Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Castleconnell Head of the River

#Rowing: Enniskillen, Kenmare and the host club all had notable results at the giant Castleconnell Head of the River today. Enniskillen’s girls’ eights were fastest at junior 18, junior 16 and junior 15 level – and their junior 18 women’s quadruple also hit the mark. The top junior 18 single sculler was Eabha Benson of St Michael’s. Georgia O’Brien was the top senior single sculler.

O’Brien is a Kenmare woman, and her club of origin had two remarkable results. Tom Kelly won the junior 18 singles and teamed up with 16-year-old Rowan Glynn-Johnston in the junior 18 double sculls to record a brilliant time of 11 minutes 12 seconds. Kealan Mannix of the University of Limerick was the fastest senior with a time of 11 minutes 52 seconds.

Enniskillen’s junior men’s eight were the fastest of all, in nine minutes 58 seconds, while UCD B were the fastest four with a time of 10 minutes 21 seconds.

Published in Rowing

The Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) Information

The creation of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) began in a very low key way in the autumn of 2002 with an exploratory meeting between Denis Kiely, Jim Donegan and Fintan Cairns in the Granville Hotel in Waterford, and the first conference was held in February 2003 in Kilkenny.

While numbers of cruiser-racers were large, their specific locations were widespread, but there was simply no denying the numerical strength and majority power of the Cork-Dublin axis. To get what was then a very novel concept up and running, this strength of numbers had to be acknowledged, and the first National Championship in 2003 reflected this, as it was staged in Howth.

ICRA was run by a dedicated group of volunteers each of whom brought their special talents to the organisation. Jim Donegan, the elder statesman, was so much more interested in the wellbeing of the new organisation than in personal advancement that he insisted on Fintan Cairns being the first Commodore, while the distinguished Cork sailor was more than content to be Vice Commodore.

ICRA National Championships

Initially, the highlight of the ICRA season was the National Championship, which is essentially self-limiting, as it is restricted to boats which have or would be eligible for an IRC Rating. Boats not actually rated but eligible were catered for by ICRA’s ace number-cruncher Denis Kiely, who took Ireland’s long-established native rating system ECHO to new heights, thereby providing for extra entries which brought fleet numbers at most annual national championships to comfortably above the hundred mark, particularly at the height of the boom years. 

ICRA Boat of the Year (Winners 2004-2019)