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#Rowing: Ireland finished fourth in their heat of the men’s coxed four at the World Under-23 Championships in Florida today. Only the winner of the heat qualified directly for the A Final. Ireland were up with Germany and Australia in the first quarter. From there, Australia pushed out and away from the rest to win. Britain and Germany took second and third.

 Ireland will compete in a repechage with hopes of making the A Final in this eight-boat event.

World Rowing Under-23 Championships, Sarasota, United States (Irish interest)

Men

Four, coxed – Heat Two (Winner to A Final; rest to Repechages): 1 Australia 6:11.99; 4 Ireland (B O’Rourke, R Corrigan, D Lynch, J Quinlan; cox: E Finnegan) 6:18.79.

Published in Rowing

Jack Dorney of Shandon won the junior 18 single sculls at the Irish Open and All Ireland Junior Regatta at the National Rowing Centre in Cork today. His nearest rival was James O’Donovan of Castleconnell. Both represented Ireland this season and both are junior again for the 2019 season.

Aoife Lynch of Lee was the top junior woman, just ahead of Lauren O’Brien of Castleconnell.

The best women’s open pair of the day was the UCC/Skibbereen combination of Tara Hanlon and Niamh Casey.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Ireland's Ronan Byrne and Daire Lynch finished fifth in their semi-final of the junior double sculls at the World Rowing Championships in Rotterdam today. Drawn in the very tough lane one and battling against the worst of the wind, the Irish passed Lithuania and pressed the Netherlands hard, though the host nation held on to fourth. Germany, Italy and Hungary took the A Final places. Ireland will compete in a B Final.

 The junior women's double of Aoife Casey and Emily Hegarty were also in the tough lane one. They finished sixth in a race won by Greece. Ireland will fight for a good placing in the B Final on Sunday.

World Rowing Championships, Rotterdam (Irish interest; selected results)

Men

Lightweight Pair - A Final: 1 France 7:14.18, 2 Denmark 7:15.30, 3 Britain (J Cassells, S Scrimgeour) 7:16.49; 4 Ireland (M O'Donovan, S O'Driscoll) 7:24.6, 5 China 7:32.48, 6 United States 7:36.91.

Lightweight Single Sculls - A Final: 1 Ireland (P O'Donovan) 7:32.84, 2 Hungary (P Galambos) 7:36.95, 3 Slovakia (L Babac) 7:38.89; 4 Slovenia (R Hrvat) 7:41.07, 5 Germany (K Steinhuebel) 7:48.66, 6 Serbia (M Stanojevic) 7:49.03.

Junior Double Sculls - Semi-Final One (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Germany 7:17.47, 2 Italy 7:18.14, 3 Hungary 7:29.93; 5 Ireland (R Byrne, D Lynch) 7:36.48.

Women

Four - A Final: 1 Britain (3 H Nixon) 7:16.28.

Junior Double Sculls - Semi-Final Two (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Greece 7:57.20, 2 Germany 7:58.97, 3 Australia 7:59.61; 6 Ireland (A Casey, E Hegarty) 8:12.31.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Sinead Lynch and Claire Lambe qualified for the Olympic Games A Final in Rio de Janeiro today. The Ireland lightweight double finished third behind the Netherlands and Canada, holding off Denmark in a very controlled and impressive performance.

In the first semi-final South Africa won from New Zealand, with China taking third.

Olympic Games, Rio de Janeiro (Irish interest; selected results)

Women

Lightweight Double Sculls - Semi-Finals (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final)

Semi-Final One: 1 South Africa 7:19.09, 2 New Zealand 7:19.27, 3 China 7:20.94.

Semi-Final Two: 1 Netherlands 7:13.93, 2 Canada 7:16.35, 3 Ireland (C Lambe, S Lynch) 7:18.24; 4 Denmark 7:20.29, 5 United States 7:22.78, 6 Germany 7:33.21.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: The two Ireland lightweight doubles will compete in their deferred heats tomorrow (Monday) at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Under the new schedule put in place by Fisa, the lightweight women's double are set to go into action at 3.30 Irish time and the lightweight men at 3.50. The Sunday programme had to be cancelled because the course was not rowable.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: The Olympic rowing programme for today, Sunday, has been postponed. The strong crosswinds disrupted a number of races on Saturday and left the Serbian men's pair in the water after a capsize. Ireland single sculler Sanita Puspure had complained about the conditions, saying the boats would not be put out to train in such difficult waters. Two Ireland boats, the women’s lightweight double of Sinead Lynch and Claire Lambe and the men’s lightweight double of Paul and Gary O’Donovan were due to compete in their first race today, but must now wait.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Skibbereen took two of the three senior titles on offer in the evening session of the second day of the Irish Rowing Championships at the National Rowing Centre. The women's pair of Denise Walsh and Aoife Casey beat UCC, while the men's quadruple held off a late charge by a Queen's/Portadown composite.

 Monika Dukarska of Killorglin won the women's senior single. She was dominant all the way, with only Siobhan McCrohan of Tribesmen testing her to any degree.

 The junior women's eight gave Cork Boat Club a chance to impress. They led for most of the race, and while Bann held an overlap through the middle of the course, Cork were clear winners.

 Trinity were extraordinarily dominant in the men's novice eight - their win by 11 seconds was cheered lustily by their fans.

 Shandon fought through the opposition offered by Carlow to win the junior men's quadruple, and Roisin Maguire of Queen's was the best club single sculler.

 The man of the day was, arguably, the Clonmel competitor Daire Lynch. The teenager added the men's intermediate single scull to the club title he had won earlier in the day. He passed Declan O'Connor of St Michael's in the middle stages of the race and won well.

Irish Rowing Championships, National Rowing Centre, Cork

 Day Two (Selected results)

Men

Eight - Intermediate: Commercial 5:43.182. Novice: Trinity 6:00.157.

Four - Junior, coxed: 1 Cork A 6:29.20, 2 Portora 6:35.341, 3 Clonmel 6:40.716.

Pair - Senior: 1 Skibbereen 6:30.311, 2 UCD 6:33.546, 3 Portora 6:44.968.

Sculling, Quadruple - Senior: 1 Skibbereen 5:59.102, 2 Queen's/Portadown 5:59.790, 3 Shandon A 6:08.509. Junior: 1 Shandon 6:07.970, 2 Carlow B 6:13.361, 3 Three Castles 6:13.799.

Single - Inter: Clonmel (D Lynch) 7:04.573. Club: Clonmel (D Lynch) 7:15.463.

Women

Eight - Novice: Trinity 7:09.594. Junior: 1 Cork 1 Cork 6:39.271, 2 Bann 6:44.193, 3 Portora 6:49.287.

Pair - Senior: 1 Skibbereen 7:23.775, 2 UCC 7:29.369, 3 Trinity 7:46.166.

Sculling, Double - Inter: Lee 7:22.252.

Single - Senior: 1 Killorglin (M Dukarska) 7:35.069, 2 Tribesmen (S McCrohan) 7:50.320, 3 Skibbereen (O Hayes) 7:57.742. Club: Queen's (R Maguire) 8:15.155. Junior: 1 Skibbereen (E Hegarty) 8:05.674, 2 Neptune (C Feerick) 8:13.065, 3 Castleconnell (J Vascotto) 8:15.002.

 

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Two outstanding races brought the first session of the Irish Rowing Championships at the National Rowing Centre to a close today. Daire Lynch of Clonmel won the junior single sculls. He caught and passed Shandon's Ronan Byrne in the final quarter, but Byrne refused to give in easily and the two swept towards the finish line with a small margin separating them - Lynch won by just over four tenths of a second.

 The junior women's double had a similar profile: Skibbereen hunted down and caught leaders Bann and held off their late charge to win by just over three tenths of a second.

 UCD had a surprisingly emphatic win over a Skibbereen/UCC composite in the women's senior four - a first senior win for bow woman Eimear Lambe. In the men's double, Shane O'Driscoll and Mark O'Donovan were similarly impressive in their win over Old Collegians.

 Neptune had started the session with their first Championships win in years, in the novice coxed quadruple. Fermoy won the women's Club coxed four, while Cork and NUIG won hte women's intermediate pair and men's intermediate coxed four respectively.

Irish Rowing Championships, National Rowing Centre, Cork, Day One (Selected Results)

Men

Four - Inter, coxed: 1 NUIG 6:26.811.

Sculling, Quadruple - Novice, coxed: Neptune 6:44.559.

Double - Senior: 1 Skibbereen 6:32.773, 2 UCD 6:34.914, 3 Castleconnell 6:39.727.

Single - Junior: 1 Clonmel (D Lynch) 7:04.040, 2 Shandon (R Byrne) 7:04.462, 3 Shandon (S O'Sullivan) 7:23.197.

Women

Four - Senior: 1 UCD 6:54.652, 2 Skibbereen/UCC 6:58.902, 3 Trinity 7:04.715. Club, coxed: Fermoy 7:16.116.

Pair - Intermediate: Cork 7:36.488

Sculling

Double - Junior: 1 Skibbereen B 7:19.682, 2 Bann 7:91.995, 3 Neptune 7:33.305.

 

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: NUIG and UCC won the division one men's and women's fours by big margins in the first set of Sunday finals at Cork Regatta at the National Rowing Centre. The division one doubles provided a stage for junior crews with international aspirations. In changeable conditions, Aoife Casey and Emily Hegarty won in an excellent time and Ronan Byrne and Daire Lynch were second to senior internationals Shane O'Driscoll and Mark O'Donovan.

Cork Regatta (Coillte Grand League), National Rowing Centre, Sunday

Men

Four - Div One - A Final: 1 NUIG (senior) 6:15.798. Div Two, coxed - A Final: 1 Cork (club 2) 6:45.96; 4 Presentation (jun 18) 7:01.82. B Final: 5 Pres (jun 16) 7:45.27.

Sculling - Double - Div One - A Final: 1 Skibbereen (M O'Donovan, S O'Driscoll; sen) 6:35.19, 2 Shandon/Clonmel 6:42.47; 6 Shandon A (inter) 7:07.91. B Final: 2 Shandon (jun 18) 6:51.83. C Final: 5 Cork (club 1) 7:51.21.

Single - Div Two - A Final: 1 Skibbereen (K Mannix; jun 18) 7:30.79, 2 Carlow (J Keating; jun 16) 7:32.62; 4 Lee (H Sutton; club 2) 7:38.78.

Women

Four - Div One - A Final: 1 UCC (sen) 7:08.25; 3 Shandon (jun 18) 7:17.69.

Sculling, Double - Div One - A Final: 1 Skibbereen (E Hegarty, A Casey; jun 18) 7:13.15, 2 Bann (jun 18) 7:22.69; 5 Belfast BC (club 1) 7:34.93. B Final: 2 Commercial (inter) 7:47.37; 3 Skibbereen (sen) 7:47.68.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Claire Lambe and Sinead Lynch had to settle for fourth in a terrific lightweight double sculls World Cup Final in Poznan. The Netherlands had an excellent start, but Denmark set the pace through the middle stages, with Ireland and world champions New Zealand well in touch. The Kiwis pushed right up by the final 300 metres, and it became a three-boat race, with Ireland just behind.  The Netherlands won in a new world best time, with Denmark and New Zealand taking silver and bronze.

World Cup Regatta, Poznan (Irish interest; selected results)

Men

Lightweight Double Sculls - A Final: 1 France (P Houin, J Azou) 6:11.92, 2 Norway (K Brun, A Strandli) 6:14.01, 3 Italy (A Micheletti, M Miani) 6:14.67; 4 Ireland (G O'Donovan, P O'Donovan) 6:15.46, 5 Britain (W Fletcher, R Chambers) 6:20.71, 6 Austria 6:26.06.

Women

Lightweight Double Sculs - A Final: 1 Netherlands (I Paul, M Head) 6:47.69 (World Best Time), 2 Denmark (AL Thomsen, J Rasmussen) 6:49.10, 3 New Zealand (S MacKenzie, J Edward) 6:50.65; 4 Ireland (C Lambe, S Lynch) 6:55.22, 5 Poland 6:55.85, 6 Italy 6:56.92.

Published in Rowing
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Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta

From the Baily lighthouse to Dalkey island, the bay accommodates six separate courses for 21 different classes racing every two years for the Dun Laoghaire Regatta.

In assembling its record-breaking armada, Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta (VDLR) became, at its second staging, not only the country's biggest sailing event, with 3,500 sailors competing, but also one of Ireland's largest participant sporting events.

One of the reasons for this, ironically, is that competitors across Europe have become jaded by well-worn venue claims attempting to replicate Cowes and Cork Week.'Never mind the quality, feel the width' has been a criticism of modern-day regattas where organisers mistakenly focus on being the biggest to be the best. Dun Laoghaire, with its local fleet of 300 boats, never set out to be the biggest. Its priority focussed instead on quality racing even after it got off to a spectacularly wrong start when the event was becalmed for four days at its first attempt.

The idea to rekindle a combined Dublin bay event resurfaced after an absence of almost 40 years, mostly because of the persistence of a passionate race officer Brian Craig who believed that Dun Laoghaire could become the Cowes of the Irish Sea if the town and the local clubs worked together. Although fickle winds conspired against him in 2005, the support of all four Dun Laoghaire waterfront yacht clubs since then (made up of Dun Laoghaire Motor YC, National YC, Royal Irish YC and Royal St GYC), in association with the two racing clubs of Dublin Bay SC and Royal Alfred YC, gave him the momentum to carry on.

There is no doubt that sailors have also responded with their support from all four coasts. Running for four days, the regatta is (after the large mini-marathons) the single most significant participant sports event in the country, requiring the services of 280 volunteers on and off the water, as well as top international race officers and an international jury, to resolve racing disputes representing five countries. A flotilla of 25 boats regularly races from the Royal Dee near Liverpool to Dublin for the Lyver Trophy to coincide with the event. The race also doubles as a RORC qualifying race for the Fastnet.

Sailors from the Ribble, Mersey, the Menai Straits, Anglesey, Cardigan Bay and the Isle of Man have to travel three times the distance to the Solent as they do to Dublin Bay. This, claims Craig, is one of the major selling points of the Irish event and explains the range of entries from marinas as far away as Yorkshire's Whitby YC and the Isle of Wight.

No other regatta in the Irish Sea area can claim to have such a reach. Dublin Bay Weeks such as this petered out in the 1960s, and it has taken almost four decades for the waterfront clubs to come together to produce a spectacle on and off the water to rival Cowes."The fact that we are getting such numbers means it is inevitable that it is compared with Cowes," said Craig. However, there the comparison ends."We're doing our own thing here. Dun Laoghaire is unique, and we are making an extraordinary effort to welcome visitors from abroad," he added. The busiest shipping lane in the country – across the bay to Dublin port – closes temporarily to facilitate the regatta and the placing of six separate courses each day.

A fleet total of this size represents something of an unknown quantity on the bay as it is more than double the size of any other regatta ever held there.

Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta FAQs

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is Ireland's biggest sailing event. It is held every second Summer at Dun Laoghaire Harbour on Dublin Bay.

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is held every two years, typically in the first weekend of July.

As its name suggests, the event is based at Dun Laoghaire Harbour. Racing is held on Dublin Bay over as many as six different courses with a coastal route that extends out into the Irish Sea. Ashore, the festivities are held across the town but mostly in the four organising yacht clubs.

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is the largest sailing regatta in Ireland and on the Irish Sea and the second largest in the British Isles. It has a fleet of 500 competing boats and up to 3,000 sailors. Scotland's biggest regatta on the Clyde is less than half the size of the Dun Laoghaire event. After the Dublin city marathon, the regatta is one of the most significant single participant sporting events in the country in terms of Irish sporting events.

The modern Dublin Bay Regatta began in 2005, but it owes its roots to earlier combined Dublin Bay Regattas of the 1960s.

Up to 500 boats regularly compete.

Up to 70 different yacht clubs are represented.

The Channel Islands, Isle of Man, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland countrywide, and Dublin clubs.

Nearly half the sailors, over 1,000, travel to participate from outside of Dun Laoghaire and from overseas to race and socialise in Dun Laoghaire.

21 different classes are competing at Dun Laoghaire Regatta. As well as four IRC Divisions from 50-footers down to 20-foot day boats and White Sails, there are also extensive one-design keelboat and dinghy fleets to include all the fleets that regularly race on the Bay such as Beneteau 31.7s, Ruffian 23s, Sigma 33s as well as Flying Fifteens, Laser SB20s plus some visiting fleets such as the RS Elites from Belfast Lough to name by one.

 

Some sailing household names are regular competitors at the biennial Dun Laoghaire event including Dun Laoghaire Olympic silver medalist, Annalise Murphy. International sailing stars are competing too such as Mike McIntyre, a British Olympic Gold medalist and a raft of World and European class champions.

There are different entry fees for different size boats. A 40-foot yacht will pay up to €550, but a 14-foot dinghy such as Laser will pay €95. Full entry fee details are contained in the Regatta Notice of Race document.

Spectators can see the boats racing on six courses from any vantage point on the southern shore of Dublin Bay. As well as from the Harbour walls itself, it is also possible to see the boats from Sandycove, Dalkey and Killiney, especially when the boats compete over inshore coastal courses or have in-harbour finishes.

Very favourably. It is often compared to Cowes, Britain's biggest regatta on the Isle of Wight that has 1,000 entries. However, sailors based in the north of England have to travel three times the distance to get to Cowes as they do to Dun Laoghaire.

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is unique because of its compact site offering four different yacht clubs within the harbour and the race tracks' proximity, just a five-minute sail from shore. International sailors also speak of its international travel connections and being so close to Dublin city. The regatta also prides itself on balancing excellent competition with good fun ashore.

The Organising Authority (OA) of Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta is Dublin Bay Regattas Ltd, a not-for-profit company, beneficially owned by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club (DMYC), National Yacht Club (NYC), Royal Irish Yacht Club (RIYC) and Royal St George Yacht Club (RSGYC).

The Irish Marine Federation launched a case study on the 2009 Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta's socio-economic significance. Over four days, the study (carried out by Irish Sea Marine Leisure Knowledge Network) found the event was worth nearly €3million to the local economy over the four days of the event. Typically the Royal Marine Hotel and Haddington Hotel and other local providers are fully booked for the event.

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