The wonderful and scenic surroundings of Oileáin Árann will be the host venue for the 2017 West of Ireland Offshore Racing Association (WIORA) races this year with the first races underway tomorrow (Wednesday).
The West of Ireland Offshore Racing Association (WIORA) is an association made up of some 12 sailing clubs with racing fleets from Donegal to Kerry. The annual yacht racing championships are normally held in one of the bigger clubs along the west coast every year. However, for the first time ever, the members of WIORA voted in 2015 to award the hosting of the 2017 event to the fledgling outfit, Club Seoltóireacht Árainn.
For the first time ever, Cumann Huicéirí na Gaillimhe and WIORA have joined forces to organise an event to include both Galway Hookers and modern yachts racing side by side, on Sat 8th July. There will be serious bragging rights up for grabs!
Club Seoltóireacht Arainn is unique. As the only Gaeltacht sailing club in Ireland! The club was recognised as a Category 1 Sailing Club by the board of the Irish Sailing Association (ISA) in April 2017. They run very successful Summer sailing courses on Inismór, mainly for the children of adults that were born on the island but now live elsewhere. These kids return to Aran to stay with grandparents and attend these Summer courses. They will also be running swimming lessons in the inner harbour during WIORA week and part of the harbour will be closed off for this event.
Through huge voluntary effort, spearheaded by marine related businesses around Galway Bay, and with the permission of Galway County Council, the committee is set to achieve something that government departments has failed to deliver over many decades! They will be installing a 100m marina of floating pontoons in time for the event. Pontoon layout enclosed. No government funding has been provided to fund this pontoon development. This is a really exciting development for the island and has the potential to attract many of the travelling Irish, French and English yachts to tie up at Kilronan as they make the trip up the west coast. It also provides an excellent facility for future regattas to be run on the island.
WIORA Aran 2017 is expected to see a revival of the fortunes of this event, following the economic crash, with up to 50 yachts racing and another 30 cruising yachts attending the event as observers. We expect up to 500 sailors on Inishmor all week long!
This is the 40th anniversary of an overnight race to Kilronan, run by Galway Bay Sailing Club (GBSC). Back in 1977, the commodore of GBSC was FF minister Bobby Molloy who regularly raced his yacht to Aran. The late ex-minister remains very popular in Aran for his tireless work to develop the islands. To commemorate the event, the WIORA committee has decided to dedicate a race to his memory. His widow, Phyllis, is traveling to the islands for the weekend to present the race winner prize at the Saturday night prizegiving.
Cormac MacDonnacha is the head of the organizing committee for WIOR. He Spoke to John Mulligan
https://download-galwaybay.sharp-stream.com/SAILING%20SPECIAL.mp3
The Racing continues until Saturday.
Action from Last Year's Races In Lahinch.
