Cruising Discussions

Cowboys and Engines

Stewart — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 21:14:50 GMT

Note to self; if I'd paid by Visa/credit card, they'd have repaid me the money immediately and pursued the company themselves. I'd still not have had the engine, or time wasted, but spared the frustration of pursuing Yacht Agencies for my money. Grrr!!!

Visitors Moorings

GailMacAllister — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 06:44:59 GMT

Hi Alex Yes there is an underlining and understanding fear of knowing if the moorings are serviced or not, so at the beginning of this year I rang every south and west coast County Council Engineer and requested an update on the maintenance of the visitors moorings. All were extremely helpful and the results of the research are here http://www.sailing.ie/Cruising/Cruisi... - Some Co Co's even gave me the thickness of chain!
Kerry are the only County Council not servicing most of their moorings and this is due to localised use of them and inaccessibility for actual visitors, as well as inaccessibility for the service contractor to gain access!! The Sneem moorings are serviced. Kerry Co Co are investing in pontoons though - Knightstown is already up and running, Port Magee is next.
For your assurance I also spoke with the company that gained the contract for most of the mooring servicing, who is extremely professional (and a sailor) and he assured me of the contracts were completed.
I do however question the current Lat and Long of some of the positions given and I will be checking them with local knowledge this winter. Do keep an eye on the cruising pages - more and more info will start to appear to keep you informed of coastal development and services. http://www.sailing.ie/Cruising/Cruisi...
Thanks for your post.
Gail

Scuttlebutt

Capt.Crow — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 22:47:28 GMT

The first thing I find is that its very bleak on this forum .That makes me wonder if we are taking the opportunity given to us by our hosts to interact and pass on information news and all sorts of *scuttlebutt*to each other and guests. This is most likely the first port of call for potential visitors from abroad.
We have not had a great summer season and many have not taken their boats off the mooring this year . But It bodes fairly well that the autumn season will be a lot more stable. So there will hopefully be a lot more activity on the broad and open main.
Skerries Sailing Club have had some good shows with their race meets .Nothing is more uplifting for the beach walkers and tourists than to see sailing boats on the waters around our wonderful coastline.
This is my first thread on this forum and it admittedly feels like a message in a bottle . Fate and the tide will bring it I know not where but with any luck it will reach out to you and perhaps prompt a good reaction.

On the darker side there is ,due to the wet summer,a lot of mildew growing on furled jibs.So how is this to be prevented and cured .So far it seems that a light rub with a softish scrubbing brush with a drop of *Fairy*in the water shifts it without removing the sail coating . Has anyone come across a good solution to this problem .?.
So for now easy seas and safe havens.

Fancy Kit

sailxanadu — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:01:06 GMT

Dunno about fancy kit, but speaking for myself I've never seen a deck plug or an anchor windlass pendant switch that kept working. When we bought our old ketch Xanadu (she'd been round the world) there was a thin two-core cable with two bare ends emerging from below into the anchor well on the foredeck. When you wanted the anchor hauled up you switched on the breaker below and then simply went and held the two bare ends together. That was the on-off switch for the relay. If your hands were wet you'd get a little zizz from the 12 volts, and if that bothered you you could always wear rubber gloves. When the bare ends corroded away, you cut them off and stripped another bit of wire. Certainly not fancy, and it'd probably give the health and safety people fits (you need to be careful about fuses!), but it worked, and when it stopped working, it was extremely easy to fix...

Navigation Marks

sailxanadu — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 12:06:38 GMT

Most inshore navigational aids around Ireland are provided by port and harbour authorities and the County Councils. Authorisation, supervision and performance auditing of these is done (very efficiently) by the Commissioners of Irish Lights, who own and operate the major lights, and also many inshore aids of their own; they are engaged at the moment in transferring responsibility for many of the latter to the local authorities. Provision by the Councils is very variable. Mayo CC provides about 180 aids, Donegal close to that, and Kerry about 70. But Cork CC, as of 2011, had just 14, on a longer coast with much heavier traffic. None of the seven inhabited islands of County Cork has any harbour lights at all, and the Baltimore lifeboat is the busiest in Ireland. Unmarked rocks like Mealbeg, in the Ilen River, damage many boats each year, and it is a matter of luck that there hasn't been a fatal accident. This is not acceptable. The Councils' inshore navigational aids are provided out of our taxes, not from light dues on shipping. The Irish Lights can't compel the Councils to install beacons and buoys, but relentless pressure from us as users just might do it.

Special Places

GailMacAllister — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 21:27:38 GMT

Have you discovered a gem of a spot to anchor or a shoreside helping hand? Let us all know.