The Rowing Ireland/Portora composite which won the elite quadruple sculls at Henley Women’s Regatta are the Afloat Rowers of the Month for June. The crew of Eimear Moran, Lisa Dilleen, Holly Nixon and Sanita Puspure beat a British combination crew in the final by four lengths. Dilleen and Puspure had earlier won the elite double sculls.

Rower of the Month awards: The judging panel is made up of Liam Gorman, rowing correspondent of The Irish Times, President of Rowing Ireland Anthony Dooley 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 2011. Keep a monthly eye on progress and watch our 2011 champions list grow.

An Irish rower last week cut short his attempt to cross the Atlantic from Newfoundland to Ireland.

Sean Moriarty told CBC News that he called for a rescue after two days at sea when his boat was flipped repeatedly in four-metre waves, damaging his electronic equipment.

Moriarty and his boat - the unfortunately named Positive Outcome - were picked up by a Canadian coastguard vessel and towed to St John's in Newfoundland on 13 June.

The Dingle native, who runs a construction firm, plans to ship his boat back home to Ireland.

The Afloat Rowers of the Month for May, Sanita Puspure and Lisa Dilleen, showed how a new crew can knit together successfully: their first three results as a double scull were third, second and fifth – in the heats, semi-finals and finals at the World Cup regatta in Munich! Listen to Sanita Puspure talk about this on the Afloat Podcast (two minutes duration) here.

The Ireland women’s double scull of Lisa Dilleen and Sanita Puspure are the Afloat Rowers of the Month for May. Despite being a new crew, formed in the weeks running up to the regatta, Dilleen and Puspure performed remarkably well at the World Cup in Munich. They finished second in their semi-final on Saturday and fifth in Sunday’s A Final. They are deserving winners of the Afloat Rowers of the Month award.

Rower of the Month awards: The judging panel is made up of Liam Gorman, rowing correspondent of The Irish Times, President of Rowing Ireland Anthony Dooley 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 2011. Keep a monthly eye on progress and watch our 2011 champions list grow.

The coastal rowing season on the east coast of Ireland swings into action this Sunday with the Stella Maris regatta in Ringsend.

The organisers of Metropolitan Rowing Regatta will post a decision tomorrow on whether to go ahead with the event. Strong winds are forecast for Blessington on Saturday. There is a huge entry, and Metro is set to serve as a selection event for the Ireland team for the Home Internationals. The team behind Metro have already laid a new course to deal with a very low water level and have had to repair damage done to the course by vandals.

Ocean to City, Cork Harbour's annual maritime festival, takes place this year from 3-12 June. 

The yearly celebration of Cork’s maritime history and its unique harbour begins on Friday 3 June when members of the public can voyage through the city by kayak, enjoy the thrill of a sea safari trip around Cork Harbour or follow TG4’s Padraig Ó Duinnín as he presents a historical walking tour and talk on rowing in Cork. 

The highlight of the festival, An Rás Mór, takes place on Saturday 4 June and will see boats of all sizes row 15 nautical miles from Crosshaven via Cork Harbour, Monkstown and Blackrock before finishing at the boardwalk in Lapps Quay in Cork. 

Around 400 Irish and International rowers will compete in a diverse range of vessels including dragon boats, kayaks, currachs, Celtic long boats, Cornish pilot gigs and Irish coastal rowing boats. 

Sunday 5 June will see a special 10km kayak race through the city centre. The Irish Naval Service flagship LE Orla will also offer free public tours, while Meitheal Mara will host a guided voyage around the island of Cork by a variety of small craft.

To mark the Cork Harbour School and Heritage Trails Weekend from from 9-11 June, a series of events highlighting the attractions of Cork Harbour, both water and land based, will take place.

Activities include a summer school on the theme of 'recreation in a working port', which will be held in the Port of Cork on Friday 10 June and opened by Minister for the Marine Simon Coveney. 

For more details visit www.oceantocity.com.

Skibbereen head the Grand League table after the second round. The west Cork club, who were in second place behind UCD after their own regatta, travelled to Castlewellan in Co Down for the Queen’s regatta last weekend and added sufficient points to build up a 132-point lead over second-placed Commercial. UCD, who did not travel to Queen’s, are tied with St Michael’s in joint third, just one point behind Commercial.

See Full Table Below

Colaiste Iognaid’s junior men’s eight finished second in their class at the Ghent rowing regatta in Belgium. An Irish crew, Cork Boat Club,  also won the junior women’s eight – but this was a certainty. The three crews competing were all Irish – a Methody/Offaly combination was second and Colaiste Iognaid were third.

Ghent Regatta, Belgium , Day One - Selected Results (Irish interest)

Men

Eight – Junior: 1 Willem III, Amsterdam 7:05.69, 2 Col Iognaid 7:25.04.

Four – Junior, coxed: 2 Col Iognaid 7:44.97.

Quadruple – Junior: 6 Offaly.

Single – Lightweight: 3 Cork (D Murphy) 8:10.68.

Women

Eight – Junior: 1 Cork 7:53.02, 2 Methodist/Offaly 8:38.55, 3 Col Iognaid 8:50.64.

Four – Junior: 2 Cork (L Murphy, C Deasy, K Mackey, S Higgins) 8:10.02.

Sculling, Quadruple – Junior: 6 Cork 8:02.22

Single – Lightweight: 2 Three Castles (B Quinn) 9:09.31.