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A Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: AfloatA Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

Displaying items by tag: Colours

North station was the popular choice with the coin toss winners for the Dublin Colours Boat Race rowing event. Trinity won the men’s and chose it, with UCD winning the women’s.

 Sean Drea was the man in charge for the coin toss at the Dublin Civic Offices at Wood Quay. The races are scheduled for Saturday week, March 14th.

Published in Rowing
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#colourmatch – This Saturday, Trinity Sailing Club hosts its Colours team racing Event at a new Grand Canal Dock venue in Dublin city. All six UCD and TCD teams will compete against each other in the Dubarry of Ireland sponsored event. A flyer on the event is downloadable below. Read our Colours Match event report and photography HERE.

Traditionally this event takes place in Dun Laoghaire harbour but after the success of last year's match, which took place on the River Liffey in front of the Convention Centre, Trinity is taking the event to another new and unique location – Grand Canal Dock. Racing begins at 10a.m. sharp with a head to head, best of three matches between the corresponding teams, starting with TCD6 vs. UCD6.

In the afternoon the traditional Alumni and Ladies' races will take place before the two First teams compete for the title of winners of Colour's 2015.

All are welcome to come down and watch some competitive racing this Saturday. 

Published in Team Racing
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#ROWING: Trinity won all four Colours races on the Liffey today. In the Gannon Cup for senior men, the men in black and white hoops took a small early advantage, stretched it to three-quarters of a length by Capel Street Bridge and won by one-and-a-half lengths. The two novice races were surprisingly one-sided for the Dublin University crews. The best race of the day was the women’s senior contest, for the Corcoran Cup. UCD took an early advantage and led for most of the race. But Trinity were impressively controlled in their rowing and took the lead through the last two bridges. They stretched their advantage to half a length at the finish.

Colours Races 2015, Liffey, Dublin, Saturday, March 14th.

Senior Men (Gannon Cup): Trinity (A Browne, W Doyle, J Magan, M Corcoran, P Moreau, M Kelly, L Hawkes, D Butler; cox: C Flynn) bt UCD 1½ l

Novice (Dan Quinn Shield): Trinity bt UCD, easily

Senior Women (Corcoran Cup): Trinity (G Crowe, H O’Neill, H McCarthy, S Healy, S O’Brien, A Leahy, L McHugh, R Morris; cox: N Williams) bt UCD ½ l

Novice (Sally Moorhead trophy): Trinity bt UCD easily

Published in Rowing

#ROWING: UCD won the Gannon Cup for senior men after a terrific struggle, while Trinity senior women took the Corcoran Cup in facile fashion at the Colours Rowing Races on the Liffey today.

Trinity’s crew led the Gannon Cup race from just after the start, but could not gain a clearwater lead. UCD’s pushes were relentless, and though they were still behind coming through the final bridge, Watling Street, they then powered through and had command of the race when Trinity’s number four man and captain, Luke Acheson, collapsed. The race was not rowed out. It took a long time – too long - to get Acheson into an ambulance, as he had to be brought up the river all the way to City Quay before being lifted up the steps. He was being treated in St James’s Hospital this afternoon.

Trinity’s Corcoran Cup crew demonstrated that size is not everything in rowing. They were outsiders, but simply rowed better than UCD. They eked out an early lead and built it steadily into an unassailable margin by the end.

UCD’s annexation of the Sally Moorhead Trophy for novice women was also one-sided, but Trinity took the novice men’s title after UCD suffered a boat-stopping crab right in front of the Four Courts. UCD came back to lead briefly, but Trinity took control again before the finish.

Colours Rowing Races, O’Connell Bridge to St James’s Gate

Men – Senior (Gannon Cup): UCD (M Bailey, W Yeomans, C O’Riada, B Crosse, D O’Neill, A Griffin, P Moore, N Kenny (stroke); cox: L Mulvihill) bt Trinity not rowed out. Novice (Dan Quinn Shield): Trinity bt UCD 1 ½ l.

Women – Senior (Corcoran Cup): Trinity (G Crowe, H O’Neill, H McCarthy, R Deasy, S O’Brien, A Leahy, S Cass, R Morris (stroke); cox: N Williams) bt UCD easily.

Novice (Sally Moorhead Trophy): UCD bt Trinity easily.

Published in Rowing

The Gannon Cup Committee have announced the arrangements for the 2014 Dublin University Boat Races between Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin. The Colours rowing races will this year take place on Sunday,  March 16th, in association with the official St Patrick’s Festival. The races  will be contested on  the River Liffey from O’Connell Bridge to St James’ Gate Brewery. The senior men's race (The Gannon Cup) is set for 11 o'clock and  the senior women's race (Corcoran Cup) 10.30. The programme will commence at 9:30am with the novice women racing for the Sally Moorhead Trophy, followed by the novice men’s race for the Dan Quinn Shield at 10am.
A winter of extreme weather conditions has led to the cancellation of the majority of Rowing Ireland events, making it hard to predict the outcome of what promises to be a very exciting series of races.
 For Susannah Cass, who will row in the seven seat of Trinity's Corcoran Cup crew, this is just the first test in a summer of rowing adventures. Susannah will be racing across the Irish Sea in the Celtic Challenge race in May, before competing in the world’s first Pacific Ocean rowing race – a 2,400 mile challenge from California to Hawaii. Meanwhile, in the UCD crew, the Gilligan sisters will be hoping to keep the Corcoran Cup in the family, as Aoife enlists her sister Ruth’s help in defending the title.
 The senior men's race will have its 66th staging on Sunday. The Gannon Cup was founded in 1947 in memory of former UCD captain Ciarán Gannon, who lost his life serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps in Burma in 1944. There were no races in 1957 and 1958. UCD have dominated the event in recent years and will be hoping to make this their 7th consecutive win with the help of a strong crew of promising young athletes including World Under-23 silver medallist Niall Kenny. Trinity hope the return of coach Nick Dunlop, whose record includes a number of convincing Gannon Cup wins, turns the UCD tide.
Trinity won the coin toss hosted at Leinster House by Taoiseach Enda Kenny. They chose to race on the north station in both the men’s and women’s races.
The university boat races are an annual event on the River Liffey echoing the world famous Oxford/Cambridge University Boat Race in London. In 1980 Trinity were presented with the Corcoran Cup as winners of the inaugural women’s boat race; however, UCD responded strongly to this initial defeat and currently lead the series by 21 wins to Trinity’s 13. Races for novice men and women were introduced in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

Spectator buses will follow the races and depart from the O’Connell Bridge.
Program of events:
9:30am The Moorhead Trophy – Novice Women (holder Trinity)
10:00am The Dan Quinn Perpetual Shield – Novice Men (holder UCD)
10:30am The Corcoran Cup – Senior Women (holder UCD)
11:00am The Gannon Cup – Senior Men (holder UCD)

Published in Rowing

UCD beat Trinity by four and a half lengths in the Gannon Rowing Cup for senior men on the river Liffey in Dublin yesterday. It was their fourth consecutive Gannon and it headed up a clean sweep of colours titles in the new St Patrick’s Day slot. The Corcoran Cup for senior women was a close race, with UCD winning by three-quarters of a length, but Trinity’s novice women and novice men were well beaten.

Colours Races, River Liffey, Dublin

Gannon Cup (Senior Men): UCD (C Pierce, R Murray, S O’Neill, D Neal, F Manning, S Jacob, G Duane, P Grogan; cox: J Lynch) bt Trinity 4½l. Dan Quinn Shield (Novice): UCD bt Trinity 4l.

Corcoran Cup (Senior Women): UCD (C Tanner, K Joy, C Ni Reachtagain, A Bulman, S Bennett, A Gilligan, L Reid, B Lait; cox: C McGowan) bt Trinity ¾l. Moorhead Trophy (Novice Women): UCD bt Trinity 5l.

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How to sail, sailing clubs and sailing boats plus news on the wide range of sailing events on Irish waters forms the backbone of Afloat's sailing coverage.

We aim to encompass the widest range of activities undertaken on Irish lakes, rivers and coastal waters. This page describes those sailing activites in more detail and provides links and breakdowns of what you can expect from our sailing pages. We aim to bring jargon free reports separated in to popular categories to promote the sport of sailing in Ireland.

The packed 2013 sailing season sees the usual regular summer leagues and there are regular weekly race reports from Dublin Bay Sailing Club, Howth and Cork Harbour on Afloat.ie. This season and last also featured an array of top class events coming to these shores. Each year there is ICRA's Cruiser Nationals starts and every other year the Round Ireland Yacht Race starts and ends in Wicklow and all this action before July. Crosshaven's Cork Week kicks off on in early July every other year. in 2012 Ireland hosted some big international events too,  the ISAF Youth Worlds in Dun Laoghaire and in August the Tall Ships Race sailed into Dublin on its final leg. In that year the Dragon Gold Cup set sail in Kinsale in too.

2013 is also packed with Kinsale hosting the IFDS diabled world sailing championships in Kinsale and the same port is also hosting the Sovereign's Cup. The action moves to the east coast in July with the staging of the country's biggest regatta, the Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta from July 11.

Our coverage though is not restricted to the Republic of Ireland but encompasses Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Irish Sea area too. In this section you'll find information on the Irish Sailing Association and Irish sailors. There's sailing reports on regattas, racing, training, cruising, dinghies and keelboat classes, windsurfers, disabled sailing, sailing cruisers, Olympic sailing and Tall Ships sections plus youth sailing, match racing and team racing coverage too.

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There is a network of over 70 sailing clubs in Ireland and we invite all clubs to submit details of their activities for inclusion in our daily website updates. There are dedicated sections given over to the big Irish clubs such as  the waterfront clubs in Dun Laoghaire; Dublin Bay Sailing Club, the Royal Saint George Yacht Club,  the Royal Irish Yacht Club and the National Yacht Club. In Munster we regularly feature the work of Kinsale Yacht Club and Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven.  Abroad Irish sailors compete in Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) racing in the UK and this club is covered too. Click here for Afloat's full list of sailing club information. We are keen to increase our coverage on the network of clubs from around the coast so if you would like to send us news and views of a local interest please let us have it by sending an email to [email protected]

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Over 20 active dinghy and one design classes race in Irish waters and fleet sizes range from just a dozen or so right up to over 100 boats in the case of some of the biggest classes such as the Laser or Optimist dinghies for national and regional championships. Afloat has dedicated pages for each class: Dragons, Etchells, Fireball, Flying Fifteen, GP14, J24's, J80's, Laser, Sigma 33, RS Sailing, Star, Squibs, TopperMirror, Mermaids, National 18, Optimist, Puppeteers, SB3's, and Wayfarers. For more resources on Irish classes go to our dedicated sailing classes page.

The big boat scene represents up to 60% of the sail boat racing in these waters and Afloat carries updates from the Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA), the body responsible for administering cruiser racing in Ireland and the popular annual ICRA National Championships. In 2010 an Irish team won the RORC Commodore's Cup putting Irish cruiser racing at an all time high. Popular cruiser fleets in Ireland are raced right around the coast but naturally the biggest fleets are in the biggest sailing centres in Cork Harbour and Dublin Bay. Cruisers race from a modest 20 feet or so right up to 50'. Racing is typically divided in to Cruisers Zero, Cruisers One, Cruisers Two, Cruisers Three and Cruisers Four. A current trend over the past few seasons has been the introduction of a White Sail division that is attracting big fleets.

Traditionally sailing in northern Europe and Ireland used to occur only in some months but now thanks to the advent of a network of marinas around the coast (and some would say milder winters) there are a number of popular winter leagues running right over the Christmas and winter periods.

Sailing Events

Punching well above its weight Irish sailing has staged some of the world's top events including the Volvo Ocean Race Galway Stopover, Tall Ships visits as well as dozens of class world and European Championships including the Laser Worlds, the Fireball Worlds in both Dun Laoghaire and Sligo.

Some of these events are no longer pure sailing regattas and have become major public maritime festivals some are the biggest of all public staged events. In the past few seasons Ireland has hosted events such as La Solitaire du Figaro and the ISAF Dublin Bay 2012 Youth Worlds.

There is a lively domestic racing scene for both inshore and offshore sailing. A national sailing calendar of summer fixtures is published annually and it includes old favorites such as Sovereign's Cup, Calves Week, Dun Laoghaire to Dingle, All Ireland Sailing Championships as well as new events with international appeal such as the Round Britain and Ireland Race and the Clipper Round the World Race, both of which have visited Ireland.

The bulk of the work on running events though is carried out by the network of sailing clubs around the coast and this is mostly a voluntary effort by people committed to the sport of sailing. For example Wicklow Sailing Club's Round Ireland yacht race run in association with the Royal Ocean Racing Club has been operating for over 30 years. Similarly the international Cork Week regatta has attracted over 500 boats in past editions and has also been running for over 30 years.  In recent years Dublin Bay has revived its own regatta called Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta and can claim to be the country's biggest event with over 550 boats entered in 2009.

On the international stage Afloat carries news of Irish and UK interest on Olympics 2012, Sydney to Hobart, Volvo Ocean Race, Cowes Week and the Fastnet Race.

We're always aiming to build on our sailing content. We're keen to build on areas such as online guides on learning to sail in Irish sailing schools, navigation and sailing holidays. If you have ideas for our pages we'd love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected]