. Last year boats were washed away and blown off their trailers.

This year we intend to do some grounds work at the Club, all boats, trolleys, trailers, canoes and sailboards must be removed no later than Sunday, October 7th.

Wed. 1st Aug.
"Sligo Yacht Club GP14 Crew Training Evening"

The coaching session notes, written by Ossian Geraghty and Brendan Brogan.
These notes are worth downloading, if you are interested in improving your racing technique.

Topics include:

Preparation (Before you go on the Water)
Pre-start Preparation (On the Water)
Starting the Race The First Beat (Beating)
Windward Mark Rounding (onto a reach)
Flying the spinnaker (Reaching)
Dropping the spinnaker, Leeward Mark Rounding
Windward Mark Rounding (onto a run)
Dropping the Spinnaker, Leeward Mark Rounding
Last Beat/Finishing line
Post Race Analysis

Ossian mailed an electronic copy to me , at some stage I will convert to a web page format.
download file  ( 101 kb )

Wed. 18th July
What a depresing Summer, the lake water temperature is actually 4 deg. C. colder than this time last year and the water level equals one recorded in early December 2006.  levels & water temperature

Remaining 2007 GP14 events

EVENT                CLUB/WEBSITE LINK                 DATES
Ulsters                Newtownards Sailing Club         28-29th July
Championships
of Ireland             Sutton Dinghy Club                  25-27th August
Autumn Open/
Youth Champ.       Sligo Yacht Club                       22-23rd September
Hot Toddy             Lough Erne Yacht Club             13-14th October

Tues.10th July
Our Fleet Captain has published the next installment of the 2007 rescue boat rota (part 3) & events guide

A SECOND SERIES IS IN PROGRESS FOR THE MONTHS OF JUNE & JULY.  DETAILS ON COMMITTEE NOTICE-BOARD IN CLUB-HOUSE. TO DATE ONLY 6 HELMS HAVE PAID ENTRY FEES              
OF €10.  RESULTS ONLY ENTERED ONCE ENTRY PAID. THERE WILL BE NO AUGUST SERIES.      

The Ulster Championships will take place at Newtownards Sailing Club Friday 27-Jul-07 to Sunday 29-Jul-07. We have a mutial support arrangement with Newtownards for the event, if  you can travel up, please do , there will be no Club racing during that weekend.

Fri. 29th June
The GP14  Leinster Championships took place over the weekend of the 23rd – 24th June at the Club.

Event report   Results   Photos

ISA ANNOUNCES J80 KEELBOAT FOR SAILFLEET PROJECT

The ISA (Irish Sailing Association) announced today, 25th June 2007, that the J80 Keelboat will be the boat of choice for its new SailFleet initiative. In total eight J80 Keelboats will be purchased by SailFleet Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the ISA.
Robert Dix, ISA President explained, “SailFleet will provide great opportunities to expand participation in our sport. We aim to facilitate the growing interest in match racing and additionally provide an introduction to sailing to those who may not otherwise have access to a boat.”
The J80 ,a 26ft trailable Keelboat, was selected as the boat most suitable following a thorough selection process by the SailFleet Working Group. All eight J80’s will be equipped with road trailers to facilitate transport to race and training events throughout Ireland.
Commenting on the boat selection, Patrick Blaney, Chairman of the SailFleet Working Group said, “This boat is an excellent choice as it brings a wide range of possible applications and meets our key users needs. In addition the experience of other sailing associations with the J80 has been very positive and ultimately had a strong influence on our final decision. We aim to build on that knowledge and look forward to establishing SailFleet at the heart of Irish sailing”.
The capital funding for the SailFleet project is split between a €180,000 public sector contribution under the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism 2006 Sport Capital Programme and the balance sourced through private sector sponsorship.
It is planned to launch SailFleet at the 2007 All Ireland Sailing Championship, scheduled for 6th & 7th October 2007 at the National Yacht Club, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.

http://www.jboats.com/j80/

Fri.22nd June
Updated "GP14 useful information and Tuning guides"  page.

Thu. 7th June
Added improved explanation of the wind speed / direction symbols used on synoptic weather charts. (normally accessed from weather links)
 
Wed. 6th June
Lidl offers from Monday, 11.06.

Looks like a clear out of previously offered items.

Adult’s Sailing Jacket, Kid's Sailing Jacket,
Adult’s Sailing Dungarees, Kid’s Sailing Dungarees
Neoprene Water Shoes, Boat Fender
Foldable Grapnel Anchor
Adult's Life Jacket, Self-inflating Life Jacket, Sailing Gloves
Heavy Duty Boat Rope, Snap Hooks, Buoyant Boat Rope
Foldable Grapnel Anchor
Ladies’ & Men’s Professional Diving Suit Combo
Professional Fins,Sheet Line, Inflatable Kayak

Tue. 5th June
Two dates for the diary:

VIKING LONGSHIP SAILS AGAIN
Dubliners can look forward to welcoming a magnificent Viking longship to the
city this summer. The " Havhingsten fra Glendalough " - Sea Stallion from
Glendalough - is a reconstruction by the Danish Viking Museum of a thirty meter
long Viking warship built in Dublin in 1042. The longship will form the centrepiece of a special
exhibition in the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks from August 2007 to June 2008.

The Sea Stallion will depart from Roskilde, Denmark in early July and travel across the North Sea, around the north coast of Scotland and southwards across the Irish Sea to Dublin, where she is expected on 14th August.

www.visitdublin.com/visual/events_detail.asp?eventiD=3515
Project site (in English and Danish): http://www.havhingsten.dk

VOLVO OCEAN RACE IRISH STOPOVER
The west coast Irish port of Galway will be a stopover for the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race
following the Irish Government’s announcement this week that it had agreed to make funding
available to help bring the race to Ireland for the first time.
 
The boats will arrive from the U.S. port of Boston and race organisers are predicting a possible 24-hour speed record as the boats race along the Gulf Stream in the late spring of 2009.

In the past month, port stopovers have been confirmed in Galway, Boston, India and China.
www.volvooceanrace.org/news/article/2007/may/galwayconfirmed/index.aspx

I have added links to two good websites that would be of interest to saltwater sailors:

Admiralty Easytide , a free 7 day tidal height and time forecast.

PassageWeather.com was developed out of the need for reliable, up-to-date weather information and forecasts to help sailors with their passage planning and weather routing.

The forecast maps are created using weather data provided by the US National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The Surface Wind and Surface Pressure maps are derived from the GFS (Global Forecast System) model, which is run four times daily, with forecast output out to 180 hours (~7 days).

Sun. 3rd June
Mirror Western Championship - July 2007
The Mirror Western Championship shall take place at Lough Ree Yacht Club, Ballyglass, Coosan, Athlone,
Co. Westmeath on 7th & 8th July 2007.
Notice of race, Entry form, Sailing Instructions, and accomodation.

Fri. 17th May
Added a  Buy and Sell page..

How to place an advert.
Please send adverts by email to    

or as a SMS text message to 086 8577367

If you wish to include a photo, send your advert as a Microsoft Word document attached to your
email. Please keep the file size small. No houses, grand pianos, etc - just boating 'stuff', please.

What should the advert contain?
The choice is yours. Include images, description, price and contact details.
The contact details you provide are at your discretion. If you include an email address in text form,
you will get spam or uninvited emails.

Bear in mind, this is a public web site and your contact details are on view to all.

Adverts received during normal working hours will be posted within one day, but I do occasionally
take holidays.

Thu. 3rd May 
Added the 2007 Junior Course Application Form and links from the Training page

Mon. 30th April
Lidl Specials from Thursday 3rd May
Ladies’ & Men’s Professional Diving Suit Combo, Ladies’ & Men’s 5mm Neoprene Wetsuit, Ladies’ & Men’s 3mm Neoprene Wetsuit
Ladies’ & Men’s Shorty, Kid’s Shorty, Professional Fins, Advanced Snorkeling Kit, Professional Diving Mask, Diving Boots, Starter Snorkeling Kit, Professional Snorkel.

M.S.C. Newsletter, April 2007
Fleet Captain’s Bulletin , April 2007

Tue 17th April
Sunday was an excellent start to the season, a nice N.W. wind and six boats out on the lake.

There were four Club GP14's , including Bob Heath's new boat "Special Reserve", out for a spin and we were joined by two visitors, a Fireball and a Topper Omega (a 4.7m family day boat).

Looks like its going to be a good year!

The lake water levels have dropped 17cm from the winter maximum and the water temperature is now 11deg centigrade. (surprisingly warm to wade in, but I would not like to spend too long in it ).

Added link to NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center's magnetic declination calculation page.

Required input data: latitude, longitude, and date.

I was surprised by the spatial variation in magnetic declination as shown by this chart.

Fri 13th April
MIRROR BRONZE & NOVICE EVENT - May 2007

M.S.C's Junior section are hosting an open Bronze and Novice event on Saturday 5th May, 2007.
First gun will be at 11.30 a.m. with following races to begin a.s.a.p.
Six races are scheduled and volunteers will be required for rescue boat duty. more details

Added link to www.marinas.com

It claims to be the world’s most extensive marine website, featuring low altitude, high-resolution
aerial photographs of marinas, key inlets, harbors, bridges, lighthouses, landmarks and restaurants.
They cover the United States, Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, Caribbean, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden,
United Kingdom and Venezuela.

Added link to the Lighthouse Directory
Provides information and links for more than 7500 of the world's lighthouses.

Added link to "Basic GPS Navigation (formerly Small Boat GPS)" by John Bell
A good introduction to GPS Navigation, download the 3Mb pdf ebook,
"Basic GPS Navigation (Adobe Acrobat .pdf)"

Sat 7th April
From Thursday 12th of April, Aldi are offering breathable sailing jackets, dungarees and 7X50
sailing binoculars, more details atwww.aldi.ie  .

Water levels in the lake have finally started to drop, the level gauge at the lock house was
indicating a level of 100.25m above Ordinance Datum on Wed 4th. This is 10cm lower than the
winter high of 100.35 recorded in late January and 65cm above the 2006 recorded minimum.
With this weeks sunshine, the water temperature had risen to 10.5 deg.C, still cool but
1.5 deg.C warmer than the the Irish Sea as recorded by the M2 data buoy off Dublin.

The adult Sailing Course will take place on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays evenings,
from Monday June 18th to Friday June 29th.
Places will be limited and all training will be on GP14's this year
Contact: Kieran Milner @ (086) 8342204 or email at

Fri. 30th March
Racing Mirror Dinghy For Sale
MR. BURNS  69842
Superb boat, fantastic racing record: Numerous top five finishes in regional events.
Ranked 3rd in Ireland as of rankings April 06. Fast boat and ready to race.

2nd in Mirror Nationals 2005
10th in Mirror Worlds 2005
6th in Mirror Northerns 2006
9th in Mirror Europeans 2006
5th in Mirror Nationals 2006 (3rd Irish boat)
Recently wet sanded for smooth fast finish, 2 suits of sails (one set of GOODWIN SAILS IN MINT CONDITION), 2 spinnakers, fully equipped to racing spec, mast, boom, gaff (new last year, made by Duffin), etc.
Price: EUR 5000
Must sell to fund next boat, open to sensible offers.
Contact Joe or Ronan Cull – 01 8392864 or 087 9506166

4.5m Adventure Rib
40HP Evinrude E-TEC engine, fully equipped, ie console, etc. Hardly used, minimum hours, under 100. Bought new in late 2004.
Price: EUR 1100 ONO.
Please contact Joe Cull
01 8392864 or 086 3731738

Wed. 14th March
From Mon. 19th March  LIDL  are offering their annual sailing line:

Unisex Sailing Jacket ,Unisex Sailing Dungarees
Kids' Sailing Jacket , Kids' Sailing Dungarees
Neoprene Water Shoes ,  Sailing Gloves ,  Sailing Binoculars 8x42cm
Sailing Knife  Anchor Rope  Buoyant Boat Rope
Life Buoy Light , Set of 10 Snap Hooks
Foldable Grapnel Anchor , Boat Fender, 61.5 x 15.2 x 9cm , Telescopic Boat Hook
Halyard  Sheet Line  Boat Fender, 40 x 10.2 x 4cm

Kieran Milner needs to advise "An Tintain" as to the numbers that will be attending the annual dinner,
if you are going, give him a ring , now...

This weekend is the third of the month and ....
CNN's sailing magazine "MainSail", presented by Shirley Robertson, will be broadcasted on Saturday:12:30, 18:30, Sunday:08:30, 14:30,19:30 and Monday:14:30, 18:30

Added link to excellent weather site........ Meteosail
"The Idea of Meteosail was to create a fast loading webpage about weather for sailing, So I looked trough hundreds of pages, filtered out the not important things (such as banners, java and too much of html) and created a new page directly linking to all the good meteo stuff we need for sailing.

Please note, that Meteosail does not provide any content, it only links you to the data via "frames". All content is still copyright protected by its owner."


Mon.19th Feb.
CLUB NEWSLETTER SPRING 2007.....Link

The water level in the lake has dropped slightly to 100.3M O.D. and the temperature has risen to
5.5 deg. Centegrade.... spring is on the way..... water temperature & levels

Fri. 2nd Feb
Due to the extraordinary high rain fall in December and January the water levels in the lake are at at a level that have not been seen for years. Last week waves were over topping the the hard, most of which was saturated or flooded. The water level was at 100.35 meters above Ordinance Datum, or 75cm above the summer minimum level.  water temperature & levels

GP14 Annual Subscription
The Annual Subscription was due on 1st January and this form can be used to remit your subscription payment for 2007.

The rates are:         Full Member                                                  £26.00
                            Associate Member (non-boat owning)                £20.00
                            Youth Member (under 21 up to 31 December)    £12.00

If you have recently bought a a used boat this form might be more appropriate.

The Dublin Boat Show 2007, will take place on 14th to 18th February at the RDS Simmonscourt.
The show is organised by the Irish Marine Federation, who recently advised the I.S.A. that the demand for "premium commercial exhibition space" is so high that all ISA clubs , classes , voluntary groups and training centres must now purchase exhibition space. Personally, I always found the clubs and classes end of the show, the most interesting, and at some of the boat shows in the past, it was the only section that promoted small sail boats like the GP14 and the Mirror.

Tue. 16th Jan
Mirror Sailors Newsletter January 12th 2007
Junior Sailing Course 2007
The junior sailing course will take place during the first three weeks of July. This year all participants taking Level 3 and Level 4 will be required to have a Mirror dinghy in full working order and rigged for spinnaker use.

Mirror Class rules added to site ......... LINK

Tue. 9th Jan
It's about time that 2006 was wrapped up, an archive of events from 2006 can be found here....2006 M.S.C. news archive.
Looking back , 2006 was an excellent sailing season, skills were stretched by the consistently strong winds, the excellent club racing and greater participation in GP14 and Mirror regattas.
The Croatia trip was great craic, definitely a holiday to remember, there are places still available for the Mullingar Sailing Club's regatta in Croatia in June 2007. (Contact: Michael Collender at 087-2529433).