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#Rowing: Ireland has its first finalist of the European Rowing Championships. Denise Walsh pulled off a surprise win in her lightweight single sculls repechage from lane one. The Skibbereen woman started well and led to half way, but by then Imogen Walsh, the defending champion from Britain, had moved up right beside her. The Briton then took over the lead and both moved clear of the field. Denise Walsh to resumed her place in the lead before the finish line. Both Walshs qualified for Sunday’s final.

European Championships, Brandenburg, Germany – Day Two (Selected results, Irish interest)

Women

Lightweight Single Sculls – Repechage (First Two to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Ireland (D Walsh)  8:39.41, 2 Britain (I Walsh) 8:41.08.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Gary and Paul O’Donovan won their heat of the lightweight double sculls at the European Championships in Brandenburg in Germany. The Czech Republic showed well early on, but by halfway the brothers from Skibbereen had a small lead, which they extended from there on. As the Czechs faded, Belgium strengthened, and they took second. Switzerland edged out the Czechs for the third direct qualification place.

 Sinéad Jennings and Claire Lambe took second in their heat of the lightweight double to qualify for the semi-finals. With Ukraine stuck in  fourth place, the Netherlands, Ireland and Germany were set for the semi-final places, but fought it out before finishing in that order.  

 Denise Walsh finished fifth in her heat of the lightweight single sculls and must compete in a repechage. In the men’s lightweight pair, the world champions, Sam Scrimgeour and Joel Cassells of Britain, won their heat and took the A Final place. The Ireland crew of Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll held second right down the course and sprinted to the line to hold off a challenge by Poland.  

European Championships, Brandenburg, Germany – Day One (Selected results, Irish interest)

Men

Lightweight Pair – Heat One (Winner to A Final; rest to repechage): 1 Britain (S Scrimgeour, J Cassells) 6:59.29; 2 Ireland (M O’Donovan, S O’Driscoll) 7:06.20.

Lightweight Double Sculls – Heat Two (First three to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to repechage): 1 Ireland (G O’Donovan, P O’Donovan) 6:46.75, 2 Belgium 6:49.46, 3 Switzerland 6:51.12.

Women

Quadruple Sculls – Heat One (Winner to A Final; rest to repechage): 3 Britain (3: H Nixon) 6:48.20.

Single Sculls – Heat One (First three to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to repechage): 1 Ireland (S Puspure) 8:09.55, 2 Latvia (E Gulbe) 8:13.73, 3 Britain (M Hodgkins-Byrne) 8:16.21.

Lightweight Double Sculls – Heat Three (First three to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to repechage): 1 Netherlands 7:29.38, 2 Ireland (C Lambe, S Jennings) 7:34.04, 3 Germany 7:38.89.

Lightweight Single Sculls – Heat One (First Two to A Final; rest to repechage): 1 Denmark 8:23.99, 2 Poland 8:25.82: 5 Ireland (D Walsh) 8:35.99.  

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Sanita Puspure won her heat of the single sculls at the European Rowing Championships in Brandenburg, Germany, this morning. The Ireland competitor disputed the lead with Mathilde Hodgkins-Byrne of Britain in the early stages of the race, but took over on her own by half way and beat second-placed Elza Gulbe of Latvia by over four seconds. Gulbe and Hodgkins-Byrne also qualified directly for the semi-finals. Mirka Knapkova and Ekaterina Karsten were the top two in the second heat and Magdalena Lobnig won the third.

European Championships, Brandenburg, Germany – Day One (Selected results, Irish interest)

Women

Single Sculls – Heat One (First three to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to repechage): 1 Ireland (S Puspure) 8:09.55, 2 Latvia (E Gulbe) 8:13.73, 3 Britain (M Hodgkins-Byrne) 8:16.21.

Published in Rowing

Ireland's Trading Ketch Ilen

The Ilen is the last of Ireland’s traditional wooden sailing ships.

Designed by Limerick man Conor O’Brien and built in Baltimore in 1926, she was delivered by Munster men to the Falkland Islands where she served valiantly for seventy years, enduring and enjoying the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, and Screaming Sixties.

Returned now to Ireland and given a new breath of life, Ilen may be described as the last of Ireland’s timber-built ocean-going sailing ships, yet at a mere 56ft, it is capable of visiting most of the small harbours of Ireland.

Wooden Sailing Ship Ilen FAQs

The Ilen is the last of Ireland’s traditional wooden sailing ships.

The Ilen was designed by Conor O’Brien, the first Irish man to circumnavigate the world.

Ilen is named for the West Cork River which flows to the sea at Baltimore, her home port.

The Ilen was built by Baltimore Sea Fisheries School, West Cork in 1926. Tom Moynihan was foreman.

Ilen's wood construction is of oak ribs and planks of larch.

As-built initially, she is 56 feet in length overall with a beam of 14 feet and a displacement of 45 tonnes.

Conor O’Brien set sail in August 1926 with two Cadogan cousins from Cape Clear in West Cork, arriving at Port Stanley in January 1927 and handed it over to the new owners.

The Ilen was delivered to the Falkland Islands Company, in exchange for £1,500.

Ilen served for over 70 years as a cargo ship and a ferry in the Falkland Islands, enduring and enjoying the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, and Screaming Sixties. She stayed in service until the early 1990s.

Limerick sailor Gary McMahon and his team located Ilen. MacMahon started looking for her in 1996 and went out to the Falklands and struck a deal with the owner to bring her back to Ireland.

After a lifetime of hard work in the Falklands, Ilen required a ground-up rebuild.

A Russian cargo ship transported her back on a 12,000-mile trip from the Southern Oceans to Dublin. The Ilen was discharged at the Port of Dublin 1997, after an absence from Ireland of 70 years.

It was a collaboration between the Ilen Project in Limerick and Hegarty’s Boatyard in Old Court, near Skibbereen. Much of the heavy lifting, of frames, planking, deadwood & backbone, knees, floors, shelves and stringers, deck beams, and carlins, was done in Hegarty’s. The generally lighter work of preparing sole, bulkheads, deck‐houses fixed furniture, fixtures & fittings, deck fittings, machinery, systems, tanks, spar making and rigging is being done at the Ilen boat building school in Limerick.

Ten years. The boat was much the worse for wear when it returned to West Cork in May 1998, and it remained dormant for ten years before the start of a decade-long restoration.

Ilen now serves as a community floating classroom and cargo vessel – visiting 23 ports in 2019 and making a transatlantic crossing to Greenland as part of a relationship-building project to link youth in Limerick City with youth in Nuuk, west Greenland.

At a mere 56ft, Ilen is capable of visiting most of the small harbours of Ireland.

©Afloat 2020