Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Gary O'Donovan

#Rowing: Ireland’s Paul and Gary O’Donovan finished fourth in the A Final of the lightweight double sculls at the World Cup in Lucerne this morning. France's new crew of Pierre Houin and Jeremie Azou were impressive winners, with Norway holding off charges by South Africa and Ireland in the final 250 metres to take silver. The young Ireland crew pushed hard but South Africa took the bronze by just over a second. Britain’s Will Fletcher and Richard Chambers were a length behind Ireland in fifth.

World Cup Regatta, Lucerne, Switzerland (Irish interest; selected results)

Men

Lightweight Pair – A Final: 1 Britain (J Cassells, S Scrimgeour) 6:31.03.

Lightweight Double Sculls – A Final: 1 France (P Houin, J Azou) 6:19.26, 2 Norway 6:21.81, 3 South Africa 6:22.42; 4 Ireland (G O’Donovan, P O’Donovan) 6:23.46, 5 Britain (W Fletcher, R Chambers) 6:25.72, 6 United States 6:28.08.

Women

Lightweight Double Sculls – B Final (Places 7 to 12): 1 Ireland (C Lambe, S Lynch) 7:01.36, 2 Poland 7:03.01, 3 Britain 7:04.88.

Published in Rowing

# Rowing: Paul O’Donovan and Gary O’Donovan took gold for Ireland at the European Rowing Championships in Brandenburg in Germany this morning. They executed the perfect plan in the final of the lightweight double sculls. Norway were the favourites, and led into the final quarter, but they could not deal with the tremendous finish of the O’Donovans. Germany came through to take silver, with Norway third.

European Rowing Championships, Brandenburg, Germany – Day Three (Irish interest; selected results):

Men

Lightweight Double Sculls – A Final 1 Ireland (G O’Donovan, P O’Donovan) 6:57.76, 2 Germany 6:59.54, 3 Norway 7:00.52.  

Lightweight Pair – A Final: 1 Britain (S Scrimgeour, J Cassells) 7:00.38, 2 Denmark 7:03.94, 3 Spain 7:05.32; 4 Ireland (M O’Donovan, S O’Driscoll)  7:09.67

Women

Lightweight Double Sculls – B Final (Places 7 to 12): 1 Sweden 7:27.70, 2 Britain 7:27.99, 3 Ireland (C Lambe, S Jennings) 7:30.28.

Lightweight Single Sculls – A Final: 1 Germany (A Noske) 8:26.75, 2 Denmark 8:32.54, 3 Netherlands 8:37.05; 4 Ireland (D Walsh) 8:42.93.

Published in Rowing

#Rower of the Month: Gary O’Donovan is the Afloat Rower of the Month for March. The Skibbereen man had to compete in the lightweight single scull at the Ireland trials after his brother and crewmate, Paul, pulled out ill. Gary set excellent times, showing how much he has improved individually, in addition to being half of the crew of the lightweight double which will compete in international events in Europe in the summer and the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 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 Rowing

#Rowing: The Afloat Rowers of the Year for 2015 are the Ireland men’s and women’s lightweight double sculls who qualified their boats for the Olympic Games in 2016.

Claire Lambe and Sinéad Jennings needed to finish in the top 11 at the World Championships in Aiguebelette in August/September. They seemed well-placed in their semi-final to qualify for the A Final, but were pushed into fourth as Canada finished with a remarkable sprint. The Ireland crew changed tactics for the B Final, and it worked. They finished ninth.

 The men’s lightweight double of Gary and Paul O’Donovan had a similar qualification mark in Aiguebelette. To have a shot they had to finish in the top three in their quarter-final, and they achieved this, pushing Hayden Cohen and Peter Taylor of New Zealand into fourth. They finished fifth in their semi-final and then booked their Rio place with a fifth-place finish (11th overall) in their B Final, eking out a place ahead of Greece, who had finished eighth at the Olympic Games in London.

 Afloat wishes both crews and all the Irish rowing community the very best in 2016.

Rower of the Year Award: 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 appeared on afloat.ie. The overall national award has been given to the crews who, in the judges' opinion, achieved the most notable results and made the most significant contribution to rowing during 2015. Keep an eye on progress in 2016.

Published in Rower of the Year

#Indoor Rowing: Claire Lambe excelled among a group of lightweight rowers who set personal best times in ergometer (rowing machine) tests at the National Rowing Centre in Cork. Gary O’Donovan, Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll all set new best times. Paul O’Donovan did his test in Dublin and also broke new ground. Heavyweight rower Aifric Keogh matched her best time of six minutes 55.5 seconds.

High Performance Ergometer Testing, National Rowing Centre, Cork

Men

Lightweight: 1 G O’Donovan 6:13.7, 2 M O’Donovan 6:16.8, 3 S O’Driscoll 6:18.5.

Women

Open: A Keogh 6:55.5, L Kennedy 6:56.7.

Lightweight: C Lambe 7:05.6, S Dolan 7:15.3.

Irish Provinces Indoor Rowing Championships, University of Limerick (Selected Results; 2000 metres unless stated)

Men

Open – 1 R O’Hagan 6:09.4, 2 F Crowley 6:24.9, 3 A Prendergast 6:25.5. 30-39: G Conway 6:19.7. Open 500: R O’Hagan 1:19.6.

Under-23: A Kinneen 6:20.2. Junior 18: R Byrne 6:16.9, 500: E Walls-Tuite 1:22.3.

Jun 16: J Keating 6:33.8, 500: J McCarthy 1:29.8.

Jun 15 (1,000): R MacCurtain 3:23.6.

Freshers (1,000); G Barlow 3:05.2.

40-49: N Carey 6:24.3, 500: Carey 1:23.9. 50-59: O Short 6:46.9, 500: Short 1:29.4. 60-69: P Victory 6:57.6, 500 (60+): P Victory 1:32.6.

Lightweight – Open: D O’Connor 6:33.5, 500: L Keane 1:28.9.

Lightweight Under-23: L Keane 6:25.0, 500: Keane 1:28.9. Lightweight 40-49: J Doyle 6:29.1.  

Women

Open – 1 M Dukarska 7:02.7, 2 A O’Sullivan 7:19.0, 3 M Piggott 7:34.7. 500: M Dukarska 1:33.6.

Under-23: S Bounane 7:18.7. Junior 18: M Cremin 7:23.3.

500: M Cremin 1:38.8.

 Jun 16: A O’Farrell 7:32.7, 500: L Turner 1:44.1.

Jun 15: (1,000): A Doyle 3:50.6, 500: J Crowley 1:41.1

Freshers (1,000): B Chase 3:43.2.

30-39: S Kennelly 7:24.9. 40-49: P O’Brien 7:51.8, 500: R Ware 1:43.3. 50-59: M Lawlor 8:11.2, 500: Lawlor 1:55.9.

Lightweight – Open: S McCrohan 7:14.7, 500: K Wilkie 1:44.4.

Lightweight Under-23: E McGiff 7:49.2. 

Lightweight 30-39:  C Conway 7:48.3.

LTA – S McLoughlin 3:51.1, 500: McLoughlin 1:51.0.

Ulster Indoor Rowing Championships, Queen’s University, Saturday (Selected Results, 2,000 metres unless stated). Includes BUCS: British University Championships.

Men

Open: S McKeown 6:04.7, 2 M Christie 6:25.9. BUCS Open: 1 T Oliver 6:10.6, 2 P Doyle 6:26.9, 3 R Urquart 6:34.7. BUCS Lightweight: C Beck 6:31.2.

Under-23 Lightweight: A Laivinas 6:50.3.

Under-18: D Mitchell 6:26.0. Under-16: A Christie 6:39.3. Under-15: A Graham (1,000m) 3:32.7.

BUCS Beginners (1,000): J Lobinger 3:11.4. 

Women

Open: R Maguire 7:15.4. BUCS Open: Maguire 7:15.4. BUCS Open Lightweight: R Brown 7:46.7.

Under-23: K Shirlow 7:28.3.

Under-18: F Chestnutt 7:31.0.

Under-16: L McIntyre 7:46.2. Under-15 (1,000m): A Hall 3:54.6. 30+ (1,000m): L Kerr 3:20.9.

BUCS Beginners (1,000m): A Druijff 3:45.8. 

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Ireland qualified two boats for the Olympic Games at the World Rowing Championships in Aigubebelette in France. The lightweight men’s and women’s doubles had to finish in the top 11 to qualify, which meant a place in the top five of their B Finals.

 The lightweight men’s crew of Paul and Gary O’Donovan took the final place. In a tense race, where the boats were tightly packed for much of the 2,000 metres, the O’Donovan’s sprinted to the line taking fifth just ahead of Greece – the margin was .28 of a second.

 In the women’s race which followed, Ireland’s Sinead Jennings and Claire Lambe carved out a clear lead in the second quarter and held it until the pack caught them coming towards the line. However, the Irish were determined not to miss their chance, and took third behind China and Poland. This placed them ninth in the world.  

World Rowing Championships, Aiguebelette, France – Day Seven (Irish interest)

Men

Lightweight Double Sculls – B Final (Places 7 to 12): 1 Poland 6:20.25, 2 United States 6:20.55, 3 Austria 6:22.04, 4 Switzerland 6:22.34, 5 Ireland (P O’Donovan, G O’Donovan) 6:23.20; 6 Greece 6:23.48.

Women

Lightweight Double Sculls – B Final (Places 7 to 12): 1 China 6:59.31, 2 Poland 7:00.37, 3 Ireland (C Lambe, S Jennings) 7:00.67, 4 Russia 7:00.79, 5 United States 7:02.21; 6 Sweden 7:02.45.

Published in Rowing

#ROWING: The Afloat Rowers of the Month for May are Paul and Gary O’Donovan. The brothers from Skibbereen formed the Ireland lightweight double which finished fifth at the European Rowing Championships in Poznan in Poland. They produced a very good performance in their semi-final to take third and so qualify for the A Final. In that race, they won a battle for fifth with Turkey. The winning crew, France, produced a European best time. The lightweight double is an extremely competitive event, but the new Ireland crew has hit the ground running.

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 2015. Keep a monthly eye on progress and watch our 2015 champions list grow.

Published in Rowing
Page 9 of 9

The Star keelboat is a 6.9 metres (23 ft) one-design racing keelboat for two people designed by Francis Sweisguth in 1910.

The Star was an Olympic keelboat class from 1932 through to 2012, the last year keelboats appeared at the Summer Olympics at which Ireland's representatives were Peter O'Leary and David Burrows.

Ireland has performed well in the class internationally thanks to some Olympic campaigns including a bronze medal at the Star World Championships in 2000, won by Mark Mansfield and David O'Brien.

The boat is sloop-rigged, with a mainsail larger in proportional size than any other boat of its length. Unlike most modern racing boats, it does not use a spinnaker when sailing downwind. Instead, when running downwind a whisker pole is used to hold the jib out to windward for correct wind flow.

Early Stars were built from wood, but modern boats are of fibreglass and carbon construction.

The boat must weigh at least 671 kg (1,479 lb) with a maximum total sail area of 26.5 m2 (285 sq ft).

The Star class pioneered an unusual circular boom vang track, which allows the vang to effectively hold the boom down even when the boom is turned far outboard on a downwind run.

Another notable aspect of Star sailing is the extreme hiking position adopted by the crew and at times the helmsman, who normally use a harness to help hang low off the windward side of the boat with only their lower legs inside.

At A Glance – Star Specifications

Designer Francis Sweisguth
Year 1910
Crew 2 (Skipper + Crew)
S + 1.5 C ≤ 250 kg (550 lb)[1]
Draft 1.016 m (3 ft 4 in)
Hull Type keelboat
Hull weight ≥ 671 kg (1,479 lb)
(including keel)
LOA 6.922 m (22 ft 9 in)
LWL 4.724 m (15 ft 6 in)
Beam 1.734 m (5 ft 8 in) at deck
1.372 m (4 ft 6 in) at chine
Hull appendages
Keel/board type bulb keel
401.5 ± 7 kg (885 ± 15 lb)
Rig
Rig type sloop
Mast length 9.652 m (31 ft 8 in)
Sails
Mainsail area 20.5 m2 (221 sq ft)
Jib/genoa area  6.0 m2 (65 sq ft)
Upwind sail area ≤ 26.5 m2 (285 sq ft)

Featured Sailing School

INSS sidebutton

Featured Clubs

dbsc mainbutton
Howth Yacht Club
Kinsale Yacht Club
National Yacht Club
Royal Cork Yacht Club
Royal Irish Yacht club
Royal Saint George Yacht Club

Featured Brokers

leinster sidebutton

Featured Webcams

Featured Associations

ISA sidebutton
ICRA
isora sidebutton

Featured Marinas

dlmarina sidebutton

Featured Chandleries

CHMarine Afloat logo
https://afloat.ie/resources/marine-industry-news/viking-marine

Featured Sailmakers

northsails sidebutton
uksails sidebutton
watson sidebutton

Featured Blogs

W M Nixon - Sailing on Saturday
podcast sidebutton
BSB sidebutton
wavelengths sidebutton
 

Please show your support for Afloat by donating