Displaying items by tag: Crews

29th June 2016

Paul O'Donovan in Strong World Championship Team

Mark O'Donovan and Shane O'Driscoll, who will represent Ireland at the World Rowing Championships. Pic: Debbie Heaphy.

#Rowing: Ireland have picked a strong set of crews for the World Rowing Championships in Rotterdam at the end of August. Olympian Paul O’Donovan will return from Rio de Janeiro to take part in the lightweight single scull (not the under-23 lightweight single), and the senior lightweight pair of Shane O’Driscoll and Mark O’Donovan hope to improve on their seventh placing last year. There will be two Ireland under-23 quadruples, heavyweight and lightweight. There will be more trialling to determine the Ireland women’s lightweight single scull.

The junior women’s and men’s doubles did enough at Cork Regatta to merit selection. Four crews were also picked for the Coupe de la Jeunesse, a European tournament, after Cork Regatta.

Ireland Crews (conditional on training in a prolonged camp, further racing and fulfilling other selection requirements)

Junior, Under-23 and Senior World Championships, August 21st-28th Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Team Manager: Susan Dunlea

Senior: Lightweight Men’s Pair: Shane O’Driscoll (Skibbereen RC), Mark O’Donovan (Skibbereen RC). Coach: Noel Monahan. Lightweight Men’s Single: Paul O’Donovan (UCD BC). Coach: Dominic Casey (Skibbereen RC)

Under-23 Men’s Quadruple: Sam McKeown (Portadown BC), Jack Casey (UCCRC), Patrick Boomer (UL), Dan Buckley (NUIGBC). Coach: James Mangan (Castleconnell BC). Under-23 Lightweight Men’s Quadruple: Stephen O’Connor (UCCRC), Shane O’Connell (UCDBC), Colm Hennessy (Shandon BC), Fintan McCarthy (Skibbereen RC). Coach: Paul Thornton (UCCRC).

Junior Men’s Double Sculls: Ronan Byrne (Shandon BC), Daire Lynch (Clonmel RC). Coach: TBD. Junior Women’s Double: Emily Hegarty, Aoife Casey (Skibbereen RC). Coach: TBD

Coupe de la Jeunesse Crews, July 29-31, Poznan, Poland. Team Manager: Michelle Carpenter

Junior Men’s Four: Aaron Johnston (Portora BC), Samuel Armstrong (Portora BC), Ross Corrigan (Portora BC), Patrick Kennelly (Presentation BC). Coach: Fran Keane (Presentation BC). Junior Men’s Quadruple: Stephen O’Sullivan (Shandon BC), Barry Connolly (Cork BC), Niall Beggan (Commercial RC), Barry O’Flynn (Cork BC). Coach: TBD

Junior Women’s Pair: Amy Mason (Cork BC), Tara Hanlon (Cork BC). Coach: Fran Keane (Presentation BC). Junior Women’s Quadruple: Fiona Chestnutt (Bann RC), Hannah Scott (Bann RC), Lucy Taylor (Belfast RC), Margaret Cremin (Lee RC). Coach: TBD

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Irish Rowing Championships Draw Huge Entry

#Rowing: The 2015 Irish Rowing Championships will be held at the National Rowing Centre in Farran Wood, Cork from Friday 10th July to Sunday 12th July.

This year’s Championships features a mammoth entry of a total of 893 crews, with races running from 9am-5pm on Friday, 8:30am-6:30pm on Saturday and 8:30am-5pm on Sunday.

This event will attract over 3,000 competitors and approximately 10,000 spectators over the three day duration of the regatta and it is the premier domestic event of the rowing season.

The Championships are arguably Ireland's largest annual water sports event and are also the most significant All-Ireland sporting championship to be held annually in Cork. It promises to be a very exciting weekend of competitive rowing.

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About Conor O'Brien, Irish Circumnavigator

In 1923-25, Conor O'Brien became the first amateur skipper to circle the world south of the Great Capes. O'Brien's boat Saoirse was reputedly the first small boat (42-foot, 13 metres long) to sail around the world since Joshua Slocum completed his voyage in the 'Spray' during 1895 to 1898. It is a journey that O' Brien documented in his book Across Three Oceans. O'Brien's voyage began and ended at the Port of Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, where he lived.

Saoirse, under O'Brien's command and with three crew, was the first yacht to circumnavigate the world by way of the three great capes: Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin; and was the first boat flying the Irish tri-colour to enter many of the world's ports and harbours. He ran down his easting in the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties between the years 1923 to 1925.

Up until O'Brien's circumnavigation, this route was the preserve of square-rigged grain ships taking part in the grain race from Australia to England via Cape Horn (also known as the clipper route).

At a Glance - Conor O'Brien's Circumnavigation

In June 1923, Limerick man Conor O’Brien set off on his yacht, the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the two-year voyage from Dun Laoghaire Harbour that was to make him the first Irish amateur to sail around the world.

June 1923 - Saoirse’s arrival in Madeira after her maiden passage out from Dublin Bay

2nd December 1924 - Saoirse crossed the longitude of Cape Horn

June 20th 1925 - O’Brien’s return to Dun Laoghaire Harbour