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Displaying items by tag: Jon Simmons

Canoeing Ireland’s national talent development coach has completed seven kayaking marathons in just seven days in a charity fundraiser, as RTÉ News reports.

Jon Simmons, who is also head junior club coach at Salmon Leap Canoe Club in Leixlip, took up the 7x7 challenge which saw him paddle 42km on the Liffey each day for an entire week.

The mammoth effort — which was backed by fellow canoeing names like his fiancée Jenny Egan — was to raise funds and awareness for youth mental health charity Jigsaw.

RTÉ has more on the story HERE.

Published in Kayaking
Tagged under

#Canoeing: Ronan Foley and Jonathan Simmons took 14th place in the men’s K2 at the canoe marathon World Championships in Shaoxing in China today. Quentin Urban and Jeremy Candy of France won in under two hours, while Simmons, a former British international, and Foley covered the course in two hours six minutes and 16.97 seconds.  

Published in Canoeing

#Canoeing: Jenny Egan took fourth at the canoe marathon World Championships in Shaoxing in China. The long race, over 26.2 km, saw the Irish K1 paddler miss out on the bronze, which was taken by Lizzie Broughton of Britain. Hungary’s Vanda Kiszli won gold. Egan had been sixth in the short K1 race.

 Ronan Foley took 10th in the Under-23 ranks, and Peter Egan 23rd in the men’s senior K1. Peter Egan had won gold in the 40 to 40 age group at the World Masters Championships, also in Shaoxing.

Published in Canoeing

The GP14 is a popular sailing dinghy, with well over 14,000 boats built.

The class is active in the UK, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and parts of north-eastern USA, and the GP14 can be used for both racing and cruising. 

Designed by Jack Holt in 1949, with the assistance of the Dovey Yacht Club in Aberdyfi. The idea behind the design was to build a General Purpose (GP) 14-foot dinghy which could be sailed or rowed, capable of also being powered effectively by a small outboard motor, able to be towed behind a small family car and able to be launched and recovered reasonably easily, and stable enough to be able to lie to moorings or anchor when required. Racing soon followed, initially with some degree of opposition from Yachting World, who had commissioned the design, and the boat soon turned out to be an outstanding racing design also.

The boat was initially designed with a main and small jib as a comfortable family dinghy. In a design philosophy that is both practical and highly redolent of social attitudes of the day the intention was that she should accommodate a family comprising parents plus two children, and specifically that the jib should be modest enough for "Mum" or older children to handle, while she should perform well enough to give "Dad" some excitement when not taking the family out. While this rig is still available, and can be useful when using the boat to teach sailing, or for family sailing, and has some popularity for cruising, the boat is more commonly seen with the full modern rig of a mainsail, genoa and spinnaker. Australian boats also routinely use trapezes.

GP14 Ireland Event Dates 2023

  • O'Tiarnaigh (Apr 22-23) Blessington Sailing Club
  • Ulsters (May 20-21) East Antrim Boat Club
  • Munsters (Jun 17-18) Tralee Bay Sailing Club
  • Leinsters (Jul 7-9) Dun Laoghaire Regatta
  • SOYC (Aug 19-20) Rush Sailing Club
  • Nationals (Sep 1-3) Sutton Dinghy Club
  • Hot Toddy (Sep 30-Oct 1) Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club

 

At A Glance – GP14 Dinghy Specifications

Crew 2
Draft 1,200 mm (47 in)
Hull weight 132.9 kg
LOA 4.27 m (14 ft)
Beam 1.54 m
Spinnaker area 8.4 m2
Upwind sail area 12.85 m2

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