Boating chit chat thread.

You mean the MCIB or the Kayak operator?!

I thought they (kayaker) came across terribly in the correspondence, rather than arguing the points she may have disagreed with, choosing to fight every aspect of the very organisation and process. I was finding it entertaining at least until she called into question the three seperate 999 calls made from people ashore, she also discredits met eireann's meteorology capacity!

Although, it makes a mockery of the whole process that she never had to provide the requested details and the report was able to be published. Can't imagine CHC would get away with that in relation to R116

There was an article in the Sunday Times announcing the 'probable' purchase of a new STS to replace Asgard II. A deposit has been paid, She's a replica of a 1909 Baltic trader, schooner rig, built Denmark 1980. Cost is €3 million including refit to include wheelchair access. Enda O'Coinin is chair of the old/present trust, he's looking for the State's €1 mill annual sub to be reinstated and wants to raise 15 million.There will be N Irl involvement also. Our Dept. of Defence is already throwing cold water on it. Given what happened to the Asgard poroject and the Jeannie Johnson, it will be interesting to watch what happens to a small budget/worthy project. America's Cup for Cork? My ar$e!

Another stalwart of DBSC racing gone ..... Jack Roy's funeral was today.

Race Officer extrordinaire, and I say that as someone who raced under him, and worked with him on committee boats - anyone who was involved in racing in any way in Ireland, and further afield, will have come across him at some point I'd say. A superb International Race Officer, and he officiated at London 2012.

An absolute gentleman, from his cap to the tips of his sailing boots.

RIP

Been a bit quiet here for the past couple of weeks but this caught my eye today. Certainly didn't see any superyachts as we blasted around Ireland's Eye today in a good 20kts.

THE DUTCH PORT city of Rotterdam has said it would temporarily dismantle an historic bridge to allow a superyacht built for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to pass.

I'm not sure what the best way to decontaminate my boat to make sure invasive species like Asian clam and zebra mussel aren't carried over, has anyone got any advice about it?

Came across this stuck in a book. 1938 is written on the back. It looks like 2 DB 24's in Dalkey Sound sailing towards DL?

They were gaff-rigged originally and then converted to Bermudan.Sometime after WW2 I think. In the late 60's I crewed a couple of times on a bright yellow 24 known as the 'Banana Boat' (maybe she was correctly called Euphanzel'?). I don't remember much about their sailing capabilities except they had to be sailed hard, and recall they had runners which were done up by levers each side of the cockpit.

It would be political suicide for any TD to support this. Spending 200million on a 'Yotting' facility & event that will be gone after a few weeks, If Coveney has any cop Ireland will walk. Saudi is unlikely, politically, so it looks like Spain if the event goes ahead.

Interesting to see the events of the last week or so on some Russians. France, Italy, etc., are ‘seizing’ Russian superyachts. It’s a bit of a legal nightmare apparently, as proving ownership is almost impossible, with layers of shell companies. France has also seized a fully-laden car transporter en route to Russia. Several of the Caribbean ports are refusing fuel to the Russian-owned vessels, regardless of owners being on sanction list or not.

In Germany, the ‘Dilbar’, owned by Usmanov is blocked in Hamburg. The Isle of Man has de-registered his planes & helicopters, which means they effectively are grounded as they no longer have authorisations to fly or land.

One of Putin’s yachts (m.y. Graceful) left Blohm & Voss a couple of weeks ago without the refit being finished and hightailed it to Kaliningrad. Last week the hacker group 'Anonymous' got into its AIS and changed its call-sign to FCKPTN and fixed its position as ‘aground’ off Ukraine’s coast, with a departure date of April 1. It seems to be off AIS currently.

Several European yards have stopped work on Russian owned vessels and several crews have been discharged by the managing agents, some reportedly without pay due,.

France/Monaco prevented Quantum Blue belonging to Sergei Galitsky from sailing Thursday morning but she was released and is now in the Med., SE of Crete (maybe heading for Suez?). French authorities in La Ciotat have seized the Amor Vero owned by Igor Sechin, CEO of the state-owned Russian oil company Rosneft.

In Mallorca, the Ukrainian chief engineer on superyacht Lady Anastasia opened the seacocks and partially sank her at her mooring. She is owned by Alex Mijeev, who among other things owns Rostec, the main supplier of helicopter gunships, jets and rockets to Russian forces. The engineer turned himself in, was released on bail and has said he is returning home to fight the Russians.

In Barcelona the Galactica Super Nova, owned by Vagit Alekperov, key shareholder in Lukoil, a company already subject to US sanctions, set sail for Tivat in Montenegro, which is not in the EU. Her AIS is off for days. Superyacht Solaris, owned by Roman Abramovich remains moored in Barcelona, while the Aurora, which belongs to the construction magnate Andrey Molchanov, is still in dry dock there.

Superyacht 'Quantum Blue' mentioned in #2904 above was moored in Port Said for the last several days. She has now cleared the Canal and is making her way down the Red Sea 'cruising' - i.e. no destination shown. Unlike many other yachts owned by oligarchs she still has her AIS 'lit' so can be tracked. Probably en route to that favorite haunt of the dodgy, the Seychelles.

Glad to see sense prevail on the Americas Cup tbh