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Displaying items by tag: Irish Offshore Championships

#Rowing: Myross won the men’s quadruple, while Sionna Healy of Arklow took the women’s single on the second day of the Irish Offshore Rowing Championships in Kerry. It was a good event overall for Arklow. They won the men’s and women's doubles on Saturday, while on Sunday – which featured races deferred because of disruptive winds – they won the mixed doubles, through Alan Goodison and Andrea Kinsella.  

Irish Offshore Championships, Kerry

Saturday

Men

Double: Arklow (J Whooley, A Goodison) 20.17.

Single: Loughros Point, Donegal (P Boomer).

Women

Quadruple: Killorglin (E O’Donovan, A Tyther, K Boyle, R O’Donoghue; D Leahy) 22:48.

Double: Arklow (R Ireson, MA Kent).

Sunday

Men

Quadruple: Myross (V Browne, K McCarthy, J Lupton, A O’Sullivan; C Deasy) 17:12.

Women

Single: Arklow (S Healy) 24:32.

Mixed

Double: Arklow (A Goodison, A Kinsella) 18:53.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Patrick Boomer won the single sculls at the Irish Offshore Championships at O’Carroll’s Cove near Caherdaniel in Kerry. Boomer represented Loughros Point in Donegal and hopes to go on to row for them at the World Coastal Rowing Championships in Canada in October.

 John Whooley of Skibbereen won a title – for Arklow. The Corkman teamed up with Alan Goodison to take the men’s double.

 Kerry club Killorglin won the women’s quadruple and Arklow the women’s double.

 The final of the men’s quadruple, the women’s single and the mixed double will take place on Sunday as the wind made conditions unsuitable on Saturday.

Irish Offshore Championships, Kerry

Men

Double: Arklow (J Whooley, A Goodison) 20.17.

Single: Loughros Point, Donegal (P Boomer).

Women

Quadruple: Killorglin (E O’Donovan, A Tyther, K Boyle, R O’Donoghue; D Leahy) 22:48.

Double: Arklow (R Ireson, MA Kent).

Published in Coastal Rowing

#Rowing: Portmagee Rowing club will host the Irish Offshore Rowing Championships on Saturday, September 8th. The event will be run by Rowing Ireland and the venue is O’Carroll’s Cove beach bar near Caherdaniel in County Kerry. This will be the first time this event will be held in Kerry.

 More than 80 crews, made up of 220-plus oarsmen and women will compete for national titles. The event is the Fisa ranking event for the World Coastal Rowing Championships 2018 which will be held in Canada in October.

 Kerry rowers have a good record in Coastal/Offshore Rowing. Ireland international Monika Dukarska, from the Killorglin Rowing Club, is a double world champion in the women’s single. Johnny Casey, whose grandfather was one of the legendary Caseys of Sneem, was the Irish men’s single champion last year.

  This year’s course for the Offshore Championships is the same stretch of water that the Caseys, the "toughest family on earth", would have trained and raced on in the Seine boat during their heyday in the 1920s and 1930s. Johnny also teamed up with his brother James and uncle and father, Steve and Patrick, to win the All Ireland senior men’s four 20 years ago.

  This year, the Courtmacsherry men’s quad crew who have defeated all comers over the last few years, put their title on the line. Waiting to take them on are the might of Muckross. Paul Griffin, an Ireland Olympian in Athens in 2004, when his Ireland lightweight four reached the A Final, and Beijing in 2008, is set to be in their ranks.

Published in Coastal Rowing

Marine Wildlife Around Ireland One of the greatest memories of any day spent boating around the Irish coast is an encounter with marine wildlife.  It's a thrill for young and old to witness seabirds, seals, dolphins and whales right there in their own habitat. As boaters fortunate enough to have experienced it will testify even spotting a distant dorsal fin can be the highlight of any day afloat.  Was that a porpoise? Was it a whale? No matter how brief the glimpse it's a privilege to share the seas with Irish marine wildlife.

Thanks to the location of our beautiful little island, perched in the North Atlantic Ocean there appears to be no shortage of marine life to observe.

From whales to dolphins, seals, sharks and other ocean animals this page documents the most interesting accounts of marine wildlife around our shores. We're keen to receive your observations, your photos, links and youtube clips.

Boaters have a unique perspective and all those who go afloat, from inshore kayaking to offshore yacht racing that what they encounter can be of real value to specialist organisations such as the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) who compile a list of sightings and strandings. The IWDG knowledge base has increased over the past 21 years thanks in part at least to the observations of sailors, anglers, kayakers and boaters.

Thanks to the IWDG work we now know we share the seas with dozens of species who also call Ireland home. Here's the current list: Atlantic white-sided dolphin, beluga whale, blue whale, bottlenose dolphin, common dolphin, Cuvier's beaked whale, false killer whale, fin whale, Gervais' beaked whale, harbour porpoise, humpback whale, killer whale, minke whale, northern bottlenose whale, northern right whale, pilot whale, pygmy sperm whale, Risso's dolphin, sei whale, Sowerby's beaked whale, sperm whale, striped dolphin, True's beaked whale and white-beaked dolphin.

But as impressive as the species list is the IWDG believe there are still gaps in our knowledge. Next time you are out on the ocean waves keep a sharp look out!