Sail shape

I have been speaking recently with  Christophe from Fastnet sails, discussing the possible purchase of a new mainsail for Nighean Donn and I thought I had loads of snaps of ND under sail (this supposed to be a sailing blog!) but it turned out that everything else but ND under sail was highlighted! Our mansail has a round the boom rolling reefing system which works grand when we occasionally need to reef the main- usually just take a few turns in on the genny, though I am told that leads to poor foresail shape – usually does the trick though and helps us have a more comfortable manageable sail. If anyone reading this can tell me anything about fitting a foam insert on the genoa to assist with sail shape, I would appreciate a message.

Click on any of the images below to zoom in

Running home

Close hauled

Main not in tight enough on a tack

Running by the Lee

Connacht Rugby

This is definitely a non sailing post!   (What we would call a bit of a divarsion – what harm!)

There are four provinces in Ireland. Three of them – Ulster Munster and Leinster have won the most prestigious european competion known as the Heineken Cup. The fourth province is our own Connacht. Sad to report we are trailing the others in the search for glory. We are also trailing everyone else in the Magniers league. We live in hope. However we are supporters loyal and true and we have recently come up with a plan. You might even call it a secret weapon. We have a carefully disguised wind turbine behind our own goal. When the opposing kicker tries to score at our end, see what happens……..clicky (just got to work on the referee a bit more…..)

Visitor Moorings on the Galway Coast

 

Galway County Council have posted a useful chart on their website indicating the position of visitor moorings at locations around the coast. Takes a little while to download but it does work…..

Download map of Galway visitor moorings here

This map shows eight locations around the county. The Roundstone moorings are probably the least used as most sailors are  in agreement that they are positioned on the wrong side of the channel as one approaches Roundstone.  As someone said; “Wouldn’t fancy trying to find those on a dark night in an inflatable coming back from O’Dowds with the wind blowing a chop up the bay from the south”.

Sheridan’s on the docks

Tony and Laoise brought ND for a short sail in company with Dec & Valerie  on board Galway Girl to Galway Docks for a lovely Saturday lunch in Sheridans. They serve glasses of red wine in the biggest wine glasses ever seen and delicous plates of cold meat or cheese which hit the spot every time. En route we had a rare encounter with a dolphin -nothing too spectacular, surfaced a couple of times and swam alongside -nice to see him.  (Afterwards we learnt he has been spotted frequently in recent months and has earned the nickname “Salty”.) Lovely day for sailing Wind W to NW F3-4. We met with Louise, Ruairi and Rian, as well as some GBSC friends, which resulted in Dec & Val having extra crew on the way home. Laoise went with Louise and Ruairi and Tony sailed home together – Salty was even friendlier on the return leg!