Displaying items by tag: St Michaels Rowing Club

19th July 2022

Over 100 Coastal Rowing Crews Attend 17 Races at Dun Laoghaire's St. Michael's Regatta (Results Here!)

Dun Laoghaire Harbour's St. Michael’s Rowing Club Regatta took place on Sunday, the 17th of July and brought together a large community of heritage skiff rowers from all along the east coast writes St. Michael’s Simone Sav

Coastal rowing at St Michael’s Rowing Club combines all the positive aspects of team sport, seamanship, fitness, competition and the great outdoors. The club caters for men, women and children with all levels of aspiration, from the recreational to the serious athlete.

Traditionally held every year at Seapoint on Dublin Bay, the event drew hundreds of spectators on Sunday

With more than 100 crews, 17 races on the cards and participation of all age categories (from youth rowers as young as 10 to ‘vets’ in their 50s and 60s), the event was the largest coastal rowing regatta in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown in 2022. Traditionally held every year at Seapoint, the event drew hundreds of spectators on Sunday. This helps keep alive the tradition of the hobblers of old. With fixed seats, wooden oars, and clinker-built boats, the sport of heritage skiff rowing differs significantly from our freshwater ‘Olympic-style’ cousins.

"Heritage rowing is a sport for all ages - from youth rowers as young as 10 to ‘vets’ in their 50s and 60s"

St. Michaels welcomed Mary Hanafin, Cathaoirleach of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, who presented the medals to the youth rowers. In a thoughtful departure from the usual format, the club opted for eco-friendly wood medals. After all, heritage skiff rowing is truly a sport that leaves no trace, which draws on the savvy of wood craftsmanship, the power of the human body and the maritime knowledge to cross any waters.

St. Michael’s rowing medals were in hot dema at Seapoint

Club members were also delighted to see several elected councillors and TDs stop by or promote the event via their social media: TD Barry Ward; TD Cormac Devlin; Councilor Justin Moylan and Councillor Peter O’Brien.

St. Michaels welcomed Mary Hanafin, Cathaoirleach of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, who presented the medals to the youth rowersd

The event was supported by local businesses: Access Hearing Centre, Dun Laoghaire; Acorn Landscaping; Ardcolts Supervalu Dun Laoghaire SC; Cafe du Journal & Bearhug Clothing, Monkstown; Cinnamon, Monkstown; Elephant & Castle, Monkstown; Georges Fish Shop, Monkstown; McKenna’s Bar; Specialist Orthodontic Practice, Glenageary; The Graduate Pub, Killiney.

The St. Michael’s Rowing Club committee, and in particular Captains Nicola Fitzgerald and Gareth Whittington, would like to thank all sponsors, supporters, club members and friends for their contribution to making the event a great success.

St. Michael’s Rowing Club was founded in Dun Laoghaire Harbour in the early 1920s. Today the club consists of over 100 members, from all walks of life, with all abilities catered for, from complete beginners to experienced rowers.

Crews train Monday to Friday from March to September, from 6 pm to sundown, in traditional wooden skiffs, as well as Celtic Longboat, with an offshore boat to be added to the fleet during the 2022 season.

St. Michael’s Home Regatta results - 17th July 2022

Intermediate Ladies
1st - Fingal
2nd - Stella Maris
3rd - Dalkey

Junior Ladies
1st - Dalkey
2nd - St Patrick’s
3rd - Stella Maris

Junior Men
1st - St Patrick’s
2nd - St Michaels
3rd - Stella Maris

Mixed crew
1st - Dalkey
2nd - St Michaels
3rd - Stella Maris

Senior Men
1st - St Patrick’s
2nd - Wicklow
3rd - St Michaels

U12 boys
1st - Wicklow
2nd - St Patrick’s
3rd - Wicklow

U12 girls
1st - St Patrick’s
2nd - St Patrick’s
3rd - St Michaels

U14 boys
1st - St Patrick’s
2nd - Wicklow
3rd - Stella Maris

U14 girls
1st - Stella Maris A
2nd - Stella Maris B
3rd - Greystones

Novice Men
1st - Fingal
2nd - Bray
3rd - Dalkey

U21s Mens race
1st - St Michaels

Senior Ladies
1st - St Michaels
2nd - Wicklow
3rd - Fingal

Intermediate Men
1st - Wicklow
2nd - Stella Maris
3rd - Greystones

U16 girls
1st - Stella Maris A
2nd - Stella Maris B
3rd - Wicklow

U16 boys
1st - Bray
2nd - St Patrick’s
3rd - Skerries

U18 girls
1st - Skerries
2nd - Greystones
3rd - Bray?

U18 boys
1st - Wicklow
2nd - St Michaels A
3rd - Skerries

Vets
1st - Dalkey & Bray
2nd - Dalkey
3rd - Fingal

Published in Coastal Rowing

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28th April 2021

Dun Laoghaire Harbour's St. Michael's Rowing Club Row Round the World in 80 Day Virtual Challenge

As we emerge from what we hope will be the country's last lockdown, St. Michael's Rowing Club based a Dun Laoghaire Harbour, is nearing completion of its longest race yet. Inspired by Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg, over the last 80 days, members and friends of the club were invited to participate in a Round the World in 80 Days challenge, virtually of course, and log their progress online writes the club's Claire Sheehan

Healthy competitiveness ensued, with times and distances uploaded, from various disciplines- kayaking, cycling, running, walking, swimming, indoor and outdoor rowing, and even surfing, an unusual sight on the east coast! All while observing Covid restrictions.

Social distancing, 40-foot style

Sixty-three members and friends of the club participated, clocking up a total of 33,703.7 KM and providing much-needed distraction- as these pictures demonstrate, we have a tremendous amenity on our doorstep.

Sonja Storm swimming in Killiney

As we near the end of our journey this week, Seattle-based member Jon Phillips is speeding towards virtual victory, with locals Brendan White and David Cullen coming in for silver and bronze.

Club member Rob Collins, kayaking at dusk in Dun Laoghaire harbour

After all that excitement, attention can at last turn to getting our youth section back in a skiff and on the water for real, and hopefully our grown-ups shortly after. It's been a long winter.

Paddleboarders doing their bit

Published in Coastal Rowing

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23rd July 2014

Coastal Rowing Championships Comes to Dun Laoghaire

#coastalrowing – St. Michael's rowing club, Dun Laoghaire, will host round six of the East Coast, Coastal Rowing Championships on Sunday 27th July, 2014. The regatta will take place from the West Pier to the North of Seapoint Tower. With more than 80 teams competing from all over the East Coast, this will be an action packed day.

There will be 14 races of all age groups with the first race beginning at 10.30am. This year's event will see hundreds of men, women and children compete over a gruelling circuit in a bid to be crowned 2014 champions in their respective field.

Viewing is best from the beach at Salthill DART station and will be an excellent opportunity to view, support and enjoy this traditional form of coastal rowing.

Published in Dun Laoghaire Harbour News

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28th April 2014

Malahide Yacht Answers the Call to Support St. Michael's 'Celtic Challenge' Rowing Quest

#celticchallenge – Over the coming May bank holiday weekend (2th-5th May), 12 men and women from of St Michael's Rowing Club, Dun Laoghaire and volunteers from Irish Charity GOAL, will take part in a biennial rowing race across the Irish Sea known as 'the Celtic Challenge' writes Gareth Whittington. The race sets off from Arklow, Co. Wicklow with the finishing line in Aberystwyth, Wales. At 150km, this relay race is billed as the longest 'true' rowing race in the world and draws together 27 teams from Wales, Ireland and beyond. The team is taking on this challenge to raise funds for a support project in the Philippines and a new skiff for St. Michael's Rowing Club.

Towards the end of last week, our challenge ambitions hung in the balance. 2 support boats that came forward to help us out, both had to pull out due to technical problems. However, following a PR campaign through Afloat.ie and other media channels, fellow Celtic Challenger, Robert Finglas put us in touch with Noel Rouroc who sails his stunning 48' yacht, Emiliya, out of Malahide. The news was good. After a nail biting 24 hours and a serious lack of sleep, Noel confirmed that he would be able to help us out.

On behalf of St. Michael's Rowing Club, Dun Laoghaire and GOAL, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody for their help. Later this week we'll be posting a live tracking link on our Facebook page, this will enable you to see an update every 15 minutes, of our epic journey across the Irish Sea. Now the real hard work begins....

Published in Coastal Rowing

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1st August 2013

Coastal Rowing Gets a Super Sunday for Dun Laoghaire Regatta

#coastalrowing – Last Sunday saw the 8th and penultimate leg of the 2013 East Coast Rowing series. It was a fantastic day in Dun Laoghaire, and the heavy downpours, which at one stage saw 8mm of rain fall within 30 minutes, was not going to dampen the spirits of the spectators and the travelling clubs from up and down the East Coast.

There were 80 teams from 9 participating clubs, competing across the 12 categories on the day. This we believe is a possible record for our sport. What can be claimed as a record is the number of St. Michael's crews that were entered; 14 in all with crews from U16s to Senior Mens & Ladies.

There were plenty of activities going on within Dun Laoghaire on Sunday, including the Rainbow Run and a swimming event from Seapoint, which added to the excitement on the day. Excellent organisation by all parties ensured a smooth running of all events.

St. Michael's had an excellent day with the 2 main success stories being the Senior Ladies crew of Eloise O'Riordan, Suzy O'Keefe, Orla Stavely, Dee Friel, (Coxed by James Byrne) coming home with yet another Gold, making them the East Coast champions with 1 race to spare.

The second success story of the day was the performance of the Inter Men's crew of Colm Crilly, Ger Ryan, Dave Cullen, Alan Quigley (Coxed by Rob Moloney), who brought home the first home Gold for a St. Michael's men's team for decades.

St. Pats Win Senior Trophy with Sponsor Arthur McKenna & Councillor Jane Dillon-Byrne

There were other super performances from the Junior Ladies crew taking silver behind a very strong Stella crew, a hard fought bronze for one of our Novice crews and strong performances from our 3 junior crews; U16 mixed, U18 Girls, U18 Boys.

St Michaels regatta 2013 results

The results from last weekend have pushed us up into 4th on the overall team standings, which is way above our expectations.

The final regatta will take place this bank holiday Monday in Wicklow. The season finale starts with a parade through the town with racing due to start from 2pm.

Published in Coastal Rowing

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Changing Ocean Climate

Our ocean and climate are inextricably linked - the ocean plays a crucial role in the global climate system in a number of ways. These include absorbing excess heat from the atmosphere and absorbing 30 per cent of the carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere by human activity. But our marine ecosystems are coming under increasing pressure due to climate change.

The Marine Institute, with its national and international partners, works to observe and understand how our ocean is changing and analyses, models and projects the impacts of our changing oceans. Advice and forecasting projections of our changing oceans and climate are essential to create effective policies and management decisions to safeguard our ocean.

Dr Paul Connolly, CEO of the Marine Institute, said, “Our ocean is fundamental to life on earth and affects so many facets of our everyday activities. One of the greatest challenges we face as a society is that of our changing climate. The strong international collaborations that the Marine Institute has built up over decades facilitates a shared focusing on our changing ocean climate and developing new and enhanced ways of monitoring it and tracking changes over time.

“Our knowledge and services help us to observe these patterns of change and identify the steps to safeguard our marine ecosystems for future generations.”

The Marine Institute’s annual ocean climate research survey, which has been running since 2004, facilitates long term monitoring of the deep water environment to the west of Ireland. This repeat survey, which takes place on board RV Celtic Explorer, enables scientists to establish baseline oceanic conditions in Irish waters that can be used as a benchmark for future changes.

Scientists collect data on temperature, salinity, water currents, oxygen and carbon dioxide in the Atlantic Ocean. This high quality oceanographic data contributes to the Atlantic Ocean Observing System. Physical oceanographic data from the survey is submitted to the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) and, in addition, the survey contributes to national research such as the VOCAB ocean acidification and biogeochemistry project, the ‘Clean Atlantic’ project on marine litter and the A4 marine climate change project.

Dr Caroline Cusack, who co-ordinates scientific activities on board the RV Celtic Explorer for the annual survey, said, “The generation of long-term series to monitor ocean climate is vital to allow us understand the likely impact of future changes in ocean climate on ecosystems and other marine resources.”

Other activities during the survey in 2019 included the deployment of oceanographic gliders, two Argo floats (Ireland’s contribution to EuroArgo) and four surface drifters (Interreg Atlantic Area Clean Atlantic project). The new Argo floats have the capacity to measure dissolved ocean and biogeochemical parameters from the ocean surface down to a depth of 2,000 metres continuously for up to four years, providing important information as to the health of our oceans.

During the 2019 survey, the RV Celtic Explorer retrieved a string of oceanographic sensors from the deep ocean at an adjacent subsurface moored station and deployed a replacement M6 weather buoy, as part of the Irish Marine Data Buoy Observation Network (IMDBON).

Funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the IMDBON is managed by the Marine Institute in collaboration with Met Éireann and is designed to improve weather forecasts and safety at sea around Ireland. The data buoys have instruments which collect weather and ocean data including wind speed and direction, pressure, air and sea surface temperature and wave statistics. This data provides vital information for weather forecasts, shipping bulletins, gale and swell warnings as well as data for general public information and research.

“It is only in the last 20 years, meteorologists and climatologists have really began to understood the pivotal role the ocean plays in determining our climate and weather,” said Evelyn Cusack, Head of Forecasting at Met Éireann. “The real-time information provided by the Irish data buoy network is particularly important for our mariners and rescue services. The M6 data buoy in the Atlantic provides vital information on swell waves generated by Atlantic storms. Even though the weather and winds may be calm around our shores, there could be some very high swells coming in from Atlantic storms.”