#Rowing: Ireland’s entry for Henley Royal Regatta is again relatively small this year. Trinity and Portora Royal School have entered eights, while Lady Elizabeth Boat Club and Belfast Rowing Club have both entered Wyfolds fours. UCC have entered a coxed four for the Prince Albert Cup. Qualifying races take place on Friday, June 26^th; while the regatta starts on Wednesday, July 1^st.

Henley Royal Regatta Entries (Irish interest)

Temple Cup (Eight, Student): Trinity College, Dublin

Princess Elizabeth (Eight, Schoolboy): Portora Royal School

Wyfold Cup (Four, Club and University): Lady Elizabeth; Belfast Rowing Club

Prince Albert (Fours, coxed, Student): University College, Cork

Diamond Sculls (Single, Open): A Campbell

#teamrace – A very exciting and eventful finals series on Saturday, produced an all UCC final, with UCC1 facing off against UCC2. UCC1 won the first three races of the five race final which saw them being crowned Intervarsity Champions for 2014/2015. From the 26th to the 28th of February UCC Sailing Club hosted the IUSA Intervarsity Championships in the Fastnet Marine Outdoor Education Centre, Schull, Co. Cork. The event consisted of three days of highly competitive racing, despite the extremely heavy conditions. Days one and two saw 28 teams racing in three fleets (Gold, Silver and Bronze), which were selected according to team rankings based on the results of the regional events this season.

On day three, the top 16 teams were selected for the finals series, with the winners of each respective race going on to quarter finals, namely University College Cork 1, University College Cork 2, University College Dublin 1, University College Dublin 4, Trinity College Dublin 1, Scottish University Sailing Association, Loughborough University and Cork Institute of Technology 1.
Sadly, due to the increasingly adverse conditions, the race committee were forced to cancel the Silver and Bronze fleet finals and therefore their prizes were awarded based on the standings from the first two days of racing.

The semi-finals saw defending champions UCD1 narrowly lose out to UCC2 and UCC1 overcome SUSA. As a result, the host club found themselves in an all-UCC final, with UCC1 coming out on top, securing victory over their fellow club members by winning the first three of the best-of-five final.

The awards ceremony took place on Saturday night, with the National University of Ireland Galway being awarded Best Club of the Year for their tremendous efforts in promoting and enhancing their club over the past year, and for being incredibly compliant and helpful to any club who hosted events during the season. Event of the Year was awarded to UCD who hosted the Eastern Championships in Blessington earlier in the year. First Year Sailor of the Year was awarded to newly crowned Intervarsity champion, Fionn Lyden of UCC1. Sailor of the year went to the very deserving Philip Doran of UCD1.
On behalf of UCC Sailing Club I would like to thank everybody who partook in the organisation and running of this event, in particular the Irish University Sailing Association committee, the volunteers (including many UCCSC alumni), the race committee – lead by Denis Quinlan, the umpires, everyone in the Fastnet Marine Outdoor Education Centre, the community of Schull, and our fellow university clubs.

Gold Fleet prize winning teams:
UCC1: Cian O' Regan, Fionn Lyden, Aidan McLaverty, Eimear O' Leary, Dave Healy, Niamh Ní Chonghaile
UCC2: Ross Murray, Brendan Lyden, Conor Lyden, Liam Manning, Chloe Crosbie, Emma Geary
UCD1: Philip Doran, Conor Murphy, Rory Lynch, Tara Flood, Clíodhna Connolly, Ally Morehead

ROWING: The weather defied the forecast and rowers enjoyed calm and dry rowing conditions for the majority of the day at the Muckross Head of the River today. Skibbereen RC and Lee RC shared top spoils on the day with five pennant wins each – heading up a competition with over 380 entries representing 24 clubs. The Skibbereen Men’s Intermediate Eight was fastest home on the day in an impressive time of 09:50 over the course measured at 3.800 metres. The Mens’ Senior Quad was contested by six crews with a tie for first place as Skibbereen crew was matched by the composite of Waterford/Castleconnell/Shandon in a time of 10:10. The Men’s Intermediate Four was won by UCC who also picked up the Men’s Intermediate Pair title. Waterford were victors in the field of 10 entries for the Men’s Intermediate Double.

The accolade of fastest single sculler went to Damien Kelly of Garda Boat Club who the Men’s Intermediate Scull in a time of 12:05.

Clonmel were dominant in the Men’s Novice events, fastest in the Quad, Double and Single Sculls.

At junior level, Shandon Boat Club recorded the fastest junior time as their Junior Men’s Quad secured their win in a time of 10:16. Shandon also took the title in the Men’s Masters Scull.

Shannon, with the advantage in age, took home the Men’s Junior Four pennant while Skibbereen RC impressed to win the Men’s Junior 18 Double.

Waterford Boat Club were winners of the Men’s Junior 18 Single but it was the clubs of Cork who stole a march at Men’s Junior 16 Level. Cork Boat Club won both Junior 16 Eight and Quad in addition to the Junior 15 Quad. Lee RC and Fermoy RC were winners in the Junior 16 Double and Single events respectively. Skibbereen were again on form with the fastest row in the Men’s Junior 15 Double while the show of strength by Lee RC in junior sculling earned the club another victory in the Men’s Junior 15 Scull. The fastest Junior 14 crew was the Shandon Boat Club Quad.

The DULBC Senior Eight was the fastest women's crew in a time of 10:54 and the Trinity ladies also took the Senior Pair pennant. In the Women's Senior Four, just one second was the difference between winners Cork Boat Club and the composite of Shannon/UCD/Killorglin. In the Intemediate Eight, DULBC also secured victory by the smallest of margins with one second over UCC. Amy Bulman of UCC scooped the Senior Single Sculls while O'Neill of Garda BC was the fastest Intermediate Sculler. Garda also flexed their muscle with another win in the Intermediate Double.

The Women's Junior events offered a wealth of competition with 20 scullers contesting the Junior 18 Single and 16 entrants in the Junior 16 Single. A large field of crews contested all categories at Junior 15 and Junior 14 level. Skibbereen stole a march in the Women's Junior Quad while host club Muckross were victors in the Junior Double. Hegarty of Skibbereen was a deserved winner in the Women's Junior 18 Single. Shandon were sole entrants in the Junior 16 Four with three crews.

Clonmel RC were victors in the Women's Junior 16 Double while Lee RC led the way to win the Junior 16 Single. Shandon Boat Club showed the way for junior crews in the big boat, taking the Women's Junior 15 Eight pennant back Leeside.

Castleconnell earned its share of the prizes with wins in both Women\s Junior 15 Quad and Double. Lee's dominance in junior sculling was further advanced with their win in the Women's Junior 15 Single while Lee also struck gold in a large field of Junior 14 Quad entries.

The organisers were extremely pleased with the support received on the day and appreciated the effort of all clubs to move the large entry of crews through the single rolling head with great efficiency.

#NewUCCcentre – According to a report in the Irish Examiner, University College Cork has been granted permission to facilitate site works for the development of a major maritime research centre on the southside of Cork harbour.

The university applied at the end of July for the works, on a site of 15 acres next to Cork Institute of Technology's National Maritime College of Ireland, (which held it's Open Day on Tuesday this week) in Ringaskiddy.

The development also adjoins the under-construction Beaufort Laboratory, for which permission was given on foot of a 2011 application to Cork County Council. For more details among a series of projects listed under planning notes, click HERE.

#ROWING: Enniskillen club Portora bridged a gap back to 1980 when they won the junior men’s eights title at the Irish Rowing Championships at the National Rowing Centre in Cork today. St Joseph’s of Galway, seeking their third successive junior eights crown, fought it out with Portora down the course, but the boys in black and gold kept their heads impressively to pull away at the end.

The Gráinne Mhaol four of Fionnán Tolan, Alan Martin, Cormac Folan and James Wall beat Old Collegians to win the senior fours. The first half of the race was a nip-and-tuck battle, but the Galway crew moved away at 1250 metres to win well.

UCD and NUIG fought it out right to the finish in the women’s intermediate eights, with the Dublin college just shading it. UCD also won the inaugural men’s club eight – by almost eight seconds.

Justin Ryan gave UCC a title when he won the lightweight single sculls from Tim Harnedy of Skibbereen. The west Cork club added to their title roll by winning the junior women’s four.

Clonmel won the women’s novice coxed quadruple sculls from NUIG.

Irish Rowing Championships, National Rowing Centre, Cork (Selected Results, Finals)

Men

Eight – Club: 1 UCD 6:03.79, 2 Skibbereen 6:11.41, 3 Trinity B 6:13.04. Junior: 1 Portora 6:06.24, 2 St Joseph’s 6:10.21, 3 Bann 6:17.78.

Four – Senior: 1 Gráinne Mhaol 6:10.15, 2 Old Collegians 6:14.81.

Four, coxed – Intermediate: 1 NUIG 6:26.37, 2 Carlow 6:29.33, 3 Neptune 6:36.71.

Sculling, Quadruple – Novice, coxed: 1 Queen’s 6:49.52, 2 Clonmel 7:01.83, 3 Kenmare 7:17.56.

Double – Senior: 1 Skibbereen 6:30.22, 2 Three Castles 6:34.96, 3 UCC 6:45.32.

Single – Lightweight: 1 UCC (J Ryan) 7:26.61, 2 Skibbereen (T Harnedy) 7:31.73, 3 UCD (S Toland) 7:39.60.

Junior: 1 St Michael’s (D O’Malley) 7:17.53, 2 Shannon (C Carmody) 7:22.81, 3 Waterford (A Goff) 7:25.24.

Women

Eight – Intermediate: UCD 6:44.30, 2 NUIG 6:44.92, 3 Queen’s 6:55.60.

Four – Senior: 1 NUIG/Cork 6:57.92, 2 Trinity 7:09.18, 3 Skibbereen 7:16.93. Junior Four: 1 Skibbereen 7:18.45, 2 Muckross 7:29.03, 3 Shannon 7:31.07.

Four, coxed – Club: 1 NUIG A 7:25.50, 2 UCC 7:33.87, 3 Skibbereen 7:38.30.

Pair – Intermediate: 1 St Michael’s 7:49.72, 2 Trinity 7:53.27, 3 Shannon 7:53.29.

Sculling,

Quadruple – Novice, coxed: 1 Clonmel 7:47.42, 2 NUIG 8:03.81, 3 Athlunkard 8:48.81.

Double – Junior: 1 Cork 7:26.87, 2 Belfast 7:32.25, 3 Commercial 7:36.33.

#spatialplanning– Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) is coming to prominence as a new approach to the governance of the seas and oceans.  The European Union has taken important steps to promote the uptake of MSP by Member States. Trans boundary planning in the European Atlantic is a project funded by DG Mare and the first workshop in the project is being held in Newry, Co. Down today.

The project is a partnership between the University of Liverpool and the Coastal Management Resource Centre of UCC. Delegates from a number of N Ireland government departments and the Republic have joined with industry stakeholders to discuss in the workshops some of the issues surrounding MSP. The Irish Marine Federation is the single voice representing the marine leisure sector.

Already the group are settling in to try to develop a methodology to ensure that all sectors will contribute to the debate from a social, environmental and an economic view point.

Steve Conlon of the IMF stated that it is important that the marine leisure industry full engages with this type of forum to ensure that the leisure boating voice continues to be heard.

#marinescience – The Atlantic Forum taking place at University College Cork over the next two days (4th-5th March 2013) will focus on research and innovation as a driver of blue growth and job creation in the EU Atlantic Area. Participants from Ireland, Spain, Portugal, France and the UK aim to complete an Action Plan for the European Union Atlantic Strategy 2014 -2020.   This is the fifth and final workshop in the Atlantic Forum consultation process, during which conferences have already been held in Azores, Brest, Bilbao, and Cardiff as well as an on-line public consultation and the input from a range of stakeholders including the European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions and the Atlantic Regions.

Mr. Simon Coveney, TD, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine opened the event saying, "This is an important and exciting juncture for both Ireland and the EU to put in place an action plan to address the major opportunities associated with our shared Atlantic resource. Ireland has been a proactive supporter of this strategy and action plan contributing through the Government's Marine Coordination Group and represented by the Marine Institute's Dr. Peter Heffernan on the EU's leadership Forum."

The Irish Government has also recognised the important role that Ireland's ocean wealth will play in national recovery and growth. An Integrated Marine Plan for Ireland - Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth, was published last July setting a target of increasing turnover to over €6.4Billion by 2020 (88%) and to double the value of our ocean wealth to 2.4% GDP by 2030.

Mr. Sean Sherlock, TD, Minister of State with responsibility for research and innovation said, "What is clear from today's Atlantic Forum meeting is the centrality and critical role of research and innovation in delivering the Atlantic Action Plan and supporting and developing blue growth and sustainable job creation in the marine and maritime sectors."

Dr. Michael Murphy, President UCC commented that "UCC has an essential role to play in the research and innovation in the maritime sector and this is evidenced by the significant historical levels of funding we have attracted, the major funding we secured for the state-of-the-art Beaufort Laboratory and most recently the major funding award in marine renewable energy from Science Foundation Ireland."

A team from the Commission's Maritime Affairs Directorate, led by Director General Lowri Evans, will present an outline of the draft action plan on Tuesday followed by a discussion on the possibilities for funding the Atlantic Strategy and its implementation and monitoring.

The key overarching themes in the Atlantic Strategy are: Implementing the Ecosystem Approach; Reducing Europe's Carbon Footprint; Exploiting the Atlantic's seafloor resources; Responding to threats & emergencies;  and Socially inclusive growth.

The Action Plan for the implementation of the Maritime Strategy for the Atlantic is expected to be adopted by the European Commission in the coming weeks and endorsed by the Council of the European Union during the Irish Presidency, a key priority of the Irish Presidency in the Integrated Maritime Policy area.

#UCC – Irish research which led to the discovery of smoking vents on the mid Atlantic Ridge will feature in a National Geographic programme to be broadcast next Sunday, 28 October.

National Geographic has produced a five part series, The Alien Deep, which takes viewers into underwater worlds where no human has gone before.

The programme will be broadcast this Sunday 28th October at 6pm on National Geographic channel on Sky (channel 526) and also UPC (channel 215). The programme presenter is Dr Robert Ballard, famed explorer who found the Titanic at its final resting place.

The series takes viewers into an underwater world 3,000m deep, where, on the slopes of the Mid-Ocean ridges that divide the earth's tectonic plates, chimney- like formations spew black plumes of superheated water packed with chemicals, minerals and dissolved gases allowing life to thrive against the odds. The leader of the scientific team was Dr Andy Wheeler, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at University College Cork who worked with scientists from the National University of Ireland Galway, Geological Survey of Ireland, the University of Southampton and the National Oceanography Centre in the UK. "It's great to see Ireland's expertise recognised on TV", says Dr Wheeler. "Discovering a new volcanic landscape three km below was a thrill."

The scientists were on board the Irish National Research Vessel, Celtic Explorer and used the Remotely Operated Vehicle Holland 1 for their explorations of the deep and was supported by the Marine Institute under the 2011 Ship-Time Programme of the National Development Plan.

The team named the previously uncharted field of hydrothermal vents along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the first to be explored north of the Azores, the Moytirra Vent Field. Moytirra is the name of a battlefield in Irish mythology, and appropriately means 'Plain of the Pillars'. Patrick Collins from the Ryan Institute, NUI Galway led Ireland's marine biological team on the surve

#ucc – Adding to the buzz in the Royal Cork Yacht Club yesterday was the celebration of UCC's Sailing Club 40th Anniversary that took the form of a celebratory Regatta and Dinner with all proceeds from the event going to the Joe English Trust writes Claire Bateman.

The Regatta consisted of 3 vs 3 team racing in Fireflies provided for the racing and the six person teams had to be made up of at least four alumni or present UCC students.

A dinner will take place in the RCYC this evening at 7.30pm for everyone with sailors not participating in the regatta more than welcome.

#POWER FROM THE SEA - A new marine research lab in Cork Harbour could help Ireland to be a global leader in renewable energy, the Irish Examiner reports.

The Beaufort Laboratory, being built on a three-acre site next to the National Maritime College of Ireland on Haulbowline Island, is set to be completed by 2016.

And scientists at the €14 million lab have told Minister for Energy Pat Rabbitte that it will be the largest marine renewable energy research facility in the world.

Expected to be a base for 135 researchers from University College Cork (UCC), the lab also hopes to attract the world's top researchers in marine energy to the area, with an aim to exploiting the potential for jobs in the fast-growing ocean energy sector.

The new lab forms part of the Irish Maritime and Energy Resource Cluster (IMERC) established to promote the country as a world-renowned research and development location, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

The Irish Examiner has more on the story HERE.