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: Paul O'Donovan

16th February 2018

Murphy Adds Gold in New Zealand

#Rowing: Max Murphy added a gold medal to the silver he had won in the men’s senior pair at the New Zealand Rowing Championships today. The UCD oarsman was part of the Waikato senior eight which were clear winners, beating a crew from their own club into second. Kevin Neville and Eamon Power of NUIG were in the Wellington crew which took bronze.

 In warm and calm conditions, Paul O’Donovan and Gary O’Donovan finished fourth in the Premier double sculls, an elite event won by Chris Harris and Robbie Manson.

New Zealand Rowing Championships, Lake Karapiro, Day Four (Irish interest)

Men

Eight – Senior

Final: 1 Waikato (3 M Murphy) 5:56.41; 3 Wellington (7: K Neville; 8 E Power) 6:00.28.  

Pair - Senior

Final: 2 Waikato (M Murphy, T Bedford) 6:59.41.

Sculling,

Double – Premier

Final: 4 Skibbereen (P O’Donovan, G O’Donovan) 6:38.66. Senior – B Final: 1 Wairau (2 K Neville) 6:46.04.

Single – Club

B Final: 5 Wairau (E Power) 8:11.15.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Paul O’Donovan, in the Premier (open weight) single sculls, and the Skibbereen four both made it to A Finals at the New Zealand Rowing Championships. O’Donovan won in a repechage to join some of the top heavyweight single scullers in the world in the final. Gary O’Donovan took third in the race and will compete in the B Final.

 The two brothers joined Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll to form a four which won its repechage and will also compete in a final with top heavyweight crews.

 Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll took fifth in their repechage of the Premier Pair and missed out on the final, while Max Murphy made it through to the A Final of the men’s pair and NUIG’s Kevin Neville and Eamon Power progressed through repechages in the senior single and club single respectively.    

New Zealand Rowing Championships, Lake Karapiro, Day Two (Irish interest)

Men

Four – Premier

Repechage Two (First two to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Skibbereen (G O’Donovan, P O’Donovan, M O’Donovan, S O’Driscoll) 6:21.39.   

Pair – Premier

Repechage (Top Four to Final; rest eliminated): 5 Skibbereen (S O’Driscoll, M O’Donovan) 7:11.47.

Senior

Repechage (Top Three to Final): 2 Waikato (M Murphy, T Bedford) 7:33.13.  

Sculling,

Single – Premier

Repechage One (First two to Final; rest to B Final): 1  Skibbereen (P O’Donovan) 7:23.32; 3 Skibbereen (G O’Donovan) 7:55.63.

Senior

Repechage Three (First Two to Semi-Final): 2 Wairau (K Neville) 7:29.91.  

Club

Repechage One (First Two to Semi-Final): 1  Wairau (E Power) 8:19.07.  

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Paul O’Donovan was the pick of the Irish internationals at the testing New Zealand Rowing Championships on Lake Karapiro on Tuesday. O’Donovan finished third in his heat of the Premier (openweight) single sculls – just .11 of a second behind the winner of the other heat, Mahe Drysdale, the Olympic champion. O'Donovan will get a second chance to make the final through the repechages.

 The pair of Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll took fourth in their heat, while a four with the three O’Donovans and O’Driscoll also conserved energy for Wednesday’s repechages. The double of Paul and Gary O’Donovan took part in a race for lanes and took fifth.

 It was another good day for UCD’s Max Murphy, who is competing for Waikato. He was part of the club’s senior four which won their heat and progressed directly to the final. In the pair, Murphy placed third in a heat.

 Kevin Neville of NUIG, competing for Wairau, qualified for the senior double semi-finals. Neville and Eamon Power, also of NUIG and rowing for Wairau, are set for repechages in the senior and club singles respectively.

New Zealand Rowing Championships, Lake Karapiro, Day One (Irish interest)

Men

Four – Premier (First to Final; rest to repechage)– Heat Two: 4 Skibbereen (S O’Driscoll, M O’Donovan, P O’Donovan, G O’Donovan) 7:05.67.  

Senior (First to Final; rest to repechage) - Heat Two: 1 Waikato (3 M Murphy) 6:25.58.

Pair – Premier (First to Final; rest to repechage): Heat Two: Skibbereen (S O’Driscoll, M O’Donovan) 7:24.79.

Senior (First to Final; rest to repechage) – Heat Two: 3 Waikato (M Murphy, T Bedford) 7:11.58.

Sculling,

Double – Premier (All go to Final): 5 Skibbereen (P O’Donovan, G O’Donovan) 7:20.97.

Senior – (First Four to Semi-Finals: rest to Repechages) – Heat Three: 3 Wairau (2 K Neville) 6:50.56.

Single – Premier (First to A Final; rest to repechage) – Heat One: 4 Skibbereen (G O’Donovan) 7:45. 8. Heat Two: 3 Skibbereen (P O’Donovan) 7:20.17.

Senior (First to Final; rest to repechage) – Heat One: 3 Wairau (K Neville) 7:53.53.

Club – Heat One (First two to Semi-Final; rest to repechage) – Heat One: 3 Wairau (E Power) 8:00.75.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Paul and Gary O’Donovan finished sixth in the Premier Double Sculls Final at the North Island Club Championships on Lake Karapiro in New Zealand today. Earlier, Paul O’Donovan had finished sixth of eight in the Premier Single Sculls, while Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll had won the B Final of the Premier Pair.

 Max Murphy had a very satisifactory outing. The UCD man, who has been based in New Zealand, took the senior eight and four with Waikato.

North Island Rowing Championships, Lake Karapiro, New Zealand (Irish interest)

Men

Senior Eight – A Final:  1 Waikato (3: M Murphy) 6:19.55.

Senior Four – A Final: 1 Waikato (3 M Murphy) 6:15.01.

Premier PairB Final: 1 Skibbereen (M O’Donovan, S O’Driscoll)  6:43.34.

Senior Pair – A Final: 4 Waikato (M Murphy, T Bedford) 6:51.51.

Premier Double Sculls – Final: 6 Skibbereen (P O’Donovan, G O’Donovan) 6:50.76.

Premier Single – A Final: 1 R Manson 6:39.58; 6 Skibbereen (P O’Donovan) 6:54.63. B Final: 3 Skibbereen (G O’Donovan) 6:57.21.  

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Paul O’Donovan finished sixth of the eight competitors who reached the A Final of the Premier Single Sculls at the North Island Club Rowing Championships in New Zealand. Robbie Manson, the top heavyweight single sculler won. Gary O’Donovan took third place in the B Final.

 Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll won their B Final of the Premier Pair, taking ninth overall. Max Murphy, the former UCD captain, was part of the Waikato senior pair which finished fourth in their final.  

North Island Rowing Championships, Lake Karapiro, New Zealand (Irish interest)

Men

Premier Pair – B Final: 1 Skibbereen (M O’Donovan, S O’Driscoll)  6:43.34.  

Senior Pair – Final: 4 Waikato (M Murphy, T Bedford) 6:51.51.

Premier Single – A Final: 1 R Manson 6:39.58; 6 Skibbereen (P O’Donovan) 6:54.63. B Final: 3 Skibbereen (G O’Donovan) 6:57.21.  

 

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Paul O’Donovan qualified for the Final of the Premier Single Sculls, a heavyweight event, at the North Island Championships in New Zealand today. The Skibbereen man finished second in his repechage, behind New Zealand international Matthew Dunham and ahead of the former world and Olympic champion Mahe Drysdale. All three qualified. Gary O’Donovan finished fourth, one place from qualification.

North Island Rowing Championships, Lake Karapiro, New Zealand (Irish interest)

Men

Senior Four – Heat One: 1 Waikato (W Guest, T Bedford, M Murphy, J Ingham) 6:18.85. 

Premier Pair – Heat One (First to Final; rest to repechage): 4 Skibbereen (S O’Driscoll, M O’Donovan) 6:44.25. Repechage One (First Three to Final; rest eliminated): 4 Skibbereen (O’Driscoll, M O’Donovan) 6:41.12. 

Senior Pair – Heat One (First to Final): 1 Waikato (M Murphy, T Bedford) 6:50.16.

Premier Single Sculls – Heat One (Winner to Final; rest to Repechage): 6 Skibbereen (P O’Donovan) 7:25.42. Heat Two: 6 Skibbereen (G O’Donovan) 7:28.38. Repechage One (First Three to A Final): 1 M Dunham 7:05.97, 2 Skibbereen (P O’Donovan) 7:07.45, 3 M Drysdale 7:12.51; 4 Skibbereen (G O’Donovan) 7:15.84.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll competed as a heavyweight pair at the North Island Championships in New Zealand today. The world champions in the lightweight pair, who have switched to heavyweight in the hope of competing at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, finished fourth in their heat.

 Paul O’Donovan and Gary O’Donovan both finished sixth in their heats of the single sculls. Both also competed as heavyweights.

 All three boats move into repechages on Sunday.

Published in Rowing
1st December 2017

Afloat Honours Paul O'Donovan

#Rowing: Paul O’Donovan is the Afloat Rower of the Month for November. The Skibbereen man beat all comers to show himself the top  single sculler at the Ireland Trial. He teamed up with his Olympic crewmate and brother, Gary, in a fast double on the Sunday.

 Paul O’Donovan is the world champion in the lightweight single sculls. He was a UCD Alumni Award winner in November, the youngest ever. He is 23.

Rower of the Month awards: The judging panel is made up of Liam Gorman, rowing correspondent of The Irish Times, and David O'Brien, editor of Afloat magazine. Monthly awards for achievements during the year will appear on afloat.ie. Keep a monthly eye on progress and watch our 2017 champions list grow.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Top internationals, including world champion Paul O’Donovan, Denise Walsh and Monika Dukarska, are amongst the big entry of over 400 crews from 26 clubs entered for the Muckross Head of the River on Saturday at the National Rowing Centre. The Ireland women’s pair which competed at the World Championships, Aileen Crowley and Aifric Keogh, are also entered. They are set to take on Emily Hegarty and Tara Hanlon, the crew which came closest to matching them at the recent Ireland Trial.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Paul O’Donovan and Gary O’Donovan, in a lightweight double scull, tied for the best time with a men’s heavyweight four on the second day of the Ireland trial over six kilometres today. The fastest women’s crew was the four of Tara Hanlon, Emily Hegarty, Aileen Crowley and Aifric Keogh. The double of Claire Lambe and Monika Dukarska were next fastest. 

Ireland Trial, National Rowing Centre, Sunday (6 km; selected results):

Men

Four: Shandon/St Michael’s (Murphy, Prendergast, McKeon, Garvey) 21 min 22 sec 

Doubles: G O’Donovan, P O’Donovan (lwt) 21:22; R Byrne, S McKeown (hwt) 21:36. 

Women

Four: Old Collegians, Skibbereen, UCC (T Hanlon, E Hegarty, A Crowley, A Keogh) 22:54.

Double: M Dukarska, C Lambe (hwt) 23:12; D Walsh, A Casey (lwt) 23:35

Published in Rowing
Page 6 of 12

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]