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Displaying items by tag: Irish Indoor Rowing

#Rowing: Sam McKeown set a new Irish record of five minutes 53 seconds at the Irish Indoor Rowing Championships at the University of Limerick today. The Queen’s University man was the only competitor to breach the six-minute mark.

In the women’s competition, Sanita Puspure ruled. Her time of 6:39.8 was not her best, but she had almost 12 seconds to spare over Aileen Crowley, who was hitting a new personal mark. Emily Hegarty won the women’s under-23 section and Conor Egan the men’s.

Denise Walsh was the best lightweight woman on the day, while Aoife Hegarty the best under-23 lightweight. Aodhan Burns topped the men’s open lightweight ranks, which were very spare, while Jake McCarthy bettered his twin, Fintan, in the men’s under-23 lightweight competition.

The best juniors were Alex Byrne of Shandon and Zoe McCutcheon of Enniskillen.

Irish Indoor Rowing Championships, University of Limerick, Saturday (Selected Results)

Men

Open: S McKeown 5:53.0. Under-23: C Egan 6:08.1. Jun 18: A Byrne 6:15.0. Jun 16: A Sheehan 6:47.3.

Lightweight Open: A Burns 6:29.9. Lightweight Under-23: J McCarthy 6:22.2.

Women

Open: S Puspure 6:39.8. Under-23: E Hegarty 6:56.7. Jun 18: Z McCutcheon 7:19.7. Jun 16: M Curry 7:21.0

Lightweight Open: D Walsh 7:13.4. Lightweight Under-23: A Casey 7:18.1.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: The entry for the Irish Indoor Rowing Championships on Saturday (January 21st) at the University of Limerick is over 200 up on last year, a new record for the event. There are 1202 entrants from 115 clubs, 63 of them Rowing Ireland clubs. There are over 40 entrants from overseas, with 39 from the United Kingdom. Races will run every five to 10 minutes and there are 1663 race slots in total. The event is compulsory for high performance rowers and Ireland Olympians Paul and Gary O’Donovan, Claire Lambe and Sanita Puspure are entered. There is no charge for spectators.

Published in Rowing

Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) in Ireland Information

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a charity to save lives at sea in the waters of UK and Ireland. Funded principally by legacies and donations, the RNLI operates a fleet of lifeboats, crewed by volunteers, based at a range of coastal and inland waters stations. Working closely with UK and Ireland Coastguards, RNLI crews are available to launch at short notice to assist people and vessels in difficulties.

RNLI was founded in 1824 and is based in Poole, Dorset. The organisation raised €210m in funds in 2019, spending €200m on lifesaving activities and water safety education. RNLI also provides a beach lifeguard service in the UK and has recently developed an International drowning prevention strategy, partnering with other organisations and governments to make drowning prevention a global priority.

Irish Lifeboat Stations

There are 46 lifeboat stations on the island of Ireland, with an operational base in Swords, Co Dublin. Irish RNLI crews are tasked through a paging system instigated by the Irish Coast Guard which can task a range of rescue resources depending on the nature of the emergency.

Famous Irish Lifeboat Rescues

Irish Lifeboats have participated in many rescues, perhaps the most famous of which was the rescue of the crew of the Daunt Rock lightship off Cork Harbour by the Ballycotton lifeboat in 1936. Spending almost 50 hours at sea, the lifeboat stood by the drifting lightship until the proximity to the Daunt Rock forced the coxswain to get alongside and successfully rescue the lightship's crew.

32 Irish lifeboat crew have been lost in rescue missions, including the 15 crew of the Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) lifeboat which capsized while attempting to rescue the crew of the SS Palme on Christmas Eve 1895.

FAQs

While the number of callouts to lifeboat stations varies from year to year, Howth Lifeboat station has aggregated more 'shouts' in recent years than other stations, averaging just over 60 a year.

Stations with an offshore lifeboat have a full-time mechanic, while some have a full-time coxswain. However, most lifeboat crews are volunteers.

There are 46 lifeboat stations on the island of Ireland

32 Irish lifeboat crew have been lost in rescue missions, including the 15 crew of the Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) lifeboat which capsized while attempting to rescue the crew of the SS Palme on Christmas Eve 1895

In 2019, 8,941 lifeboat launches saved 342 lives across the RNLI fleet.

The Irish fleet is a mixture of inshore and all-weather (offshore) craft. The offshore lifeboats, which range from 17m to 12m in length are either moored afloat, launched down a slipway or are towed into the sea on a trailer and launched. The inshore boats are either rigid or non-rigid inflatables.

The Irish Coast Guard in the Republic of Ireland or the UK Coastguard in Northern Ireland task lifeboats when an emergency call is received, through any of the recognised systems. These include 999/112 phone calls, Mayday/PanPan calls on VHF, a signal from an emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) or distress signals.

The Irish Coast Guard is the government agency responsible for the response to, and co-ordination of, maritime accidents which require search and rescue operations. To carry out their task the Coast Guard calls on their own resources – Coast Guard units manned by volunteers and contracted helicopters, as well as "declared resources" - RNLI lifeboats and crews. While lifeboats conduct the operation, the coordination is provided by the Coast Guard.

A lifeboat coxswain (pronounced cox'n) is the skipper or master of the lifeboat.

RNLI Lifeboat crews are required to follow a particular development plan that covers a pre-agreed range of skills necessary to complete particular tasks. These skills and tasks form part of the competence-based training that is delivered both locally and at the RNLI's Lifeboat College in Poole, Dorset

 

While the RNLI is dependent on donations and legacies for funding, they also need volunteer crew and fund-raisers.

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