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#Rowing: Sanita Puspure won her heat of the single sculls at the World Rowing Championships in Linz with plenty to spare – and still set the second fastest time of the day. Laila Youssifou of the Netherlands took the second qualification spot for the quarter-finals, but she provided little challenge to the reigning champion, who was well clear. Puspure’s time of 7:44.41 was close to the 7:43.81 set by Emma Twigg of New Zealand in the fastest of eight heats.  

World Rowing Championships, Linz, Austria, Day One (Irish interest)

Men

Pair – Heat One (First Four to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage): 6 Ireland (M O’Donovan, S O’Driscoll) 6:50.51.

Double Sculls – Heat One (First Three to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage): 1 Ireland (P Doyle, R Byrne) 6:28.93.

Lightweight Double Sculls – Heat Three (First Three to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage): 1 Ireland (F McCarthy, P O’Donovan) 6:28.02

Lightweight Single Sculls – Heat Four (First Three to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage): 4 Ireland (G O’Donovan) 8:06.49.  

Women

Four – Heat One (First Two to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to Repechage): 3 Ireland (T Hanlon, E Lambe, A Keogh, E Hegarty) 6:44.72.

Pair – Heat Four (First Four to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage): 2 Ireland (A Crowley, M Dukarska) 7:13.30

Lightweight Double Sculls – Heat Four (First Four to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage): 4 Ireland (A Casey, D Walsh) 7:25.62.

Single Sculls – Heat Eight (First Four to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage): 1 Ireland (S Puspure) 7:44.41.

Lightweight Single Sculls – Heat Three (First Two to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to Repechage): 3 Ireland (L Heaphy) 8:01.79.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Philip Doyle and Ronan Byrne are in top form and showed it by winning their heat of the double sculls at the World Rowing Championships in Linz today. They started well, swapped the lead with Australia in the middle stages, then took it over again in the final quarter. Belarus managed to take the third qualification place for the quarter-finals despite catching a crab coming up to the line. Their bow crossed just ahead of the United States.

World Rowing Championships, Linz, Austria, Day One (Irish interest)

Men

Pair – Heat One (First Four to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage): 6 Ireland (M O’Donovan, S O’Driscoll) 6:50.51.

Double Sculls – Heat One (First Three to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage): 1 Ireland (P Doyle, R Byrne) 6:28.93.

Lightweight Double Sculls – Heat Three (First Three to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage): 1 Ireland (F McCarthy, P O’Donovan) 6:28.02

Lightweight Single Sculls – Heat Four (First Three to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage): 4 Ireland (G O’Donovan) 8:06.49.  

Women

Four – Heat One (First Two to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to Repechage): 3 Ireland (T Hanlon, E Lambe, A Keogh, E Hegarty) 6:44.72.

Pair – Heat Four (First Four to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage): 2 Ireland (A Crowley, M Dukarska) 7:13.30

Lightweight Double Sculls – Heat Four (First Four to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage): 4 Ireland (A Casey, D Walsh) 7:25.62.

Lightweight Single Sculls – Heat Three (First Two to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to Repechage): 3 Ireland (L Heaphy) 8:01.79.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: The Ireland women’s four gave a good account of themselves on their first competitive outing together, just missing out on direct qualification from their heat of the World Rowing Championships in Linz, Austria.

 Tara Hanlon, Eimear Lambe, Aifric Keogh and Emily Hegarty came up against Australia, who were dominant, and the United States, who overcame a poor start to take the second available semi-final spot. The Ireland crew pushed them right to line, with just 1.89 seconds between them at the finish.  

World Rowing Championships, Linz, Austria, Day One (Irish interest)

Men

Pair – Heat One (First Four to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage): 6 Ireland (M O’Donovan, S O’Driscoll) 6:50.51.

Lightweight Double Sculls – Heat Three (First Three to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage): 1 Ireland (F McCarthy, P O’Donovan) 6:28.02

Women

Four – Heat One (First Two to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to Repechage): 3 Ireland (T Hanlon, E Lambe, A Keogh, E Hegarty) 6:44.72.

Pair – Heat Four (First Four to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage): 2 Ireland (A Crowley, M Dukarska) 7:13.30

Lightweight Double Sculls – Heat Four (First Four to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage): 4 Ireland (A Casey, D Walsh) 7:25.62.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Monika Dukarska and Aileen Crowley took an encouraging second place in their heat as they qualified for the quarter finals in the women’s pair at the World Rowing Championships in Linz, Austria. The United States looked to have the win wrapped up, but Ireland raced to the line and pushed them at the finish.

 Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll finished sixth in their heat of the men’s pair. They were not in the mix for the top-four placing which would have seen them directly into the quarter-finals, and must compete in a repechage.

World Rowing Championships, Linz, Austria, Day One (Irish interest)

Men

Pair – Heat One (First Four to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage):

6 Ireland (M O’Donovan, S O’Driscoll) 6:50.51.

Women

Pair – Heat Four (First Four to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage):

2 Ireland (A Crowley, M Dukarska) 7:13.30

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Ireland’s Molly Curry and Rhiannon O’Donoghue finished fifth in the junior double at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Tokyo. The race was won by the outstanding Lisa Bruijnincx and Jacobien van Westreenen of the Netherlands. The Dutch pushed China into second. Behind them Germany lost out to Lithuania in the battle for bronze.

 Curry and O’Donoghue initially fought it out with Greece for fifth. They won this battle and made up metres on Germany, but could not quite push into the battle for medals.  

World Rowing Junior Championships, Tokyo, Day Five (Irish interest)

Men

Junior Four, coxed – A Final: 1 Germany 6:32.41, 2 South Africa 6:32.71, 3 China 6:33.90; 4 Ireland (J O’Donovan, M Gallagher, J Dorney, J Kearney; cox: L O’Regan) 6:34.82.

Women

Junior Double Sculls – A Final: 1 Netherlands 7:25.50, 2 China 7:27.66, 3 Lithuania 7:30.23; 5 Ireland (R O’Donoghue, M Curry) 7:38.08

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Ireland’s junior men’s coxed four took fourth place at the World Junior Championships in Tokyo this morning.

 The Ireland crew of James O’Donovan, Matthew Gallagher, Jack Dorney, John Kearney and cox Leah O’Regan came in just under a second short of the bronze medal slot.

 Germany judged the race best of all. China, Ireland and South Africa were the top crews to the 1,000 metres, with China taking over a slim lead from their two rivals. Even as the Chinese tried to extend their advantage, Germany closed on all three crews. They produced a remarkable final 500 metres to sweep into the lead. South Africa took the silver and China just held out to take the bronze.  

World Rowing Junior Championships, Tokyo (Irish interest)

Men

Junior Four, coxed – A Final: 1 Germany 6:32.41, 2 South Africa 6:32.71, 3 China 6:33.90; 4 Ireland (J O’Donovan, M Gallagher, J Dorney, J Kearney; cox: L O’Regan) 6:34.82.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Ireland’s Rhiannon O’Donoghue and Molly Curry will compete in the A Final of the junior double sculls at the the World Junior Championships in Tokyo on Sunday. The Ireland crew took a clear third place in their semi-final this morning.

 The Netherlands were impressive winners, while Lithuania raced well to take second. Ireland pulled clear of Belgium to sit in a qualification spot at 1500 metres. Italy pushed hard coming to the line, but they could not overhaul the Killorglin and Coleraine Grammar School girls.

 China were the best crew in the first semi-final and look to the be the key challengers to Lisa Bruijnincx and Jacobien van Westreenen of the Netherlands. Germany were second to China and Greece won a contest with Britain to take third.  

World Rowing Junior Championships, Day Four (Irish interest):

Women

Junior DoubleSemi-Final Two (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Netherlands 7:06.94, 2 Lithuania 7:12.66, 3 Ireland (R O’Donoghue, M Curry) 7:13.46; 4 Italy 7:15.71.

Semi-Final One: 1 China 7:09.41, 2 Germany 7:12.26, 3 Greece 7:14.12.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Ireland’s Molly Curry and Rhiannon O’Donoghue won their repechage and qualified for the A/B semi-finals at the World Junior Championships in Tokyo.

 The Ireland junior women’s double overhauled Hungary in an impressive move. With 300 metres to go they were down; they drew level at 1750 and then motored clear to win by just over a length.

 Ireland’s junior men’s coxed four had earlier qualified for their A Final by taking second in their heat.

World Rowing Junior Championships, Day Two (Irish interest)

Men

Junior Four, coxed – Heat One (First Two to A Final; rest to Repechage):  1 China 6:18.13, 2 Ireland (J O’Donovan, M Gallagher, J Dorney, J Kearney; cox: L O’Regan) 6:18.29; 3 South Africa 6:18.87.

Women

Junior Double Sculls – Repechage One (First Two to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to C/D Semi-Finals): 1 Ireland (R O’Donoghue, M Curry) 7:10.06, 2 Hungary 7:13.17.

 

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: The junior men’s coxed four gave Ireland its first A finalist at the World Junior Championships this morning. In a thrilling finish to their heat, they took the second qualifying spot behind China.

 Three boats had charged for the line, covered by less than a second. China had held a small lead over Ireland through half way and managed to stay just ahead despite a good charge by the crew of James O’Donovan, Matt Gallagher, Jack Dorney, John Kearney and cox Leah O’Regan. South Africa closed on both, but missed out.

World Rowing Junior Championships, Day Two (Irish interest)

Men

Junior Four, coxed – Heat One (First Two to A Final; rest to Repechage):  1 China 6:18.13, 2 Ireland (J O’Donovan, M Gallagher, J Dorney, J Kearney; cox: L O’Regan) 6:18.29; 3 South Africa 6:18.87.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Ireland’s Molly Curry and Rhiannon O’Donoghue finished second in their heat of the junior double sculls at the World Junior Championships in Tokyo this morning.

 There was just one direct qualification spot for the A/B Semi-Finals, and the Netherlands were outstanding winners of this race. Lisa Bruijnincx and Jacobien van Westreenen made strong claims for being the best crew in this class with a big win.

 Curry and O’Donoghue fought an exciting battle with Italy in the second half and won this by a length and a third. Greece, China and Belgium were the other heat winners.

 Because of a worry about adverse weather, racing was run at five minute intervals, which brought forward the time of this heat.

World Rowing Junior Championships, Tokyo, Day One (Irish interest)

Women

Junior Double Sculls – Heat Four (Winner to A/B Semi-Final; rest to Repechages): 1 Netherlands 7:08.18; 2 Ireland (R O’Donoghue, M Curry) 7:16.55, 3 Italy 7:19.59.

Published in Rowing
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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]