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Displaying items by tag: Shane O'Driscoll

#Rowing: Ireland's Paul O'Donovan is the new champion of the world in the lightweight single sculls. The UCD clubman won the A Final in Rotterdam by clear water from Peter Galambos of Hungary in difficult, windy, conditions.

 O'Donovan was sixth at the 500 metre mark, but was already moving. He simply outclassed the field from there. Rajko Hrvat of Slovenia valiantly tried to match him, but repeated pushes by Skibbereen's finest left him behind. O'Donovan then drove on to win. The crowds rose to the new star of world rowing.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: The Rowers of the Month for July are Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll of Skibbereen. The Irish Championships offered a list of great performances: the Commerical senior eight won a thrilling final; the Cork Boat Club junior pair of Amy Mason and Tara Hanlon impressed and would go on the take silver at the Coupe de la Jeunesse;  the rising star that is Daire Lynch took three titles. However, O’Donovan and O’Driscoll had the outstanding run, taking five titles: together they won the senior pair and senior double, while O’Donovan won the senior single sculls and O’Driscoll the lightweight single. They also teamed up with Fintan McCarthy and Kenny McCarthy to win the senior quadruple. The combined efforts of all the Skibbereen crews brought them 13 titles, lifting the west Cork club to 163 in total, clear at the top of the rankings as the most successful Irish club.

 Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll will represent Ireland in the lightweight pair at the World Championships in Rotterdam in late August.

Rower of the Month awards: The judging panel is made up of Liam Gorman, rowing correspondent of The Irish Times, and David O'Brien, editor of Afloat magazine. Monthly awards for achievements during the year will appear on afloat.ie and the overall national award will be presented to the person or crew who, in the judges' opinion, achieved the most notable results in, or made the most significant contribution to rowing during 2016. Keep a monthly eye on progress and watch our 2016 champions list grow.

Published in Rower of Month

#Rowing: Skibbereen brought their tally of titles for the Irish Rowing Championships to a remarkable 10 so far as Denise Walsh and Shane O'Driscoll had big wins in the lightweight single sculls in the morning session of the third day.

 Shandon's win in the men's junior double was a sweet one for Stephen O'Sullivan and Ronan Byrne. They led Clonmel all down the course and held off push after push in the final 500 metres.  Strokeman O'Sullivan shouted with joy at the finish, but it was a particularly big win for Byrne. He had been beaten by the Clonmel strokeman, Daire Lynch, in the junior single. Byrne and Lynch team up in the Ireland junior double for the World Championships.  

 Cork Boat Club's good run in junior events continued, as Amy Mason and Tara Hanlon won the junior pair. Portora won the men's intermediate pair and NUIG the club coxed four. Commercial led all the way in the women's intermediate four and had a clearwater margin at the finish.

Irish Rowing Championships, National Rowing Centre, Day Three (Selected Results, Finals)

Men

Four - Club, coxed: NUIG 6:33.156.

Pair - Inter: Portora 6:49.900.

Sculling, Double - Junior: 1 Shandon A 6:36.777, 2 Clonmel 6:39.324, Castleconnell A 6:51.168.

Lightweight Single: 1 Skibbrereen (S O'Driscoll) 7:15.482, 2 Skibbereen (A Burns) 9:08.433, 3 Carlow (O Nolan) 7:36.764.

Women

Four - Inter, coxed: Commercial 7:20.348.

Pair - Junior: 1 Cork 7:35.640, 2 Bann 7:41.453, 3 Shannon 7:41.750

Sculling - Lightweight Single: Skibbereen (D Walsh) 7:54.535, 2 Carlow (A Byrne) 8:21.130, 3 Queen's (R Brown) 8:33.287.

Published in Rowing
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Marine Institute Research Vessel Tom Crean

Ireland’s new marine research vessel will be named the RV Tom Crean after the renowned County Kerry seaman and explorer who undertook three major groundbreaking expeditions to the Antarctic in the early years of the 20th Century which sought to increase scientific knowledge and to explore unreached areas of the world, at that time.

Ireland's new multi-purpose marine research vessel RV Tom Crean, was delivered in July 2022 and will be used by the Marine Institute and other State agencies and universities to undertake fisheries research, oceanographic and environmental research, seabed mapping surveys; as well as maintaining and deploying weather buoys, observational infrastructure and Remotely Operated Vehicles.

The RV Tom Crean will also enable the Marine Institute to continue to lead and support high-quality scientific surveys that contribute to Ireland's position as a leader in marine science. The research vessel is a modern, multipurpose, silent vessel (designed to meet the stringent criteria of the ICES 209 noise standard for fisheries research), capable of operating in the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The Tom Crean is able to go to sea for at least 21 days at a time and is designed to operate in harsh sea conditions.

RV Tom Crean Specification Overview

  • Length Overall: 52.8 m
  • Beam 14m
  • Draft 5.2M 

Power

  • Main Propulsion Motor 2000 kw
  • Bow Thruster 780 kw
  • Tunnel thruster 400 kw

Other

  • Endurance  21 Days
  • Range of 8,000 nautical miles
  • DP1 Dynamic Positioning
  • Capacity for 3 x 20ft Containers

Irish Marine Research activities

The new state-of-the-art multi-purpose marine research vessel will carry out a wide range of marine research activities, including vital fisheries, climate change-related research, seabed mapping and oceanography.

The new 52.8-metre modern research vessel, which will replace the 31-metre RV Celtic Voyager, has been commissioned with funding provided by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine approved by the Government of Ireland.

According to Aodhán FitzGerald, Research Vessel Manager of the MI, the RV Tom Crean will feature an articulated boom crane aft (6t@ 10m, 3T@ 15m), located on the aft-gantry. This will be largely used for loading science equipment and net and equipment handling offshore.

Mounted at the stern is a 10T A-frame aft which can articulate through 170 degrees which are for deploying and recovering large science equipment such as a remotely operated vehicle (ROV’s), towed sleds and for fishing operations.

In addition the fitting of an 8 Ton starboard side T Frame for deploying grabs and corers to 4000m which is the same depth applicable to when the vessel is heaving but is compensated by a CTD system consisting of a winch and frame during such operations.

The vessel will have the regulation MOB boat on a dedicated davit and the facility to carry a 6.5m Rigid Inflatable tender on the port side.

Also at the aft deck is where the 'Holland 1' Work class ROV and the University of Limericks 'Etain' sub-Atlantic ROV will be positioned. In addition up to 3 x 20’ (TEU) containers can be carried.

The newbuild has been engineered to endure increasing harsher conditions and the punishing weather systems encountered in the North-East Atlantic where deployments of RV Tom Crean on surveys spent up to 21 days duration.

In addition, RV Tom Crean will be able to operate in an ultra silent-mode, which is crucial to meet the stringent criteria of the ICES 209 noise standard for fisheries research purposes.

The classification of the newbuild as been appointed to Lloyds and below is a list of the main capabilities and duties to be tasked by RV Tom Crean:

  • Oceanographic surveys, incl. CTD water sampling
  • Fishery research operations
  • Acoustic research operations
  • Environmental research and sampling operation incl. coring
  • ROV and AUV/ASV Surveys
  • Buoy/Mooring operations