The Fry cup is Sea Scouting Ireland’s Senior Seamanship Competition.
In 1918, Major-General Sir William Fry presented a very handsome silver cup to the Port of Dublin Sea Scouts.  This was to be used for an annual seamanship competition and has become our most prestigious trophy.  The Fry Cup Competition has continued without interruption to the present day.

Over the weekend a unified team from Malahide Sea Scouts came first place in this prestigious seamanship competition. A first for Malahide, six members from across our scout sections came together over the last weeks and trained regularly and lifted the coveted trophy. The challenge is for scouts age under 17 years as of the 1^st   of June. The syllabus covers both basic and advance seamanship skills including rowing in a boats crew, navigation, chartwork, water safety, anchoring, sailing theory, steerage and buoyage.

Congratulations to one and all, of our hard working team who lifted the trophy on the harbour wall in Dunlaoghaire . Special thanks to Scouter Colum McCaffrey who worked closely with the team during their period of training.

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We’re fortunate to have such great opportunities for challenge and adventure on our doorstep.

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Long may this level of activity continue!

Friday Troop

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This is not the first time that a Malahide Sea Scouts crew has entered the race and in the past we have preformed well, so the best of luck with the training.

The leaders will be working hard to give a good performance on the day and have been putting in great work to ensure the boats and equipment are in top condition.

Attaching leathers to the oars to protect them from wear.

The finished product ready for use.

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Volunteer Scouters from Malahide, Reachra County and surrounds at our last recent ‘Welcome to Scouting’

The last course of Welcome to Scouting in its present format came to an end on Thursday 4th February 2016 . Started back in the late nineties under our former association (Scout Association of Ireland) training scheme a  video of a  duration of about 45 minutes was shown too new potential volunteers. Given details about becoming a volunteer the video covered information about scouting and a schedule on further training .Narrated by Andrew Kelly of  communications in  SAI  was a well produced and gave potential volunteers a insight into the workings of scouting. The course was updated and became more interactive  when Scouting Ireland was formed back in 2004 ,but still retained the title ‘Welcome to Scouting’.

In the period of almost 20 years the training team of Malahide have trained  up to 320 volunteers into the 9th Port Malahide .When  the course was extended  to cover Reachra County and  surrounds a total of  920 volunteers have been trained . This is great credit to the training team in Malahide .Our thanks goes to Stephanie Mc Cann, Anna Hickey , Kevin Rowan ,Elaine Dunne, Stephen O’Reilly and of course to all those volunteers who turned up to the courses .

Keep Training – Keep Scouting

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Triathlon 2015 Results

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The competition involves:

• Rowing a BP18 as a crew while also demonstrating teamwork and the appropriate exercise with respect to entry/departure of the craft.
• Punt Rowing, Anchors, and associated Knots.
• Water Safety / Weather / Flares & Distress Signals.
• Parts of a East Coast Skiff / Boat Maintenance / Whipping.
• Lashings & Flag Etiquette – Construct a basic flagpole and hoist flags in order of priority.
• Rigging (BP18) / Parts of a Sail Boat / Principal Motor & Sailing Vessels.
• Uniform Inspection.
• First Aid / Two Operator CPR / Theory & Scenarios.

Seamanship skills are a life skill that is taught from the very start of a sea scouts journey in his troop. The Hamil Cup gives the scout’s a focus and put into practice what they have learnt throughout the boating season. This years venue was in Howth Harbour and was hosted by the 7th Port of Dublin Sea Scouts. Thanks goes to the organisers and their team for laying on the challenging bases.  Malahide Sea Scout group was well represented entering 5 teams this year. A great turnout on the day with 17 teams in total competing for the Hamill Cup. Congratulations to 9th Port Malahide Wednesday Troop who took 3rd place this year.

Check out this years training and competition!

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Malahide Sea Scouts & Malahide Coast:

Sailing, Rowing, Kayaking, Swimming, Regattas, Ireland’s Eye Expeditions and Triathlons. Malahide Sea Scouts enjoy all of these activities, annually, along the coast of Malahide. We are so lucky to have this 2km stretch of coast that allows us to run our water based activities for our young people – with the added benefit of stunning views like Malahide Marina, Donabate Sand Dunes, The Viaduct, Lambay Island, Ireland’s Eye and a strand that stretches far into the Horizon.

The upkeep and management of our coast and beach is so important not only for our scouts/activities, but also for our local community, our visitors, and for the environmental protection of wildlife habitats that exist in the area.

Scouting Ireland are one of the founding partners of Leave No Trace Ireland, the outdoor ethics education programme which was launched in National Office in Larch Hill. Built on an ethos of personal responsibility for the environment, the Leave No Trace programme, helps scouts understand the impact of their activities and make better choices when they use the outdoors.

For our latest Green Scout Den project, Malahide Sea Scouts took part in Clean Coasts Week 2015 in the hope to raise awareness and encourage our local community to help us keep our beach and coast clean all year round.

Areas that require cleanups along the Malahide Coast

Marine litter and pollution of our oceans has become a major and very REAL issue:

• Plastic is the most common type of marine litter in the world.
• An estimated 100,000 marine mammals and up to 1 million sea birds die every year after ingesting or being tangled in plastic marine litter.
• Up to 80% of the plastic in our oceans comes from land-based sources.
• Plastics do not biodegrade, but instead break down into small particles that persist in the ocean, absorb toxins, and enter our food chain through fish, seabirds and other marine life.
• The extent of this issue is evident from The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, areas in the North Pacific Ocean where marine debris are continuously mixed by wind and wave action and widely dispersed over huge surface areas and throughout the top portion of the water column. It is difficult to estimate the size of these “patches” because the borders and content constantly change with ocean currents and winds. The bottom line here is that man-made debris does not belong in our oceans and waterways and we now need to address this issue.

Have you seen ‘Trashed’ the documentary by Jeremy Irons?  Mr. Irons sets out to discover the extent and effects of our global waste problem, as he travels around the world to beautiful destinations tainted by pollution. To watch the trailer of this eye opening documentary Click here !

Rubbish we found on Malahide Beach during our clean:

9th Port Malahide Neala Troop take part in our Beach Clean

9th Port Malahide Wednesday and Friday Troops take part in our Clean

Some of the rubbish we collected from the coastline on our clean-up

Malahide Beach |Blue Flag & Green Coast Awards:

Most beaches in Ireland aim to achieve Blue Flag status. This is one of the world’s most recognised eco-labels. Beaches that achieve this accolade must comply with a specific set of criteria relating to water quality, information provision, environmental education, safety and beach management. At Blue Flag beaches the bathing water must comply with the excellent standard in accordance with the EU Bathing Water Directive. Communities can also apply to be considered for a Green Coast Award.

Unfortunately, Malahide is not eligible to apply for either accolade at this point in time. A significant criterion for obtaining a Blug Flag or a Green Coast Award is that a beach must be recognised as a designated bathing area. Malahide is currently not a designated bathing area. Our Beach has a permanent Red Flag status, prohibiting swimming at all times. This is due to the dangers of the nearby channel, strong currents and boat traffic.

In recent years, local people and politicians have tried to engage with this particular issue. Most recently, there was a call for Low Rock to be identified as a designated bathing area due to the number of swimmers its waters attract, however, Fingal County Council assessed this option and found that “access for emergency services and the public was unsuitable. There is also a lack of parking. The area is tidal with an array of rocks and is only most suited to competent swimmers”.

There is still a lot to enjoy from Malahide beach but if you want to get more than your feet wet, we suggest Portmarnock as a safer option for swimming.

What can you do to help?

Here in Malahide we have a great community who care about the environment. There are many groups and individuals who do a superb job each year keeping Malahide looking well, our beaches included. Although we cannot apply for the above accolades, we still should keep a motivated effort to remove litter and debris from our beach. Community participation is key to spread out the work throughout the year.

If you have some free time, are out for an evening stroll, walking the dog, or just want to do your bit for the environment, why not bring a plastic bag and a pair of gloves and spend a few minutes bagging that litter!! You will be surprised by how much litter you can actually collect in just a few minutes.

Are you internet/smart phone savvy? Yes? Document your findings on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Take a photo of your collected trash and use the hashtags #2minutebeachclean #cleancoasts #Malahide. This great online campaign is happening on all coastlines around Ireland all year long.

Clean Coasts Team:

A big thank you to the Clean Coast Team who sent out gloves, rubbish bags, hi-vis, and data cards for the scouts to use for this year’s clean up. All equipment will be kept in our Quartermaster Stores and we hope to be out for another clean in the near future!

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.

Check out our other Green Scout Den Projects 2015:

Recharge the Earth Issue 1

Recharge the Earth Issue 2

Contact: Stephen greenscoutden@gmail.com

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Activities included all waterborne pursuits  ,sailing , rowing , kayaking,swimming , pier jumping and on the land , hiking , pioneering ,camp-craft, cooking-out on open fires , backwoods , campfires  ,conducting best practice in the out of doors environment, leave no trace and evening games. The camp was such a success  the Fingal Independent reported extensively about the scouts activities recently ( see attached link - Neala camp Jul’15 (1) )

The adventure  continues for the summer as the  Wednesday night scout troop departs this Friday to their Annual Expedition on the shores of Lough Derg, Portumna in the County of Galway.

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