The 1st Round Rockall Race | Galway Ireland | June 2012

Please welcome Competitor #3

Northern Gannet — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:17:44 +0000

Jamie Young is entering the Frers 50′ “Killary Flyer” in the Round Rockall Race 2012. We’re especially pleased to welcome Jamie, because without him there would be no Round Rockall Race! Jamie took part in the OSTAR in 1976 and went to Rockall as part of his qualifying passage. In 2005 he brought Larry Hynes to Rockall on Killary Flyer and the seed was sown for the 1st Round Rockall Race.

Please welcome Competitor #2

Northern Gannet — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:40:41 +0000

Torsten Messer from Germany has entered the 53′ “Bank von Bremen” in the Round Rockall Race. The boat is the latest of a series commissioned by SKWB, or “The Arms of Bremen”, a sailing group founded in 1934. The boat previously took part in the Rolex Middle Sea Race and the Round Iceland Race in 2009. Visit their website here or view more photos here.

Роколл – or the Russians are coming!

Northern Gannet — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:36:10 +0000

Роколл – the Russians are coming!

Name needed for research project at Rockall Bank

Northern Gannet — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:56:18 +0000

Lophelia.org is an information resource on the cold-water coral ecosystems of the deep ocean. They are looking for suggestions to name a research cruise looking at effects of ocean acidification on deep coral communities at Rockall bank. Check them out on Twitter…

Rockall wellies!

Northern Gannet — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:36:59 +0000

Yes, ’tis true. A company called Maniera are selling a range of very nautical-looking wellies under the Rockall name. We’re trying to figure out how we can get our hands on some to see how they cope with life at sea! Meanwhile, you can read all about ’em here. Sadly, they appear to be only available in the USA, but we have reached out to Maniera’s North American publicist to see if we can contact the firm directly.

Please welcome Competitor #1

Northern Gannet — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:01:50 +0000

Ralph Villiger from Switzerland will be competing in the Round Rockall Race 2012 on Ntombifuti, a 40′ aluminium DuBois design. Ralph completed the Azores and Back Race (AZAB) on Ntombifuti in 2011. You can read more on Ralph’s website.

We’re on the Afloat website – again!

Northern Gannet — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:50:55 +0000

We’ve been mentioned on the Afloat (Irish watersports magazine) website here. The piece refers to an announcement by Galway Bay Sailing Club. Thanks Afloat – we’re super-confused! Early followers of the Round Rockall Race will remember that Afloat were responsible for launching us in June 2010, see our blog entries here, here and here. (Unfortunately the people at Afloat seem to have deleted the old post and podcast, so the links don’t work).

Update: An eagle-eyed blog follower has sent us a working link to the original piece on the Afloat website in June 2010 – many thanks Sir.

Online registration now open

Northern Gannet — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 23:34:27 +0000

Competitors can now register online for the Round Rockall Race 2012. The Online Entry Form is here. Or you can visit our new Competitor Page where you will find links for the Notice of Race, information on the ISAF Offshore Special Regulations, Category 1, and the online Entry Form.

Once the Entry Form has been completed and submitted you will be automatically transferred to the PayPal page for secure payment of the Entry Fee.

Belgian radio team broadcast from Rockall

Northern Gannet — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 21:08:16 +0000

Congratulations to the Belgian team that successfully landed and transmitted from Rockall over the weekend. The team made their way to the rock in heavy weather last week and at one stage it looked like they wouldn’t succeed. Undeterred, they returned to St. Kilda, regrouped, and their second attempt was made in better conditions. You can read more on their website here.

Rockall beer

Northern Gannet — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:19:43 +0000

Rockall Brown Ale, to be precise, from the Faroese brewery Föroya Bjór. Photo from 1000 Getränke.

Two radio operator expeditions planned

Northern Gannet — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 19:33:08 +0000

Two different teams of HAM radio operators are planning expeditions to Rockall at the moment. Rockall has a massive appeal for these guys as one of the least accessible places from which to broadcast. There have been a number of trips to the rock in the past and successful broadcasts have been made. Websites for the two teams are here and here.

Incidentally, the second link has some pics from a Flickr stream belonging to Peter Morris – some great shots of the Greenpeace occupation of Rockall.

Traditional boat racing in Connemara

Northern Gannet — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 19:17:15 +0000

Visitors to the west of Ireland can often see the old “hookers” – traditional work boats – during races that are held throughout the Summer. These pics were taken near Srutháin in Connemara a couple of weeks ago. We were looking good for second until an incident at the last mark caused us to drop two places! Thanks to the O Tuairisgs for the day out.

Lynx Racing wins D2D

Northern Gannet — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:05:19 +0000

Our belated congratulations to Martin Breen and the crew of Lynx racing on their superb win in the 2001 Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race. Martin was deservedly named Afloat.ie / Irish Independent “Sailor of the Month” for June, you can read about it on the Afloat website here. The Afloat article makes the point that Lynx – backed by Galway Harbour for the D2D – is the 4th Galway winner of the race. Long may it continue!

Crew- Top row L-R – Cathal Clarke – Bow, Aodhán Fitzgerald – Navigator, Conor Baynes – Trimmer, Martin Breen – Helm, John Murphy – Tactician, Nigel Moss – Main Trimmer, Bottom Row L-R – Brian Phelan – Trimmer, John Murphy – Tactician, Rachel O’Toole – Pit, Ruaidhrí De Faoite – Mast, Neil Spain – Helm 2,

Race news

Northern Gannet — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 23:04:43 +0000

The keen-eyed among you will notice our new-look website. We’ve reformatted everything, combined the blog and the main site, and jiggled the info around a bit. Hope it doesn’t offend anyone!

The even-keener-eyed among you will have noticed the Galway Bay Sailing Club logo up there. That’s because GBSC will be acting as “Club of Record” for the Round Rockall Race. It’s great to have our home club on board in this capacity – our sincere thanks go to Commodore David Vinnell and his officers.

The Notice of Race can now be downloaded here. We will be opening the entry process in due course.

Meanwhile please have a look around our new home, and please continue to spread the word. We’ve had a lot of interest since we launched, it will soon be time to see who will make it to the start line. The recent news of two cancelled expeditions to Rockall reminds us that getting to the start line is a really big part of the achievement on a project like this. Lots of people can say they’ll do this or do that, fewer people set the wheels in motion, and fewer still stick with it when some of those wheels start to fall off – as they invariably do. The very best of luck to all of you in your preparations over the next eleven months.

Expedition news

Northern Gannet — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 21:26:17 +0000

No good news on the Rockall expedition front. Nick Hancock, who had hoped to land on Rockall and stay for quite a while this year, has had to cancel / postpone due to lack of funding. (Incidentally, Nick has a very good post here on the continuing saga of Who Owns Rockall?).

Andy Strangeway was active on the PR front for the last number of months but his plans have come to nought. Nick Hancock has linked to this story about another attempt in the planning. He also suggests that the two protagonists are former members of Andy Strangeway’s team.

Stickers are all gone. Boo.

Northern Gannet — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 12:40:29 +0000

But they’ll be back. Yay!

Like, when we find the money to get some more. Drop us an email if you want to go on the list for the next batch.

All aboard for trips to Rockall!

Northern Gannet — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 20:09:18 +0000

A company called Kilda Cruises have announced plans to run trips from Tarbert to Rockall on a 50′ Catamaran built by Safehaven Marine in Ireland. The boat is expected to launch in 2012. You can read the full story in The Press and Journal online here.

Cool!

You thought we made that up

Northern Gannet — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 20:00:53 +0000

Didn’t you? Well we didn’t. Our man Aodhán Fitzgerald has been working on the NOR and tootled off to Newfoundland recently in his official capacity with the Irish Marine Institute. Here’s one of his photos of the RV Celtic Explorer alongside in St. Johns.

You can follow the exploits of the Irish research fleet at their blog here.

The Notice of Race

Northern Gannet — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 13:15:06 +0000

Is on a laptop. Which is on its way across the Atlantic. In a Force 10 gale. With 76 knot winds.

Luckily, the vessel containing the laptop is 65M long and making over 5 knots. So please sit tight and we’ll get back to you just as soon as we can. Thank you for your understanding.

(Otherwise everything’s just fine thanks).

You should see my coffee grinder…

Perry Winkle — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:49:23 +0000

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