On Saturday October 20th I spoke with Gabriel Murphy at St. Patrick’s Rowing Club end of season BBQ. Gabriel who has been a member of the East Coast Council for a long time and was also PRO of the East Coast Rowing Council this year said the club has had an outstanding year. The crews involved were; two U12 crews, an U14 crew, a junior ladies crew who won bronze, an U16 crew who also won bronze, a mixed crew who won silver, the intermediates who picked up bronze too and the juniors and seniors both won Gold.
The seniors have been unbeaten for the whole year on the East Coast and went on to win the All Ireland in Cork. While at the All Ireland they took part in the Heritage Boat Race for original boats and came both first and second. They also won the Hobblers Challenge; a race around the Kish Lighthouse in September.
The East Coast Regatta season starts around the Bank Holiday weekend in June normally with the Stella Maris Regatta and then it goes on during the summer and finishes up in Wicklow on the August Bank Holiday weekend. The indoor training starts for most rowers in January/February and around March they try to get the boats back in the water. This year the crews saw a lot of wind and rain nearly every night of the week but all credit to them for persevering no matter the weather.
In 2007 new rules were introduced were all skiffs must be built the same and this has made a huge difference to regattas. St. Patrick’s recently got a new uniformed boat which is the one shape to fit this criteria. And this year bar one race out of the whole year the uniformed boat has been a winner. The new boats they row now are also compatible with the boats in Cornwall, West France, Scotland, Norway and the Basque area of Spain. The club also came second in a big contest in Italy.
Gabriel would like to thank Irene Montgomery who does a lot of the work for the kids and also makes the cakes (which get great reviews from all the clubs after every race). He would also like to thank Phillip Murphy who is working very hard as the child welfare officer of the East Coast Rowing Council, not forgetting Ken Cunningham who was the rep for St. Patricks Rowing Club at most of the regattas during the year. A big thanks from the entire club to John Hawkins who does a lot of work behind the scenes.
By Jason McDonnell
