200 Craft to Participate in Ocean To City in Cork Harbour

3rd June 2024

Cork Harbour Festival Gold Sponsors Ardmore Shipping training for the Ocean to City Race taking place on the 8th of June Credit: Clare Keogh

Some 200 craft will participate in the 28 km-long Ocean to City or "An Rás Mór" event in Cork harbour on June 8th.

Organisers Meitheal Mara have appealed for volunteers for the event, with a variety of roles available including stewarding, shore safety and shore assistance.

Initiated in 2005 as a race for traditional fixed-seat boats, An Rás Mór embraces every type of craft from traditional wooden working boats, currachs, skiffs, gigs and longboats to contemporary ocean racing shells.

Kayaks, canoes and even stand-up paddle boards are also involved.

Traditional craft such as currachs are racing, but kayaks, canoes and even stand-up paddle boards are also involved in the Ocean To City Race

Nearly 500 participants have entered, with crews from Scotland, Wales, England, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Malta, Germany and North America.

Participants will race over one of our four course distances: the 28km Ocean Course, 22km City Course, 13km Monkstown Course and the 4km Youth Course – all finishing to a promised warm welcome in Cork’s city centre at Lapp’s Quay.

Spectators can catch the race at various vantage points along the course including the promenade at Cobh, where there will be live commentary and more, Blackrock pier, the banks of the river Lee and the finish line at Lapp’s Quay.

“Over 300 volunteers are needed to deliver what is Cork Harbour’s largest annual event in a variety of roles,” Meitheal Mara says.

“Volunteers can be part of the buzz at the finish line in Cork city as a steward, or they can join the shore-safety teams along Cork harbour,”it says.

“People are also needed to help 100 tired paddlers by giving them a hand lifting their kayaks and boats out of the water at the finish line, and to assist with finish line setup as part of the event’s production team,”it says.

Published in Cork Harbour, Currachs, Coastal Rowing

Published in Cork Harbour

Tagged under

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven't put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full-time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.