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Displaying items by tag: Chief Executive

#Rowing: Michelle Carpenter has been chosen as the new chief executive of Rowing Ireland. She will succeed Hamish Adams who recently left the position to take up the role of CEO with Athletics Ireland. 

Carpenter has held a number of significant management positions during her career, including overseeing the development and management of the successful Get Going…Get Rowing programme.

In her early corporate career, Michelle spent eight years working in Europe, firstly at the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, before moving to European Central Bank in Frankfurt in 1999 to  be part of the Euro 2002 information campaign.

Originally from Limerick, Michelle was one of the first registered female rowing members of Shannon Rowing Club, rowing in their first winning women’s championship crew of 1988.

Carpenter is currently working with the World Rowing development team on the Olympic Values Education programme. In 2017 she was selected by World Rowing to be a participant at the IOC Women in Leadership forum in Lausanne. 

Commenting on her new role, Carpenter said: “I am honoured to be appointed as CEO of Rowing Ireland it is an exciting time for our sport. Having been involved in Irish rowing for over 30 years, I am looking forward to contributing to the growth and success of the sport across Ireland in the future.

“I am passionate about our sport and supporting our clubs and volunteers for the future will be key to our organisation’s development, together with underpinning our successful High Performance, Get Going…Get Rowing and Coach Education programmes.

“2018 will be a very exciting year for Rowing Ireland with our international ‘Festival of Rowing’ commencing in July with the Irish Championships, leading into the Home Internationals and finishing with the prestigious Coupe de la Jeunesse.” 

Commenting on the new appointment, President of Rowing Ireland, Eamonn Colclough said: “Michelle has emerged from the extremely robust and intensive recruitment process which we conducted to source the best possible candidate. I congratulate her, the first woman to be appointed to the demanding role of CEO of Rowing Ireland. I am confident that she will build on the success we have enjoyed in recent years and provide dynamic leadership to drive further growth and success in the years to come.” 

Published in Rowing

#Canoeing: Paddy Boyd, who was previously the chief executive of the Irish Sailing Association, has been appointed as interim chief executive of Canoeing Ireland. The Dún Laoghaire man will run the organisation until a full-time chief executive is apppointed.

Boyd, who is a master mariner by profession, was chief executive of the ISA for 16 years until the end of 2004. Under the Dún Laoghaire man, the sport grew, and he was an important agent in the professionalisation of the association.

From 2009 to 2015 Boyd served as chief executive of Sail Canada.

Sport Ireland hopes that a new, full-time, ceo will be appointed in the medium term. “I’m here to help out for a few months,” Boyd said.

The previous chief executive of Canoeing Ireland was Karl Dunne.

Published in Canoeing

#Canoeing: Canoeing Ireland has appointed Karl Dunne as its new chief executive. Dunne has been the general manager of the body since March 2012. The recruitment process for the new post was, according to Canoeing Ireland, undertaken by independent HR Consultants as part of an organisational restructuring programme.

 Paul Donnelly, the president of Canoeing Ireland, said: “I am pleased that this important position of CEO of Canoeing Ireland has been filled. One of the CEO’s first tasks will be to finalise the development and implementation of a new Strategic Plan for the organisation to guide its development and expansion into the future. The Board look forward to working in cooperation with the CEO and his dedicated staff in meeting the challenges and opportunities which lie ahead.”

Dunne said: “It is an honour to be appointed to the role of CEO with Canoeing Ireland. Canoeing in Ireland has a proud history of both performance and participation and I look forward to working with the board and staff of the organisation and our partner agencies for the benefit of our members. Canoeing is a fantastic community sport that is very accessible. It is my priority to grow participation levels in the sport across the country.”

 Canoeing Ireland is the governing body for the 70 affiliated clubs in the Republic of Ireland.

Published in Canoeing

Dublin Bay 21s

An exciting new project to breathe life into six defunct 120-year-old Irish yachts that happen to be the oldest intact one-design keelboat class in the world has captured the imagination of sailors at Ireland's biggest sailing centre. The birthplace of the original Dublin Bay 21 class is getting ready to welcome home the six restored craft after 40 years thanks to an ambitious boat building project was completed on the Shannon Estuary that saved them from completely rotting away.

Dublin Bay 21 FAQs

The Dublin Bay 21 is a vintage one-design wooden yacht designed for sailing in Dublin Bay.

Seven were built between 1903 and 1906.

As of 2020, the yachts are 117 years old.

Alfred Mylne designed the seven yachts.

The total voting population in the Republic's inhabited islands is just over 2,600 people, according to the Department of Housing.

Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) commissioned the boat to encourage inexpensive one-design racing to recognise the success of the Water Wag one-design dinghy of 1887 and the Colleen keelboat class of 1897.

Estelle built by Hollwey, 1903; Garavogue built by Kelly, 1903; Innisfallen built by Hollwey, 1903.; Maureen built by Hollwey, 1903.; Oola built by Kelly, 1905; Naneen built by Clancy, 1905.

Overall length- 32'-6', Beam- 7'-6", Keel lead- 2 tons Sail area - 600sq.ft

The first race took place on 19 June 1903 in Dublin Bay.

They may be the oldest intact class of racing keelboat yacht in the world. Sailing together in a fleet, they are one of the loveliest sights to be seen on any sailing waters in the world, according to many Dublin Bay aficionados.

In 1964, some of the owners thought that the boats were outdated, and needed a new breath of fresh air. After extensive discussions between all the owners, the gaff rig and timber mast was abandoned in favour of a more fashionable Bermudan rig with an aluminium mast. Unfortunately, this rig put previously unseen loads on the hulls, resulting in some permanent damage.

The fleet was taken out of the water in 1986 after Hurricane Charlie ruined active Dublin Bay 21 fleet racing in August of that year. Two 21s sank in the storm, suffering the same fate as their sister ship Estelle four years earlier. The class then became defunct. In 1988, master shipwright Jack Tyrrell of Arklow inspected the fleet and considered the state of the hulls as vulnerable, describing them as 'still restorable even if some would need a virtual rebuild'. The fleet then lay rotting in a farmyard in Arklow until 2019 and the pioneering project of Dun Laoghaire sailors Fionan De Barra and Hal Sisk who decided to bring them back to their former glory.

Hurricane Charlie finally ruined active Dublin Bay 21 fleet racing in August 1986. Two 21s sank in the storm, suffering the same fate as a sister ship four years earlier; Estelle sank twice, once on her moorings and once in a near-tragic downwind capsize. Despite their collective salvage from the sea bed, the class decided the ancient boats should not be allowed suffer anymore. To avoid further deterioration and risk to the rare craft all seven 21s were put into storage in 1989 under the direction of the naval architect Jack Tyrrell at his yard in Arklow.

While two of the fleet, Garavogue and Geraldine sailed to their current home, the other five, in various states of disrepair, were carried the 50-odd miles to Arklow by road.

To revive the legendary Dublin Bay 21 class, the famous Mylne design of 1902-03. Hal Sisk and Fionan de Barra are developing ideas to retain the class's spirit while making the boats more appropriate to today's needs in Dun Laoghaire harbour, with its many other rival sailing attractions. The Dublin Bay 21-foot class's fate represents far more than the loss of a single class; it is bad news for the Bay's yachting heritage at large. Although Dún Laoghaire turned a blind eye to the plight of the oldest intact one-design keelboat fleet in the world for 30 years or more they are now fully restored.

The Dublin Bay 21 Restoration team includes Steve Morris, James Madigan, Hal Sisk, Fionan de Barra, Fintan Ryan and Dan Mill.

Retaining the pure Mylne-designed hull was essential, but the project has new laminated cold-moulded hulls which are being built inverted but will, when finished and upright, be fitted on the original ballast keels, thereby maintaining the boat’s continuity of existence, the presence of the true spirit of the ship.

It will be a gunter-rigged sloop. It was decided a simpler yet clearly vintage rig was needed for the time-constrained sailors of the 21st Century. So, far from bringing the original and almost-mythical gaff cutter rig with jackyard topsail back to life above a traditionally-constructed hull, the project is content to have an attractive gunter-rigged sloop – “American gaff” some would call it.

The first DB 21 to get the treatment was Naneen, originally built in 1905 by Clancy of Dun Laoghaire for T. Cosby Burrowes, a serial boat owner from Cavan.

On Dublin Bay. Dublin Bay Sailing Club granted a racing start for 2020 Tuesday evening racing starting in 2020, but it was deferred due to COVID-19.
Initially, two Dublin Bay 21s will race then three as the boat building project based in Kilrush on the Shannon Estuary completes the six-boat project.
The restored boats will be welcomed back to the Bay in a special DBSC gun salute from committee boat Mac Lir at the start of the season.
In a recollection for Afloat, well known Dun Laoghaire one-design sailor Roger Bannon said: "They were complete bitches of boats to sail, over-canvassed and fundamentally badly balanced. Their construction and design was also seriously flawed which meant that they constantly leaked and required endless expensive maintenance. They suffered from unbelievable lee helm which led to regular swamping's and indeed several sinkings.

©Afloat 2020