Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

A Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: AfloatA Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

Displaying items by tag: Erne Head

#Rowing: The senior eights from Commercial and Trinity topped the men’s and women’s rankings at the Erne Head of the River in Enniskillen today. Commercial were the fastest crew and came home faster than Trinity’s men’s senior eight, while Enniskillen’s junior women’s eight were the second-fastest women’s crew. The host club’s junior 18 men’s eight were also fastest in their class – they were fifth overall.

There were strong winds throughout the race. Despite the conditions, this was the biggest Erne Head.

Erne Head (provisional results); 1 Commercial A men’s senior eight 19 mins 32 seconds, 2 Trinity mens sen eight 19:56, 3 UCD men’s sen eight 20.11.2, 4 Commercial B men’s sen eight 20.14.9, 5 Enniskillen men’s junior 18 eight 20.35.9, 6 NUIG men’s club one eight 20:56.5. 18 Trinity women’s senior eight 22.24.2; 20 Enniskillen junior women’s eight 22:35.8.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Erne Head of the River, set for Enniskillen on Saturday (March 2nd), will go ahead. The organisers expect strong winds for the six kilometre event. They have told clubs to instruct their rowers to wear warm clothing. The head is set for 2pm.

Published in Rowing
Tagged under

#Rowing: The two heads of the river scheduled for this Saturday have fallen foul of the weather, although both are set to be rescheduled. The Erne Head, at Enniskillen, had drawn a top-class entry. But while conditions at Enniskillen might well be rowable on Saturday, travel to the venue, especially on Friday, would prove difficult at best because of snow and high winds. The organisers hope to run the event on March 10th. Cork Head has also been cancelled, and organisers say the are also hoping to have it held on a new date.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Trinity’s senior A eight were clear winners of the Erne Head of the River today. The Dublin University crew had 19 seconds to spare over the Commercial senior eight. Portora’s junior 18 eight placed sixth, while the fastest women’s crew were the Trinity senior eight, which finished 16th.

 

Position Crew Number Club Class Time
1
1
DUBC A
MS 8+
19:23
2
4
Commercial RC
MS 8+
19:42
3
2
NUIG A
MS 8+
19:53
4
5
DUBC B
MS 8+
19:56
5
3
UCDBC
MS 8+
20:00
6
8
Portora BC
MJ18 8+
20:15
7
6
NUIG B
MS 8+
20:21
8
7
QUBBC
MI 8+
20:23
9
13
Portora BC
MS 4x-
20:58
10
11
Commercial
MJ18 8+
21:19
11
42
DUBC A
MN 8+
21:23
12
43
QUBBC A
MN 8+
21:38
13
10
Methodist College
MJ18 8+
21:40
14
9
Neptune RC
MJ18 8+
21:45
15
14
Belfast / Lagan Scullers
MS 4x-
22:00
16
23
DULBC
WS 8+
22:22
17
16
RBAI
MU23 4x-
22:26
18
29
Galway RC (Vet D)
MM 8+
22:48
19
44
UCDBC A
MN 8+
23:00
20
67
Commercial RC A
MJ16 4x+
23:06
21
58
Portora BC
MJ16 8+
23:11
22
12
RBAI
MJ18 8+
23:15
23
39
Commercial RC A
WI 8+
23:18
24
24
Portora BC
WJ18 8+
23:25
25
30
Belfast RC A (Vet D)
MM 8+
23:26
26
20
Neptune
MI 4+
23:27
27
17
DUBC
MS 4+
23:29
28
45
Neptune RC
MN 8+
23:31
29
34
Belfast BC (Vet F)
MM 8+
23:36
30
27
Methodist College
WJ18 8+
23:41
31
32
OCBC / Athlone (Vet E)
MM 8+
23:47
32
49
DUBC C
MN 8+
23:52
33
46
DUBC B
MN 8+
23:53
34
48
UCDBC B
MN 8+
23:58
35
51
Belfast BC / Bann/ QUBLBC
WS 4x-
24:15
35
=
28
Neptune RC (Vet D)
MM 8+
24:15
37
37
DULBC A
WI 8+
24:18
38
26
Galway RC
WJ18 8+
24:19
38
=
38
NUIG
WI 8+
24:19
40
59
Methodist College
MJ16 8+
24:21
40
=
56
QUBLBC
WS 4-
24:21
42
41
Commercial RC B
WI 8+
24:31
43
33
Walton Rowing Club (Vet E)
MM 8+
24:34
44
36
LVBC (Vet G)
MM 8+
24:46
45
69
Commercial RC B
MJ16 4x+
24:51
46
54
Commercial RC
WJ18 4x-
25:04
47
64
Belfast BC A (Vet D)
WM 8+
25:06
48
31
Belfast RC B (Vet E)
MM 8+
25:38
49
35
Moseley Boat Club (Vet G)
MM 8+
25:46
50
47
QUBBC B
MN 8+
25:51
51
25
Commercial RC
WJ18 8+
25:53
52
53
Belfast RC
WJ18 4x-
26:04
53
40
DULBC B
WI 8+
26:07
54
22
Methodist College
MJ18 4+
26:31
55
68
Portadown
MJ16 4x+
26:33
56
72
Portora BC B
WJ16 8+
27:21
57
63
Belfast RC (Vet C)
WM 8+
27:38
58
66
Portadown (Vet D)
M Mixed 8+
28:21
59
55
Portadown
WJ18 4x-
28:37
60
62
Belfast BC B (Vet C)
WM 8+
29:11
61
61
Portora BC A
WJ16 8+
29:17
62
65
QUBLBC
WN 8+
29:39
63
=
15
Lagan Scullers
MS 4x-
Did Not Row
63
=
18
UCDBC
MI 4+
Did Not Row
63
=
19
QUBBC
MI 4+
Did Not Row
63
=
21
RBAI
MJ18 4x-
Did Not Row
63
=
50
DULBC
WS 4x-
Did Not Row
63
=
52
Portadown
WS 4x-
Did Not Row
63
=
57
QUBLBC
WI 4+
Did Not Row
63
=
60
Blackrock College
MJ16 8+
Did Not Row
63
=
70
Blackrock College
MJ16 4x+
Did Not Row
63
=
71
Galway RC
WJ164x+
Did Not Row
Published in Rowing

ROWING: The Erne Head of the River has been cancelled. A radical change in the forecast, with high winds predicted, convinced the organisers that there was a chance that some boats could get into difficulty. The event set for Saturday, was set to be to be the first domestic event of the rowing season – on March 1st. All the other heads of the river have cancelled because of weather-created difficulties.

Published in Rowing

#ROWING: The Erne Head of the River will go ahead on Saturday at Enniskillen, but with a revised format because of the effects of the recent heavy rains. Only eights will compete and the course will run from Devenish Island against the flow to the Portora boathouse. There will be over 20 safety boats in attendance and flashing blue lights on any perceived hazard.

The event, which was a huge success last year, is set to be opening head of the river of the domestic season.

The Fermoy head of the river, scheduled for March 16th, has fallen to the weather: the high water levels have made it impossible to hold a test run and divers have identified what could be new hazards below the water.

Published in Rowing
Tagged under

How to sail, sailing clubs and sailing boats plus news on the wide range of sailing events on Irish waters forms the backbone of Afloat's sailing coverage.

We aim to encompass the widest range of activities undertaken on Irish lakes, rivers and coastal waters. This page describes those sailing activites in more detail and provides links and breakdowns of what you can expect from our sailing pages. We aim to bring jargon free reports separated in to popular categories to promote the sport of sailing in Ireland.

The packed 2013 sailing season sees the usual regular summer leagues and there are regular weekly race reports from Dublin Bay Sailing Club, Howth and Cork Harbour on Afloat.ie. This season and last also featured an array of top class events coming to these shores. Each year there is ICRA's Cruiser Nationals starts and every other year the Round Ireland Yacht Race starts and ends in Wicklow and all this action before July. Crosshaven's Cork Week kicks off on in early July every other year. in 2012 Ireland hosted some big international events too,  the ISAF Youth Worlds in Dun Laoghaire and in August the Tall Ships Race sailed into Dublin on its final leg. In that year the Dragon Gold Cup set sail in Kinsale in too.

2013 is also packed with Kinsale hosting the IFDS diabled world sailing championships in Kinsale and the same port is also hosting the Sovereign's Cup. The action moves to the east coast in July with the staging of the country's biggest regatta, the Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta from July 11.

Our coverage though is not restricted to the Republic of Ireland but encompasses Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Irish Sea area too. In this section you'll find information on the Irish Sailing Association and Irish sailors. There's sailing reports on regattas, racing, training, cruising, dinghies and keelboat classes, windsurfers, disabled sailing, sailing cruisers, Olympic sailing and Tall Ships sections plus youth sailing, match racing and team racing coverage too.

Sailing Club News

There is a network of over 70 sailing clubs in Ireland and we invite all clubs to submit details of their activities for inclusion in our daily website updates. There are dedicated sections given over to the big Irish clubs such as  the waterfront clubs in Dun Laoghaire; Dublin Bay Sailing Club, the Royal Saint George Yacht Club,  the Royal Irish Yacht Club and the National Yacht Club. In Munster we regularly feature the work of Kinsale Yacht Club and Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven.  Abroad Irish sailors compete in Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) racing in the UK and this club is covered too. Click here for Afloat's full list of sailing club information. We are keen to increase our coverage on the network of clubs from around the coast so if you would like to send us news and views of a local interest please let us have it by sending an email to [email protected]

Sailing Boats and Classes

Over 20 active dinghy and one design classes race in Irish waters and fleet sizes range from just a dozen or so right up to over 100 boats in the case of some of the biggest classes such as the Laser or Optimist dinghies for national and regional championships. Afloat has dedicated pages for each class: Dragons, Etchells, Fireball, Flying Fifteen, GP14, J24's, J80's, Laser, Sigma 33, RS Sailing, Star, Squibs, TopperMirror, Mermaids, National 18, Optimist, Puppeteers, SB3's, and Wayfarers. For more resources on Irish classes go to our dedicated sailing classes page.

The big boat scene represents up to 60% of the sail boat racing in these waters and Afloat carries updates from the Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA), the body responsible for administering cruiser racing in Ireland and the popular annual ICRA National Championships. In 2010 an Irish team won the RORC Commodore's Cup putting Irish cruiser racing at an all time high. Popular cruiser fleets in Ireland are raced right around the coast but naturally the biggest fleets are in the biggest sailing centres in Cork Harbour and Dublin Bay. Cruisers race from a modest 20 feet or so right up to 50'. Racing is typically divided in to Cruisers Zero, Cruisers One, Cruisers Two, Cruisers Three and Cruisers Four. A current trend over the past few seasons has been the introduction of a White Sail division that is attracting big fleets.

Traditionally sailing in northern Europe and Ireland used to occur only in some months but now thanks to the advent of a network of marinas around the coast (and some would say milder winters) there are a number of popular winter leagues running right over the Christmas and winter periods.

Sailing Events

Punching well above its weight Irish sailing has staged some of the world's top events including the Volvo Ocean Race Galway Stopover, Tall Ships visits as well as dozens of class world and European Championships including the Laser Worlds, the Fireball Worlds in both Dun Laoghaire and Sligo.

Some of these events are no longer pure sailing regattas and have become major public maritime festivals some are the biggest of all public staged events. In the past few seasons Ireland has hosted events such as La Solitaire du Figaro and the ISAF Dublin Bay 2012 Youth Worlds.

There is a lively domestic racing scene for both inshore and offshore sailing. A national sailing calendar of summer fixtures is published annually and it includes old favorites such as Sovereign's Cup, Calves Week, Dun Laoghaire to Dingle, All Ireland Sailing Championships as well as new events with international appeal such as the Round Britain and Ireland Race and the Clipper Round the World Race, both of which have visited Ireland.

The bulk of the work on running events though is carried out by the network of sailing clubs around the coast and this is mostly a voluntary effort by people committed to the sport of sailing. For example Wicklow Sailing Club's Round Ireland yacht race run in association with the Royal Ocean Racing Club has been operating for over 30 years. Similarly the international Cork Week regatta has attracted over 500 boats in past editions and has also been running for over 30 years.  In recent years Dublin Bay has revived its own regatta called Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta and can claim to be the country's biggest event with over 550 boats entered in 2009.

On the international stage Afloat carries news of Irish and UK interest on Olympics 2012, Sydney to Hobart, Volvo Ocean Race, Cowes Week and the Fastnet Race.

We're always aiming to build on our sailing content. We're keen to build on areas such as online guides on learning to sail in Irish sailing schools, navigation and sailing holidays. If you have ideas for our pages we'd love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected]