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Displaying items by tag: Afloat Rowers of the Month

#Rowing: The Afloat Rowers of the Month for May are Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll. The Ireland lightweight pair took gold at both the first World Cup Regatta in Belgrade and, with a remarkable performance, the European Championships in Racice. The two Skibbereen men were disappointed to see the lightweight four, a boat in which they have campaigned, removed from the Olympic programme earlier this year. But they have left this – and international opponents – behind them since.

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: Paul and Gary O’Donovan are the Afloat Rowers of the Month for August. The brothers from West Cork achieved something no Irish crew had done before when they took a silver medal at the Olympic Games regatta in Rio de Janeiro in the lightweight double sculls. The O’Donovans had become European champions in Brandenburg in May. Paul ended the month of August by becoming world champion in the lightweight single sculls in Rotterdam - he was the only competitor who medalled at the Olympic Games and the World Championships.

 At a tribute to the entire Ireland Olympic squad in UCD, the great Sean Drea, who finished fourth at the Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976, thanked the Ireland silver medallists. “On behalf of all the fourth-placed Olympians I would like to thank the O’Donovans for taking that monkey off our backs!” he said.

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 and the overall national award will be presented to the person or crew who, in the judges' opinion, achieved the most notable results in, or made the most significant contribution to rowing during 2016. Keep a monthly eye on progress and watch our 2016 champions list grow.

Published in Rowing

The Dragon was designed by Johan Anker in 1929 as an entry for a competition run by the Royal Yacht Club of Gothenburg, to find a small keel-boat that could be used for simple weekend cruising among the islands and fjords of the Scandinavian seaboard. The original design had two berths and was ideally suited for cruising in his home waters of Norway. The boat quickly attracted owners and within ten years it had spread all over Europe.

The Dragon's long keel and elegant metre-boat lines remain unchanged, but today Dragons are constructed using the latest technology to make the boat durable and easy to maintain. GRP is the most popular material, but both new and old wooden boats regularly win major competitions while looking as beautiful as any craft afloat. Exotic materials are banned throughout the boat, and strict rules are applied to all areas of construction to avoid sacrificing value for a fractional increase in speed.

The key to the Dragon's enduring appeal lies in the careful development of its rig. Its well-balanced sail plan makes boat handling easy for lightweights, while a controlled process of development has produced one of the most flexible and controllable rigs of any racing boat.