Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Holly Davis

#Rowing: The Ireland junior men’s eight topped off a series of four Ireland wins – all at junior level – at the Home International Regatta in Strathclyde Park in Scotland. They beat Scotland by just over two seconds, while England came in one second further back.   

 Thomas Hume and Sam Reidy, both from Coláiste Íognáid, were winning their second gold. They had been the best junior men’s pair – coming home more than 20 seconds faster than Scotland, who were second.

 Holly Davis (14) also had a big win on her debut at international level. The Lee Valley girl had almost 12 seconds to spare over second-placed Ellie Cushen of England in the junior women’s single sculls race.

 The junior men’s quadruple also pushed England into second in their race – but by a finer margin. The crew of Dara Kelly (Lee), Tiarnan McKnight (Three Castles) and Colum Brennan and Ronán Brennan  of Neptune won by 1.21 seconds from England.  

Home International Regatta – Strathclyde Park, Scotland: Final Standings:

Men – Senior: 1 Scotland 33 pts; 3 Ireland 22. Jun: 1 Scotland 21; 3  Ireland 19.

Women – Sen: 1 Scotland 33; 4 Ireland 13. Jun: 1 England 26; 2= Ireland, Scotland 17.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Holly Davis gave the crowds a sensational result at the Irish Championships. The Lee Valley girl came through a good battle with Eabha Benson of St Michael's, to pull away and win. The remarkable thing is that Davis is just 14. She does not turn 15 until January 10th next year, leaving her with four years at Junior level.

The men's junior coxed four also electrified the crowd: Colaiste Iognaid and Enniskillen duked it out down the course. The Galway crew got away to win as their emotional supporters roared them on.

Youth was the theme of this regatta: Kevin O'Donovan, who is a junior, won the club single, while Anna Tyther, also under 18 teamed up with Zoe Hyde to win the intermediate double for Killorglin.

The three other titles on offer in this first Saturday session went three different ways: Commercial's strong senior men's programme was on show as they won the men's quadruple; Cork had a fine win in the intermediate men's eight; Trinity's A crew won the women's novice eight.

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)