Displaying items by tag: Neptune Head of the River

3rd November 2016

Neptune Head of the River is Off

#Rowing: Neptune Head of the River, scheduled for Saturday, November 5^th on Blessington Lakes has been cancelled. The organisers say that the forecast of high winds at the venue meant they could not continue with the event. A big part of the entry consisted of junior crews – there were 20 entries in the men’s junior 18 single sculls.

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30th January 2016

Neptune Head Cancelled

#Rowing: The Neptune Head of the River at Blessington had to be cancelled this morning because of bad weather. The organisers had been ready to go ahead but conditions were not rowable. This is a double blow for the event, as it had originally been fixed for November and had to be called off because of a bad weather forecast.

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5th November 2015

Forecast of Strong Gusts Forces Cancellation of Neptune Head

#Rowing: The Neptune Head of the River, scheduled for this Saturday, November 7th, has been cancelled. The weather forecast for the course at Blessington predicted gusts of up to 40 kilometres per hour, forcing the organisers to take the option of calling off the event.

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4th April 2015

Close Finishes Add Spice at Neptune Regatta

# Rowing: Trinity took the women’s eights title at the Neptune Regatta at sunny Islandbridge today, beating a game Portora crew which had earlier had an easy win in the women’s junior 18 final. Trinity A beat Trinity B in the men’s senior eights final. The men’s masters eights final was a terrific race, won by Neptune by a canvas. In another fine battle, Fionnán Groome of Commercial won the intermediate singles final by beating Sam McKeown of Portadown by a quarter of a canvas.

Neptune Regatta, Islandbridge, Saturday (Selected Results)

Men

Eights – Senior: Trinity A bt Trinity B 4l, 3:17. Club One: UCD bt Portora 1½ l, 3:20. Novice: Trinity A bt Trinity B 3l, 3:43. Junior 16: Portora bt Commercial 4l, 3:40. Junior 15: Portora bt Commercial, 3l, 4:01. Masters: Neptune bt Commercial canvas.

Four – Senior, coxed: Trinity (M Corcoran, P Moreau, M Kelly, L Hawkes; cox: K Salley) bt Neptune/Trinity 3l, 3:30. Club One, coxed: UCD bt Belfast 1½ l. Junior 18, coxed: Portora bt Athlone easily, 5:06. Masters: Commercial bt Carlow 3l.

Sculling,

Quadruple – Club Two, coxed: Athlone bt Sligo 2ft, 3:59. Junior 18: Commercial bt Portora easily, Junior 16, coxed: Three Castles bt Portora 1l. Junior 15, coxed: Commercial A bt Neptune, disqualified

Double – Junior 16: St Michael’s B bt Clonmel 3l, 4:40.Junior 15: Neptune A bt Carlow easily, 4:26.

Single – Senior: Trinity (I Hurley) bt Commercial (C Dowling) ½l, 4:05. Intermediate: Commercial (F Groome) bt Portadown (S McKeown) ¼ canvas, 4:47. Club One: Sligo (Patterson). Club Two: Trinity (L Addison) bt Trinity (Norton) 3l, 4:20. Junior 18: Athlone (Munnelly) bt Graiguenamanagh (Lennon) 2l, 4:25. Junior 16: St Michael’s (O’Byrne) bt Clonmel (Dundon) 3 1/3, 5:37.

Women

Eights – Senior: Trinity bt Portora 3l, 3:47. Club One: Trinity bt UCD 2l. Novice: Commercial bt Trinity B 1½ l. Junior 18: Portora bt Neptune easily, 4:04. Junior 16: Portora bt Athlone easily, 4:11. Junior 15: Portora B bt Portora A 1½ l.

Four – Senior, coxed: Trinity bt Commercial 3l. Intermediate: Portora bt Trinity canvas, 4:12. Club One, coxed: Trinity A bt Trinity B 2l, 4:17.

Sculling,

Quadruple - Club Two, coxed: Garda bt Fermoy 2/3 l 4:25. Junior 18: Neptune bt Sligo row over. Junior 16, coxed: Carlow bt Castleconnell 3l, 4:24. Junior 15, coxed: St Michael’s A bt New Ross easily, 4:43.

Double – Junior 16: Carlow bt Athlone easily; 5.00. Junior 15: St Michael’s A bt New Ross 4l, 4:50

Single, Senior: New Ross (E Maurin) bt Portadown (Martin) easily, 4:45. Club One: Fermoy (Bounane) bt Three Castles (Feely) easily, 4:45. Club Two: Garda (J Ryan) bt Clonmel (O’Malley-Adair) 2½ l. Junior 18: Neptune (Feerick) bt Belfast (Coulter) easily, 4:59. Junior 16: Fermoy (Murphy) bt Fermoy (O’Sullivan) ½ l, 4:55.

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The Half Ton Class was created by the Offshore Racing Council for boats within the racing band not exceeding 22'-0". The ORC decided that the rule should "....permit the development of seaworthy offshore racing yachts...The Council will endeavour to protect the majority of the existing IOR fleet from rapid obsolescence caused by ....developments which produce increased performance without corresponding changes in ratings..."

When first introduced the IOR rule was perfectly adequate for rating boats in existence at that time. However yacht designers naturally examined the rule to seize upon any advantage they could find, the most noticeable of which has been a reduction in displacement and a return to fractional rigs.

After 1993, when the IOR Mk.III rule reached it termination due to lack of people building new boats, the rule was replaced by the CHS (Channel) Handicap system which in turn developed into the IRC system now used.

The IRC handicap system operates by a secret formula which tries to develop boats which are 'Cruising type' of relatively heavy boats with good internal accommodation. It tends to penalise boats with excessive stability or excessive sail area.

Competitions

The most significant events for the Half Ton Class has been the annual Half Ton Cup which was sailed under the IOR rules until 1993. More recently this has been replaced with the Half Ton Classics Cup. The venue of the event moved from continent to continent with over-representation on French or British ports. In later years the event is held biennially. Initially, it was proposed to hold events in Ireland, Britain and France by rotation. However, it was the Belgians who took the ball and ran with it. The Class is now managed from Belgium.