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#Rowing: Irish crews added four more wins to their haul over the weekend at the World Masters Regatta at Lake Velence in Hungary. The wins came on Saturday. Denis Crowley featured in a composite eight, which beat strong British opposition, and in a four – bringing his personal tally to eight wins. Brendan Smyth and Patrick Fowler of Commercial won in the double and Milo and Pat Murray of Cappoquin won the in the pair. A mixed eight finished second on Sunday.

World Masters Regatta, Lake Velence, Hungary (Selected Results; Irish interest; Winners)

Saturday

Men

Eight  (E – avg 55 or more): Galway, Belfast BC, Neptune, Clonmel, Commercial, Shannon (G Murphy, A McCallion, K McDonald, D Crowley, F O’Toole, O McGrath, G O’Neill, C Hunter, M McGlynn) 3:04.90

Four (D – avg 50 or more): Commercial, Neptune (B Smyth, F O’Toole, G Murphy, D Crowley) 3:24.72.

Pair (F – avg 60 or more): Cappoquin (P Murray, M Murray) 6:12.10.

Sculling, Double (C – avg 43 or more): Commercial (B Smyth, F Fowler) 3:28.39.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: One of the leading Irish boats at the World Masters Regatta in Bled in Slovenia clocked up a notable win today. The E eight made up of competitors from Belfast Boat Club, Commercial, Neptune and Waterford beat Dynamo of Russia, who have been their constant rivals of recent years. The margin was extremely tight – just .26 of a second.

World Masters Regatta, Bled, Slovenia, Day Four

Men

Eight ‘E’ (Avg 55 or more) – Heat Three: Waterford, Neptune, Commercial, Belfast BC (A Penkert, J Hudson, D Crowley, G Murphy, M Heavey, C Dickson, C Hunter, F O’Toole, D McGuinness) 3:07.88.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Irish composite crews had good wins on the first day of the World Masters Regatta in Bled in Slovenia. The Irish B eight (average age 36 or more), which is formed from six clubs won. Two fours in the E class (average age 55 or more) also won – the Galway/Neptune combination by just .26 of a second. The decision was initially given to their German opponents.

World Masters Regatta, Bled, Slovenia, Day One (Selected Results; Irish interest; all heats of 1,000 metres, winners only)

Men

Eight, B (avg 36 or more) – Heat Five: Galway, Commercial, Shandon, Clonmel, Neptune, Cork 3:05.51.

Four, E (avg 55 or more) – Heat One: Galway, Neptune 3:26.26.

Heat Four: Waterford, Neptune, Commercial, Belfast BC 3:28.1

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: The Irish eight which won at the World Masters Regatta at Lake Bagsvaerd, Denmark, have been chosen as the Afloat Rowers of the Month for September. There were a number of good results by Irish crews at the event, which is one of the biggest international events of the year. Among the competitors this year was Denmark legend Eskild Ebbesen. The Irish E eight (55 years or older), was drawn from five clubs (Commercial, Belfast Boat Club, Neptune, Old Collegians and Waterford Boat Club) and outpaced German and British rivals in a field of seven crews. They had also won last year at this level. The crew was: John Hudson, Denis Crowley, Gerry Murphy, Mick Heavey, Colin Dickson, Colin Hunter, Fran O’Toole, Donal Mc Guinness and cox Al Penkert.  

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: Irish crews were amongst the winners again at the World Masters Regatta in Denmark today. Denis Crowley of Commercial and Niall O’Brien of Carlow won in the men’s single sculls for competitors 50 years or more and the Belfast Boat Club women’s coxed four (average age 60 or more) also won.

World Masters Regatta, Copenhagen (Irish interest - Winners; 1,000m)

Men

Single Sculls - D (average age 50 years or more) - Heat Two: Carlow Rowing Club (N O’Brien) 3:58.63. Heat 10: Commercial (D Crowley) 4:08.63.

Women

Four, coxed - F (average age 60 years or more) - Heat One: Belfast Boat Club 4:42.79.

Published in Rowing

#ROWING: The men’s junior coxed four was the standout race of the morning session at the Irish Rowing Championships at the National Rowing Centre in Cork today. It took a photo finish to confirm Cork Boat Club’s win over Presentation, with Portora also disputing the lead right to the last 50 metres.

Cork Boat Club also took the women’s junior single sculls title through Oisin Forde, who won a fine battle with Jasmine English of Belfast Boat Club. Forde is from Torrevieja in Spain and with her sister Dervla, who was third, will represent Ireland at the Coupe de la Jeunesse next month.

The men’s senior pair final gave Mark O’Donovan and Niall Kenny of UCD a chance to show why they are in the frame to represent Ireland at the World Championships this year, while a former international Fiola Foley partnered a current one, Monika Dukarska to win the women’s intermediate doubles title.

Irish Rowing Championships, National Rowing Centre, Cork (Selected Results; Finals)

 

Men

 

Eight – Intermediate: 1 Trinity 5:46.25, 2 NUIG 5:50.28, 3 UCD 5:56.96.

 

Four, coxed – Junior: 1 Cork BC 6:35.99, 2 Presentation 6:36.22, 3 Portora 6:38.08.

 

Pair – Senior: 1 UCD (M O’Donovan, N Kenny) 6:46.05, 2 NUIG 6:49.95, 3 Commercial B 7:00.16.

 

Sculling

 

Single: Lee (D O’Sullivan) 7:31.80, 2 St Michael’s (P O’Connor) 7:36.24, 3 Belfast BC (A Murray) 7:39.44.

 

 

 

Women

 

Eight – Novice: 1 Queen’s 7:19.74, 2 Trinity 7:55.75.

 

Sculling, Double – Intermediate: 1 Killorglin (F Foley, M Dukarska) 7:17.17, 2 Commercial 7:20.83, 3 Skibbereen 7:39.99.

 

Single – Junior: 1 Cork BC (O Forde) 8:06.14, 2 Belfast BC (J English) 8:07.11, 3 Commercial B 7:00.16.

   

Published in Rowing

#RowingHenley: Belfast Boat Club led early on in their race against Union Boat Club in the Britannia Cup at Henley Royal Regatta, but the heavier crew from America came through to win well at the end. Union BC were the selected (seeded) crew.

Henley Royal Regatta, Day Two (Irish interest)

Temple Cup (Eights, Student): St Petersburg University, Russia bt University College, Dublin 2 ½ l 6:51

Visitors’ Cup (Four, Intermediate): Harvard A bt University College, Dublin 2l, 6:56.

Prince Albert (Coxed Fours, Student): Isis Boat Club bt Trinity College, Dublin 1 ¼ l, 7:27

Britannia (Coxed Fours, Club): Union Boat Club, United States bt Belfast Boat Club 3l, 7:29

Prince of Wales: Commercial, Dublin bt Poplar Blackwall and District Rowing Club and Anglia Ruskin Boat Club 1 ¾ l, 7:20

Published in Rowing

# ROWING HENLEY QUALIFIERS: The qualifying races for Henley Royal Regatta last evening did not bring joy for Galway Rowing Club. Two crews competed in the Junior Women’s Quadruple, but failed to qualify for the regatta, which begins on Wednesday.

Belfast Boat Club pulled off a fine result in qualifying for the Britannia, a club coxed fours event. They were one of just three of eight crews to qualify.

However, the Queen’s University eight did not make it through the qualifiers to the draw of the Temple Cup.

Published in Rowing

# ROWING: The Rowing Ireland talent identification programme run by Nathan Adams in Belfast provided the fastest female and male single scullers at the Lagan Scullers’ Head of the River on Saturday. Up-and-coming talents Gareth McKillen and Bridget Jacques topped the rankings. A Belfast Boat Club/RBAI composite coxed quadruple scull was the fastest crew of the day.

Lagan Sculler’s Head of the River, Belfast, Saturday (Selected Results)

Race One: 1 Bann women’s senior quadruple sculls 12:39.8, 2 Belfast BC women sen quad 12:41.8, 3 RBAI junior single sculls (G McKillen) 13:03.1, 4 BBC/Portora masters double sculls 13:03.8, 5 BBC senior single (Wray) 13:05.9, 6 Lagan sen single (Darby) 13:06.3; 9 Portadown nov single (McKeown) 13:34.1; 15 Bann wom nov coxed quad 14:02.6.

Race Two: BBC/RBAI men sen quad 11:04.5, 2 Lagan Scullers’ men sen quad 11:46.9, 3 Methodist College jun 18A double sculls 12:38.9, 4 Lagan Scullers’ Masters single (Darby) 13:03.7, 5 RBAI jun 16 coxed quad 13:04.7, 6 Coleraine AI double sculls 13:08.1; 8 Portadown inter single (McKeown) 13:30.4; 9 Bann women’s sen double 13:36.0, 15 Bann women’s jun 16 coxed quad 14:16.7.

Race Three: 1 Methodist College jun 18A quad 11:53.8, 2 Coleraine AI jun 18B coxed quad 12:32.8, 3 Methody quad (time only) 12:42.1, 4 BBC/Lagan Scullers’ quad (mixed, time only) 12:54.5, 5 Methody women’s jun 18A quad 13:29.4, 6 Belfast BC women’s sen single (B Jacques) 13:49.6; 8 Bann women’s jun 16 double 14:13.8; 16 BBC women’s nov single (Turner) 14:50.5; 17 Portadown women’s jun 18A quad 14:57.6.

Published in Rowing

Ireland & La Solitaire du Figaro

The Solitaire du Figaro, was originally called the course de l’Aurore until 1980, was created in 1970 by Jean-Louis Guillemard and Jean-Michel Barrault.

Half a decade later, the race has created some of France's top offshore sailors, and it celebrated its 50th anniversary with a new boat equipped with foils and almost 50 skippers Including novices, aficionados and six former winners.

The solo multi-stage offshore sailing race is one of the most cherished races in French sailing and one that has had Irish interest stretching back over 20 years due to the number of Irish stopovers, usually the only foreign leg of the French race.

What Irish ports have hosted The Solitaire du Figaro?

The race has previously called to Ireland to the following ports; Dingle, Kinsale, Crosshaven, Howth and Dun Laoghaire.

What Irish sailors have raced The Solitaire du Figaro?

So far there have been seven Irish skippers to participate in La Solitaire du Figaro. 

In 1997, County Kerry's Damian Foxall first tackled the Figaro from Ireland. His win in the Rookie division in DHL gave him the budget to compete again the following year with Barlo Plastics where he won the final leg of the race from Gijon to Concarneau. That same year a second Irish sailor Marcus Hutchinson sailing Bergamotte completed the course in 26th place and third Rookie.

In 2000, Hutchinson of Howth Yacht Club completed the course again with IMPACT, again finishing in the twenties.

In 2006, Paul O’Riain became the third Irish skipper to complete the course.

In 2013, Royal Cork's David Kenefick raised the bar by becoming a top rookie sailor in the race. 

In 2018, for the first time, Ireland had two Irish boats in the offshore race thanks to Tom Dolan and Joan Mulloy who joined the rookie ranks and kept the Irish tricolour flying high in France. Mulloy became the first Irish female to take on the race.

Tom Dolan in Smurfit Kappa competed for his third year in 2020 after a 25th place finish in 2019. Dolan sailed a remarkably consistent series in 2020 and took fifth overall, the best finish by a non-French skipper since 1997 when Switzerland’s Dominique Wavre finished runner up. Dolan wins the VIVI Trophy.

Dolan finished 10th on the first stage, 11th on the second and seventh into Saint Nazaire at the end of the third stage. Stage four was abandoned due to lack of wind. 

Also in 2020, Dun Laoghaire’s Kenneth Rumball became the eleventh Irish sailor to sail the Figaro.

At A Glance – Figaro Race

  • It starts in June or July from a French port.
  • The race is split into four stages varying from year to year, from the length of the French coast and making up a total of around 1,500 to 2,000 nautical miles (1,700 to 2,300 mi; 2,800 to 3,700 km) on average.
  • Over the years the race has lasted between 10 and 13 days at sea.
  • The competitor is alone in the boat, participation is mixed.
  • Since 1990, all boats are of one design.

2023 La Solitaire du Figaro Course

Stage #1 Caen – Kinsale : 610 nautical miles
Departure August 27 (expected arrival August 30)

Stage #2 Kinsale – Baie de Morlaix : 630 nautical miles
Departure September 3 (expected arrival September 6)

Stage #3 Baie de Morlaix – Piriac-sur-Mer : 620 nautical miles
Departure September 10 (expected arrival September 13)

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