As January progresses, the news starts to zip back from the finishes in the Caribbean of the Transatlantic rowing races from the Canaries, and last year it was a Wicklow team that successfully hit the headlines. This year it’s a somewhat more convoluted process, but it emerges that half of the crew were Irish on board Out of the Blue, the entry from the highly-regarded Delft Technological University in The Netherlands, whose alumni include Ireland’s distinguished maritime polymath Hal Sisk.

Transatlantic oarsman Amir Anwar-Hameed of Bray formerly specialized in aerospace engineering, but at Delft he is transitioning to design and strategic innovation

Amir Anwar-Hameed of Bray was one of the Out of the Blue foursome from Delft that placed second overall in a very competitive field, and so too was Mark Bolger. He is best known for his Baltimore Sailing Club links, but before that he was active in college racing, and was twice awarded the Irish Universities Sailing Association “Sailor of the Year” title.

Delft post-grad student Mark Bolger has a home address in Sandymount in Dublin, but in sailing in Ireland he is best known for his links to Baltimore and university team racing