I was thinking of exchanging this by email with Chris et al at Kinvara but then I thought it&#039;d be better done in public cause there may be others thinking of doing simillar!<br /><br />I am considering coming to Kinvara for the Open / Travellers Trophy (call it what you will!) Meeting on 23rd June http://www.heron-dinghy.org.uk/component/option,com_jcalpro/Itemid,114/extmode,view/extid,22/ <br /><br />So I inevitably have lots of questions which might be best answered by someone local:<br />

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• I&#039;d probably travel by Ferry to Belfast - is that the most logical way.&nbsp; Irish bloke at work says go Belfast - Eniskillen and then down.
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• Does it have to be crewed.&nbsp; My boat weighs loads - and if the wind is light i&#039;d prefer to leave the crew ashore...!&nbsp; But perhaps you don&#039;t get light winds in the middle of the Atlantic
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• Is there any local tips we should know about
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• Tide tables?... ...oh god I&#039;ve not raced in the sea properly for years :-[ [/li]&lt;br /&gt;[li]Accomodation - any recommendations?[/li]&lt;br /&gt;[li]I&amp;#039;m thinking of travelling over Wednesday and Returning on Tuesday - I don&amp;#039;t fancy carting a boat around with me the whole time - any thoughts on where I can abandon the lump of junk (that&amp;#039;s the boat ) while I try and hunt down some lepricons...?[/li]&lt;br /&gt;[li]Any special rules... eg do we need an anchor?[/li]&lt;br /&gt;[/list]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;No dTide tables?... ...oh god I&#039;ve not raced in the sea properly for years :-[
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• Accomodation - any recommendations?
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• I&#039;m thinking of travelling over Wednesday and Returning on Tuesday - I don&#039;t fancy carting a boat around with me the whole time - any thoughts on where I can abandon the lump of junk (that&#039;s the boat ) while I try and hunt down some lepricons...?
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• Any special rules... eg do we need an anchor?
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<br /><br />No doubt there&#039;s more but I can&#039;t think what for now...<br /><br />Calum

• I&#039;d probably travel by Ferry to Belfast - is that the most logical way.&nbsp; Irish bloke at work says go Belfast - Eniskillen and then down.&nbsp; (A) Going Belfast Eniskillen down to Galway and Kinvara may have better roads at the start and less traffic as opposed to going via Dublin – but plan on a good 5 hours for the journey.&nbsp; The roads are narrow when you get close to and over the border – great if you are driving a Porsche and tedious if you are driving and estate while pulling a dinghy.<br /><br />• Does it have to be crewed?&nbsp; (A) The race notice is far from being published but we have yet to differentiate between singlehanded and crewed Herons in any race.&nbsp; We have only applied PY when we have other classes and bother to keep race times.<br /><br />• Are there any local tips we should know about?&nbsp; (A) The most useful tips or rule of thumbs that work best are: 1) don’t capsize and 2) follow Hamish Rodger or Mike Tully as best you can because they rarely make mistakes. <br /><br />• Tide tables?:&nbsp; If I recall correctly, the tide is only swinging about 1.5-2 meters that weekend so it will be very light and have little effect.&nbsp; We have other times when it swings 4-4.5 meters but this is not the case for this event.&nbsp; The tide will probably force us to hold the races about 500-1000 meters further out the bay and will limit our access from the slipway in the village so we may set up base at another slipway just outside the village.<br /><br />• Accomodation - any recommendations? (A) As we get closer to the event, I certainly expect that members will offer accommodations where possible.&nbsp; I will try to coerce my wife into opening our two spare en-suite bedrooms for example.&nbsp; In addition, we have a hotel and loads of B&amp;Bs in the village and more within a 1000 meters of the village.&nbsp; Examples would be the Merriman Hotel and Fallon’s B&amp;B – both have websites I believe.<br /><br />• I don&#039;t fancy carting a boat around with me the whole time? (A) Herons are best left at the homes of the club members overnight and while you might be touring around.<br /><br />• Any special rules... eg do we need an anchor? (A) Personal flotation devices are a requirement in the club events and according to national laws.&nbsp; Anchors do not qualify as personal flotation devices so perhaps you could leave it at home.<br />