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I am sailing!

Wednesday, 09 April 2008

HE used to do battle in the Courts as a corporate law barrister.
Now retired Raheny man Ralph Mac Darby has taken to the sea in a bid to outdo fellow novice competitors in a reality TV sailing show.
Outgoing Ralph, from The Meadows, also had to brush up on his Irish to take part in ‘Scaoil Seol’, a new six-part reality series that will be screened on TG4 from this Thursday, April 10.
Over the coming weeks, viewers will be able to watch as Ralph, alongside a motley crew of nine other contestants, learns to sail from scratch in a traditional Galway Hooker boat.
The ‘Scaoil Seol’ contestants will spend 10 days being put through their paces at a custom built sailing centre on Collanmore Island in Mayo.
There, they will undergo an intensive sailing course, learning the basic skills on dinghies before graduating to bigger and sturdier boats.
After this, the contestants will be hauled off to Connemara, the home of traditional boat racing, to hit the open seas and learn to race.

Ralph told Northside People he heard about the series on radio and didn’t think twice about putting his name forward for the challenge.
“They were looking for competitors with a decent grasp of the Irish language and since I was educated through Irish at Scoil Mhuire on Parnell Street, I knew I could speak well enough to get by,” he said.
However, Ralph said the painstaking process of learning the ropes of sailing out at sea was like “hell on wheels.”
“It was definitely difficult, although I wasn’t as terrified as one of the particular contestants,” Ralph stated.
“In fairness, we did have a wet suit and buoyancy aid on so there was no real danger of sinking, but I did fall into the water five times in one day.”
Ralph added that he was pleasantly surprised at how well all the competitors got on during the gruelling 180 hours of filming.
“I think the programme makers thought they would be throwing us all into some sort of boot camp together in the hope that a few rows might break out,” he said.
“But we got on wonderfully well together and they were a great group of people.”
However, Ralph said he is anxious to see how he will appear on our TV screens.
“When you consider there are 180 hours of filming that have to be condensed into six 25-minute shows, God only knows how they will edit it,” he stated.
Either way, the retired barrister believes he has done well out of the show.
Ralph has now been certified to a couple of levels at sailing and has already received offers of some interesting boat trips.
“I have had two invites, one of which is to sail to La Coruna in Spain but I have yet to decide whether to take up the offer,” he added.
Scaoil Seol will begin on TG4 this Thursday, April 10, at 8pm and repeated on Sunday, April 13 at 7.30pm.
For further information on the show, log onto www.tg4.ie/scaoilseol

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