Sailing boats on Irish inland waterways

Here are some sailing-boats seen on Irish inland waterways.

This collection is biased in favour of Lough Derg, at the southern end of the Shannon. It is a large body of water with several harbours. There are at least four sailing-clubs:

• Lough Derg Yacht Club at Dromineer
• Garrykennedy Sailing Club at Garrykennedy
• Iniscealtra Sailing Club at Mountshannon
• Killaloe Sailing Club at Killaloe.

There are sailing-boats for hire at the Shannon Sailing marina in Dromineer, and the University of Limerick’s Activity Centre runs sailing (and other) courses. The Scouts have their National Water Activities Centre near Killaloe, where they use lelievlets like the Dutch water-scouts do. The clubs run races for both yachts and dinghies, including the Shannon One-Design. The bridge at the north end of the lake, at Portumna, swings open, so masts don’t have to be lowered until Banagher.

There are also sailing boats on Lough Ree, again including Shannon One-Designs and other dinghies, Lough Corrib, Lough Erne (with its own traditional design, the Fairy, at Lough Erne Yacht Club) and Lough Neagh. Lough Erne also has the Share holiday village.

There are boats outside the sailing and yachting clubs, and some boats on the smaller lakes and even on river sections. But I think Lough Derg has more sailing-boats than the rest, and I spend more time there too, so it’s over-represented here; apologies to the other lakes, where I promise to take more photos on future visits.

If I’ve got anything wrong here, or if I’ve omitted any sailing club or place you can hire a sailing boat, please let me know by leaving a Comment at the bottom of the page.

Update 2 September 2009

Added photos of several more sailing boats on Lough Derg, including a lovely Romilly. They’re mostly at the end of the Moving boats section, but I have added an extra pic of Jubilee B under Garrykennedy and a couple of other boats to the Dromineer section.

Update 26 July 2009

I managed to take one photograph of a sailing boat on Lough Ree during a fortnight on northern waters.

Update 25 June 2009

I’ve added some photos of the skutsje  Nieuwe Zorgen at Shannon Harbour: they’re at the end of this page.

Shannon One-Designs

Let’s start with the smaller boats. Here’s a Shannon One-Design.

Shannon One-Design on Lough Ree

Shannon One-Designs at Cloondavaun on Lough Derg

Some members of the Shannon One-Design community attend several regattas on the Shannon, towing the boats between the venues.

Towing Shannon One-Designs through Banagher

University of Limerick Activity Centre

Here are some photos from the University of Limerick Activity Centre.

ULAC boats

ULAC has a shallow area, ideal for learning windsurfing

A busy day at ULAC

Share Centre

Here are some dinghies at the Share Centre on Lough Erne.

Big open boat at Share

Sailing at Share

Some of the Share fleet

Other dinghies

Here are some sailing dinghies at Lough Derg Yacht Club at Dromineer.

Dinghies at LDYC

Here’s a Tirion, a keelboat you can hire from Shannon Sailing in Dromineer.

Tirion

A Mirror at Lough Derg Yacht Club.

Mirror

This is a Europe dinghy on Lough Boderg.

Europe dinghy

I know you can’t see the windsurfer very well in this next photo, but it does give the sense of a small craft out in the middle of the wild waters.

Windsurfer off Dromineer

This is a Walker Bay. It’s not exactly a racing dinghy, and you have to sit in the bottom to sail it, but it’s light and easy to row. A 2hp engine pushes it around and it’s very easy to tow or carry on deck, so you need not be without something to sail. (This is not a sponsored announcement!)

Walker Bay near Lanesborough at the head of Lough Ree

Vlets

Finally, I was delighted to see that the Scouts, at their National Water Activities Centre near Killaloe, are using lelievlets.

Lelievlets (vlets) at the Scouts’ centre

We visited the Dutch Water Scouts Nawaka festival in the Netherlands in 2002 and saw hundreds of these vlets in use. Because the photo above doesn’t really do them justice, here are some photos from Nawaka. The first one is one of the vlets run by the sailing school, so it’s kept in pristine condition. The vlets are steel, by the way.

Sailing school vlet

Two vlets sailing on the Maas

Sculling a vlet

Scouts arrive in Roermond

There was to be a sail-past on the final day, but there was no wind, so the vlets of each troop (or whatever they’re called) were towed, by their tug, past the Admiral’s two-masted vessel. There was also a colourful river parade that night, up the river to Roermond; thousands of people came from far and wide to see it.

Saluting the Admiral

Galway

Anyway, back to Ireland. Here’s a Flying Fifteen on the Corrib.

Flying Fifteen on the Corrib

These boats are just at the end of the (closed) Eglinton Canal in Galway.

Hookers

Under way

Bigger boats

Now for the larger boats. In many cases, I don’t know the boat’s name; if you can fill in any of the gaps, please leave a Comment below.

Here’s a general view of sailing boats on Lough Derg on a rare sunny day in 2008.

Sailing on Lough Derg

These two boats are amongst the most-travelled sailing-boats on the system. This photo was taken at Keshcarrigan on the Shannon–Erne Waterway.

Snocat and Granuaile

I’ll group some photos by the harbours where they were taken.

Kilgarvan on Lough Derg

Small sailing-boat at Kilgarvan

Moored at Kilgarvan

Alongside the quay at Kilgaarvan

Visiting boat alongside in Kilgarvan

Colours in Kilgarvan

White boats in Kilgarvan

Ashore for the winter 1

Ashore for the winter 2

Dromineer

Dromineer in December

Lough Derg Yacht Club in Dromineer

Windy day in Dromineer

Securing the mast in Dromineer

Interesting boat in Dromineer

TWTS Calypso, which I had photographed some time ago in Grand Canal Docks in Dublin, made it to Dromineer by canal

Unidentified ketch leaving Dromineer

Garrykennedy

Jubilee B in the old harbour at Garrykennedy

Jubilee B at anchor in Youghal Bay

Maid of Molleston (a SeaWych: thanks to GC) moored ahead of a Westerly (thanks to MP) in Garrykennedy

Brasser in Garrykennedy …

Moving boats

… Amaryllis with its mast lowered to pass under Banagher bridge

Sailing on Lough Ree (July 2009)

Mac-Sea entering Cloondavaun

Fulmar on Lough Derg

Ketch Rita on Lough Derg

Rita again. This is a home-made boat, though you wouldn’t think it

Back from the first test-run of the season

A Haber: a nice modern design

Haber running up Lough Derg

Treoin running up Lough Derg (on a different windy day)

Drascombe Drifter 22 (thanks to Larry Fullam for his Comment below) running up Lough Derg on the same day

Returning to harbour

Ketch Janey Mac leaving Dromaan

Laser off Dromineer 1

Laser off Dromineer 2

Salgazer heading west on Lough Derg

Unidentified sailing boat heading north on Lough Derg

One day, in Mountshannon, a lug-rigged yawl came in towards the quay wall and departed in the direction of Holy Island.The next day, from The Lookout (a viewing point on the far side of the lake near Parker Point), I saw the same boat setting out from the shore. [Update June 2012: I am told that that may have been a different Romilly.] After much googling, I found that the boat was a Romilly, an elegant design which you can read about here and here.

Romilly at Mountshannon 1

Romilly at Mountshannon 2

Romilly at Mountshannon 3

Romilly at Mountshannon 4

Romilly at Mountshannon 5. I can think of several rude words to apply to the person driving the cruiser

Romilly at Mountshannon 6

Hither and yon

Draiocht on the hard at Shannon Sailing

At Terryglass

Anchored at Twomilegate

Sailing boat at Kincora

At Mountshannon

Shannon Harbour

Ketch Paloma below Portumna

In Dromaan

Starfish of Mistley

Work in progress at Cloondavaun

Dutch steel

Dutch steel boat heading out under power

Mast down on the river section (Clonmacnois)

Mast up in Dromineer

Schollevaer, which was featured in a television series

Ebenhaezer is another much-travelled vessel; I’ve included just two photos but there is much more information on its own website.

Ebenhaezer in Dublin

Squeezing through a crowded Shannon Harbour

Here’s a similar vessel at Shannon Harbour in June 2009.

Skutsje Nieuwe Zorgen below Lock 35

Heavy metal

Bows on

Bowsprit and anchor

Foredeck and mast

Stern