Ed Totterdell, Commodore writes
We said farewell to MacLir this week after many years of great service. She is going to a new home as a dive boat. Ronan Beirne of Leinster Boats negotiated the sale and very generously waved all fees for his hard work. We are very grateful to him for his continued support of DBSC.
MacLir had required increasingly more maintenance. A survey report found a certain amount of work was required to bring her to a standard to run racing in Dublin Bay. The economical solution was to purchase a new boat.
A Naval architect was engaged to draw up our specific requirements giving a detailed spec that became part of our tender document. Having looked at potential suppliers, we narrowed it down to a successful boat builder in Kilkeel, Gerry Smith of G. Smyth Boats. Gerry is building a new model of boat which was launched this week. This new model with some adaption during the build will be perfect for DBSC use. Planned delivery is November 2023 and allowing for commissioning and potential delays we are confident she will fire the first gun of the 2024 season.
Present and past committees had foreseen the requirement for a replacement some years ago and began building a reserve for this purpose. With the commitment of our Silver Sponsor, AIB and prudent financial management it was possible to reserve a portion of the cost of our new boat. Additional funding will be required. The committee are exploring options on how to raise this funding from various sources. We are asking our members who may be able to help to please contact us.
This leaves us with one less vessel for 2023. We have hired ‘Spirit of the Irish’ for all dates that she is available to us, and I would like to thank the committee of the RIYC and Mark McGibney for organising this. There will be days when she is not available, such as next Saturday the 6th of May.
We thank all those who volunteered on MacLir over the years and the Committee chaired by Fintan Cairns who had the foresight to purchase her all those years ago. She was a beautiful boat and witnessed many great races and events over the past 20+ years and had many great volunteers aboard.
Ed Totterdell
Commodore