News | Waterford Boat Club

Cork Head of the River Feb 2025

25th February 2025 at 10:26 pm

After a long Winter’s training and with several cancelled events in the rear view mirror Waterford took part in their first race of the new Season on a rare sunny February day in Cork on Saturday 22nd. Cork Head of the River is organised by the various Cork City clubs on The Marina in Cork and always makes for an excellent location for racing. The course was the regular 4.3km time trial from Cork Harbour down to Blackrock Castle. Waterford were rowing out of Shandon this year.

Waterford had 17 entries on the day and also saw 6 of our newer members have their first race. Huge congratulations to Moya, Mykola, Bill, Harry Walsh, Cathal, Lochlan and Padraig for taking part in their first of many events and for giving an excellent account of themselves.

The Club would like to extend their thanks to parents, volunteers and coaches for all their help over the weekend. Special thanks to Mick McGagh for towing the trailer to and from Cork and also to Cormac Power from Greenvolt Next for providing a towing vehicle for the day. It’s hugely appreciated by the club.

Last and certainly not least, thanks to all out athletes for a great effort on the day. It’s been a long hard Winter of training with multiple cancellations along the way so it was great to see everyone back on the water competing, especially our new members. Looking forward to many more great days over the season.

Race report and Results

First up on the day in Fixed Head 1 were the WJ18A 4X- crew of Kate, Sarah, Jessica and Edie who took an excellent 4th place in a very tight race, a mere 14 seconds behind winners Skibbereen.

Next up in Fixed Head 2 was Seán Harte who came 3^rd out of 30 in an extremely competitive MJ18A 1X. Brilliant display from Seán.

The next head was the first Rolling Head and saw our younger J14 and J15 crews take to the water. The WJ15 4X+ crew of Amelie, Moya, Hannah and Sofia with cox Faye put in a fine display with Moya making her debut and 2 of the girls stepping up from their J14 category.

For the first time we had three MJ14 4X+ crews take part in the same category. First up were the Waterford B crew of Leon, Hugh, Maksym and Toby who placed 7th overall in their category. Later in the day in the 2nd rolling head Waterford A took to the water with Hugh, Leon, Padraig and Cathal finishing just 10 seconds behind their clubmates. A great performance as both Cathal and Padraig were making their debuts. Last and certainly not least were our youngest crew of Waterford C with Toby, Harry Walsh, Lochlan and Hayden with three of the lads making their debut. The lads made a great effort and are also the stars of the photograph of the day seen below.

The MJ15 4X+ crew of Bill, Seán Fitz, Sam, Tadhg and cox Harry Grant put in a decent performance taking 5^th out of 17 just 38 seconds behind winners Galway. Congratulations to Bill taking part in his first race.

The MJ18 2X pair of Darragh and Henry took part in the rolling head as a timed only boat.

Fixed Head 3 saw 3 of our WJ18A 2X crews and one WJ16 2X crew take part. In the WJ18A 2X category some of closest racing of the whole event took place. The Waterford B crew of Edie and Katie placed 3^rd overall a mere 4 seconds from the win. Great display from the girls. Next out of the blocks were Waterford A (Kate and Sarah) who finished 6^th overall just 23 seconds down and then the Waterford C crew of Deirdre and Jessica just a few seconds back from them. A great showing from all three crews who were racing together in these combinations for the first time.

The WJ16 2X crew of Rachel and Faye unfortunately had multiple problems with a loose seat which forced them to stop mid race 4 times. Despite this they still came home with a very respectable time and based on their singles results later on, would surely have been pushing for the win in this race had they not had technical problems.

Fixed Head 4 saw our MJ16 4X+ crew competing (Colm, Mykola, John Brady and Harry Grant with cox Tadhg). Special mention here to Mykola who was taking part in his first race and John Brady who stepped in from the MJ15 crew. Well done Mykola, great to get that first race under the belt.

In Fixed Head 5 we had three entries in the WJ16 1X, Faye, Rachel and Hannah. The girls put on a great show and finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th overall. This was even more impressive as Faye and Hannah were rowing in an older age category as there was no WJ15 1X this year. Great performance from the girls carrying on their good form from last season.

Last but not least in Fixed Head 6 were the MJ18 2X crew of Darragh and Gosha who pipped the Waterford A crew from earlier in the day. No doubt to counter-claims of faster tides in the afternoon.

Again, well done to all of out athletes and we look forward to our regatta season starting in Commercial Regatta on 6^th April.

Category	Crew	Head	Place	Time
WJ18 4X-	Kate Lemon, Sarah Power, Edie O’Flaherty, Jessica Cooke	1	4^th	13:38.0
MJ18A 1X	Seán Harte	2	3^rd	14:13.6
WJ18 2X	Edie O’Flaherty, Katie Fitzpatrick	3	2^nd	13:38.9
WJ18 2X	Kate Lemon, Sarah Power	3	6^th	13:58.5
WJ18 2X	Deirdre McHugh, Jessica Cooke	3	12^th	14:32.2
WJ16 2X	Rachel Weldon, Faye O’Flaherty	3	5^th	15:28.8
MJ16 4X+	Colm Brennan, Mykola Podmarkov, John Brady, Harry Grant	4	8^th	14:16.4
WJ16 1X	Faye O’Flaherty	5	2^nd	15:32.8
WJ16 1X	Rachel Weldon	5	3^rd	15:51.1
WJ16 1X	Hannah Lemon	5	4^th	16:07.0
MJ18 2X	Darragh Ryan, Gosha Shekunov	6	11^th	13:27.9
MJ18 2X	Darragh Ryan, Henry Brady	_Rolling	_^Timed	14:08.8
MJ14 4X+	Leon Mullins, Maksym, Hugh Brady, Toby Cooke, Rachel_(c)	_Rolling	7^th	15:13.5
MJ14 4X+	Hugh, Leon, Padraig Phelan, Cathal McCarthy, Sofia_(c)	_Rolling	9^th	15:23.6
MJ14 4X+	Toby, Harry Walsh, Lochlan Cooke, Hayden Scadding, Amelie_(c)	_Rolling	11^th	16:46.2
WJ15 4X+	Amelie Mullins, Moya Carragher, Hannah, Sofia Mullins, Faye_(c)	_Rolling	12^th	15:16.5
MJ15 4X+	Bill Ogilvie, Seán Fitz, Sam O’Neill, Tadhg Hawkins, Harry G_(c)	_Rolling	5^th	13:52.2

Cork Head of the River 2025 WBC Results

Gallery

MJ14 4X+ – Toby, Lochlan, Harry W, Hayden and Amelie(c)

Christmas Party 2024

19th December 2024 at 9:58 pm

The Club Christmas party took place on Monday 16th Dec 2024. The Junior members went Ice Skating followed by food in Dooley’s Hotel.

Huge thanks to Louise and Tina for organising the event and to all the staff at Dooley’s Hotel.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of our members, families and supporters.

Indoors – PIRC Nov 2024

24th November 2024 at 11:05 pm

The club travelled down to University of Limerick for the 2024 Provincial Indoor Rowing Championships with 17 members taking part across a range of events. The timetable for the day was pushed back by an hour for everyone given the weather conditions after Storm Bert. As always the Indoors are a great opportunity for all to set personal bests with competition incredibly tough across all categories.

Highlights of the day included the WTY5 Girls relay team of Edie, Katie, Jessica and Kate who took a great win in their 2K relay, Jessica coming 2nd in the Lightweight Womens Open 500m, Edie taking 3rd in the WJ16 2K with Katie coming 4th with a tremendous PB and Kate coming in 5th.

In the younger Molly took 3rd in the WJ15 1K, Faye took 3rd in the WJ14 500m and 5th in the WJ14 4 minute. Leon placed an amazing 7th place out of a field of 104 starters in the MJ13 500m. And last, but certainly not least was Kev carragher who took 2nd in the M40-49 500m in a mind blowing 1:25

A special mention has to go out to our new members who had their first races either on or off the water today. Emily, Moya and Padraig all took part in 2 events each today and made huge improvements on their personal bests. Brilliant work from all three.

Huge congratulations to all who took part, the indoors can be a high pressure environment but a huge range of Personal bests and medals made this WBC’s most successful indoors in a while.

Thanks to Joe and the team at ROWfit for staging an excellent event as always.

Results

Full results for Waterford Boat Club can be found at the Time Team page

A snapshot of the results can be seen here

PIRC 2024 WBC Results Download

Gallery

AGM 2024

1st November 2024 at 5:30 pm

Notice is hereby given that the 2024 Waterford Boat Club AGM will take place on Wednesday 20th of November at 7.30pm in club premises at Canada Street.

R McHugh (Club secretary)

Olympic Rowathon July 2024

29th July 2024 at 7:52 am

As part of the club’s fundraising activities a Rowathon was held on Friday 26 July in City Square shopping center in Waterford. The idea was that our members would row the distance between Waterford and Paris on ergs (rowing machines) throughout the day to mark the upcoming Paris Olympics and the huge Irish participation across the rowing events. This is a distance of 767 km.

Rowers were organised in 2 hour shifts working across 6 machines. After a monumental effort by all (including 2 marathon distance rows by Sean and Darragh) a total combined distance of 840km was achieved by the end of the day beating our target by quite a bit. Well done to all of our club members for turning out and putting in such a shift.

Huge thanks have to go to Louise and the Fundraising committee for getting this off the ground, to the parents and volunteers who turned up for hours at a time to supervise and help out. Thanks to ex-members and their family members for stopping by and supporting and of course to the management in City Square for allowing us to have the event on their premises. The club hugely appreciates it.

And last but certainly not least, massive thanks to the Waterford public who supported and donated so generously throughout the day.

Finally, the best of luck to all of our Irish crews and other athletes taking part in this years Olympics.

Gallery

Irish Rowing Championships 2024

18th July 2024 at 12:12 am

This years rowing season culminated in the biggest ever Irish Rowing Championships at the National Rowing Centre in Farran, Co Cork. The 2024 event lasted three full days (from Friday, July 12th, to Sunday, July 14th) and featured an impressive lineup of 916 crews, 51 clubs, 1169 competitors, 216 races, and 54 events.

Waterford Boat Club had (5+x+x) crews entered over the weekend. The club performed extremely well against the very best crews from across the country, showcasing their talent. The competition was fierce, and the results reflected the rowers’ high level of skill and dedication. Due to the huge number of crews taking part, races could feature up to 50-60 crews in a time trial setup for all heats with only the overall top 6 times going through to the final. Highlights from the weekend included:

WJ16 4x+ (Kate Lemon, Edie O’Flaherty, Katie Fitzpatrick, Jessica Cook and cox Aine Power) made it to the final of the WJ16 4x+ and ranked 5^th place overall, missing out on 4^th place by a mere 0.03 of a second.

WJ18 4x- (Hannah Boylan, Siun O’Mahony, Erin O’Neill, Sarah Power) ranked 9^th place overall

WJ16 2x (Edie O’Flaherty, Katie Fitzpatrick) ranked 9^th place

MJ16 4x+ (Henry Brady, Oran Skinner, Harry Whelan and Gosha Shekunov) Ranked 9th overall and missed the final by just 2 seconds. A great showing from a crew in this age category who’ve only been together for a couple of months.

These are only a few of the highlights of a fine showing from the club during the Championships. well done to all of our athletes both over this weekend and over the whole season. The huge effort that’s gone in was clearly visible over the season.

Results

Category	Crew	Placing	Time
WJ16 4x+	Kate Lemon, Edie O’Flaherty, Katie Fitz, Jessica Cooke, Aine Power	5^th	7:59.8
MJ18 1x	Sean Harte	24^th	8:18.7
MJ18 1x	Darragh Ryan	48^th	9:02.2
WJ18 1x	Sarah Power	27^th	9:27.5
MJ16 4x+	Henry Brady, Oran Skinner, Harry Whelan, Gosha Shekunov	10^th	7:12.9
WJ18 2x	Hannah Cunningham Boylan, Deirdre McHugh	18^th	8:19.6
WJ18 2x	Erin O’Neill, Siun O’Mahony	24^th	8:26.5
WJ16 2x	Edie O’Flaherty, Katie Fitzpatrick	9^th	8:12.0
WJ16 2x	Kate Lemon, Aine Power	29^th	8:55.0
MJ16 2x	Oran Skinner, Harry Whelan	12^th	7:27.6
MJ16 2x	Henry Brady, Gosha Shekunov	15^th	7:30.3
MJ16 1x	Henry Brady	32^nd	8:12.2
MJ16 1x	Oran Skinner	39^th	8:16.3
MJ16 1x	Harry Whelan	49^th	8:35.7
MJ18 2x	Sean Harte, Darragh Ryan	20^th	7:18.2
WJ18 4x-	Hannah Boylan, Sarah Power, Erin O’Neill, Siun O’Mahony	9^th	7:32.3

Irish Rowing Championships 2024 results

Gallery

WJ16 4x+ – Kate, Edie, Katie, Jessica, Aine

Thanks to Rent-A-Box Self Storage

17th July 2024 at 10:40 pm

Waterford Boat Club would like to pass on their sincere thanks to Martin O’Shea from Rent-A-Box Self Storage Waterford Ballinadud for providing us with a vehicle to tow our boat trailer down to the National Rowing Championships at the start of July.

Support from the local community and businesses is invaluable to our club so thanks to Martin for offering help at really short notice.

If you’re looking for secure domestic or commercial self-storage solutions get in touch with Rent-A-Box to avail of one of their 3 locations in Waterford

Website : https://rentabox.ie/

E-mail : info@rentabox.ie

Phone : 087 1083232 or 087 6218700

Fermoy Regatta June 2024

29th June 2024 at 8:25 pm

Race Report

Fermoy Regatta took place on Sunday 30^th June, the day after the 1K Classic up in Lough Rinn. Our J14 and J15 crews from the 1K rejoined the rest of the club for Fermoy where the club had 30 entries across a single day with heats and finals in most events which made for an extremely busy day for all of our crews.

Fermoy Regatta is a sprint regatta and is held over a 3 lane 500 meter course on The Blackwater through the center of Fermoy which makes for an excellent location and hugely enjoyable atmosphere every year. This would be the final event of the season for our J13-J15 crews and would act as a final tune-up for our J16-J18 crews for the upcoming 2024 National Championships down in the NRC between the 15th-17th July.

An early start was needed for everyone. Lisa and Tony brought our own loaded trailer down on Saturday afternoon and Clonmel Rowing Club were kind enough to transport our boats to the 1K Classic and then down to Fermoy so a huge thanks has to go out to them.

The J13 and J14 events were straight finals but unusually these were timed as well so it offered a good comparison to the other crews taking part in the other finals. For J15 and upwards there were no straight finals but rather a time trial with just the three fastest times in the heats going through to the final.

As always, the straight 500 meter distance made for extremely exciting racing with no room for errors. Some excellent results including 4 wins, 3 second places and 7 third places. Also we had several of our girls and boys J14 doubles racing for the first time.

Well done to all our athletes taking part today and thanks to all the parents and volunteers who helped out on the day. Huge thanks again to Tony for towing the trailer this weekend.

Results

Category	Crew	Placing	Time
WJ18 4x+	Hannah, Siun O’Mahony, Erin O’Neill, Sarah Power, Deirdre McHugh(c)	1^st	1:46.3
WJ15 2x	Rachel Weldon, Molly O’Flynn	1^st	1:51.3
WJ14 1x	Faye O’Flaherty	1^st	2:04.1
MJ13 4x+	Leon Mullins, Hugh Brady, Mads O’Flynn, Ben Weldon, Toby Cooke(c)	1^st	2:00.5
WJ15 1x	Molly O’Flynn	2^nd	1:58.8
WJ15 4x+	Rachel Weldon, Molly O’Flynn, Hannah Lemon, Faye O’Flaherty	2^nd	1:49.6
WJ16 2x	Edie O’Flaherty, Katie Fitzpatrick	2^nd	1:51.9
WJ16 2x	Kate Lemon, Jessica Cooke	3^rd	1:54.5
WJ16 4x+	Edie O’Flaherty, Katie Fitzpatrick, Kate Lemon, Jessica Cooke,	3^rd	1:48.1
MJ16 1x	Henry Brady	3^rd	1:49.1
MJ16 1x	Oran Skinner	5^th	1:50.9
MJ18 2x	Sean Harte, Darragh Ryan	6^th	1:40.7
MJ18 1x	Sean Harte	5^th	1:46.3
WJ18 1x	Sarah Power	3^rd	1:59.2
WJ14 2x	Hannah Lemon, Faye O’Flaherty	3^rd	1:59.2
WJ14 2x	Amelie Mullins, Sofia Mullins	7^th	2:13.6
MJ14 4x+	Sean Fitzpatrick, Tadhg Hamkins, John Brady, Sam O’Neill, Toby Cooke	4^th	1:55.1
MJ16 2x	Henry Brady, Gosha Shekunov	9^th	1:45.5
WJ18 2x	Erin O’Neill, Siun O’Mahony	3^rd	1:50.3
WJ18 2x	Deirdre McHugh, Hannah Cunningham Boylan	5^th	1:55.2
WJ14 2x	Hannah Lemon, Faye O’Flaherty	3^rd	1:59.2
MJ15 2x	Colm Brennan, Harry Grant	6^th	1:50.1
WJ13 4x+	Amelie Mullins, Siri O’Flynn, Leah (Bantry), Sofia Mullins, Sam O’Neill	2^nd	2:14.8

Fermoy 2024 Results

Gallery

MJ13 4x+ – Hugh, Leon, Mads, ben and Toby

1K Classic June 2024

29th June 2024 at 7:55 pm

Race Report

The 1K classic is the culmination of the J13-J15 season. This year it was held on Saturday 29^th June at Lough Linn Co Leitrim. The 1K Classic tends to move between Cork and Leitrim on alternating years. As a result of this year’s event being held in Lough Rinn a good deal of the Northern Irish clubs have the chance to attend making this an Island wide event

Waterford Boat Club had crews entered in 6 races during the day

WJ15 4x+ – Rachel Weldon, Molly O’Flynn, Hannah Lemon, Faye O’Flaherty, Harry Grant(cox)
MJ15 1x – Harry Grant
WJ15 1x – Molly O’Flynn and Rachel Weldon
WJ14 1x – Hannah Lemon and Faye O’Flaherty

Our crew’s performances were excellent again today and competition was very strong in each race as expected. The WJ15 4x+ crew and cox Harry came in a solid 3^rd place in a very tough final and gave an excellent showing giving it their best effort.
Harry raced really well in his MJ15 1x with tough competition
Molly achieved 2^nd place in her WJ15 1x final and gave a very brave battle to the line but lost out in a close race to the sculler from Athlone.
Rachel took the win in her WJ15 1x final where she led from the start and was very comfortable throughout. Really well done Rachel.

Faye and Hannah got drawn in the same final which is always a bit of a shame when team mates are drawn against each other but nonetheless both girls performed exceptionally well in the final with Faye taking an excellent win after a really tough battle with the sculler from Lee Valley with Hannah following in closely behind in 3rd place. A brilliant result for the girls.

In summary, a fantastic effort from all of our crews today in the highlight event of the Junior 13-15 season. Everyone represented the club well today, gave their absolute best effort and should be proud of themselves. Thanks to all parents, guardians and club members for the support and well wishes.

However there’s no rest for our crews as they make the long journey home only to turn around a few hours later to head up to Fermoy Regatta the following morning to meet up with the rest of the club for an extremely busy day with the WJ15 4x+ girls back racing again at 08:22 am.

The club would like to thank Clonmel Rowing Club for bringing our boats for the 1K up to Lough Rinn and bringing them down to Fermoy for the next day’s regatta. A huge thanks to them for their help.

Gallery

Winners WJ15 1x – Rachel weldon, WJ14 1x winner Faye O’Flaherty

Carlow Regatta June 2024

17th June 2024 at 2:22 pm

Now a regular event for the club WBC took part in Carlow Regatta on Sun 02^nd June. Luckily the weather was really good on the day with no rain or wind. This was a great help on the Carlow course which can be a tricky one to navigate on the best of days given the number of bends throughout the 1200 meter stretch of the Barrow.

Attendance was down on previous years due to other postponed regattas being moved to the same weekend which meant that Carlow regatta was just held over the single day rather than the full weekend but nonetheless there was plenty of exciting racing packed into the Sunday.

Waterford performed extremely well on the day and won a total of (x) finals. Notable mentions have to go out to a recently formed MJ16 4x+ who won their race as well as our WJ13 4x+ who took their maiden win this season (albeit in the older WJ 14 4x+ category). Our MJ13 4x+ crew won their third race in a row, but again racing in the older J14 category. Well done to all of our crews and thanks to Carlow Rowing Club for hosting such a good event as always.

As always thanks to Mick for getting the trailer safely to and from the event.

Next event for the Club is Cork Regatta which will be held in the NRC on Sat 22^nd June.

Results

The full official results from Carlow Regatta 2024 can be found here or here (not updated yet)

Category	Crew	Placing
MJ18A 2x	Sean Harte, Darragh Ryan	1^st
MJ18A 1x	Sean Harte	2^nd
MJ16 4x+	Gosha Shekunov, Harry Whelan, Henry Brady, Oran Skinner, Deirdre McHugh(c)	1^st
MJ16 1x	Oran Skinner	1^st
MJ14 4x+	Sean Fitzpatrick, John Brady, Tadhg Hawkins, Sam O’Neill, Sofia Mullins(c)	1^st
MJ14 4x+	Leon Mullins, Hugh Brady, Maksym Indiuchenko, Mads O’Flynn, Toby Cooke(c)	1^st
WJ18A 2x	Erin O’Neill, Siun O’Mahony	1^st
WJ18A 1x	Sarah Power	1^st
WJ16 2x	Edie O’Flaherty, Katie Fitzpatrick	1^st
WJ16 1x	Aine Power	1^st
WJ15 4x+	Rachel Weldon, Molly O’Flynn, Hannah Lemon, Faye O’Flaherty, Harry Grant(c)	1^st
WJ15 2x	Molly O’Flynn, Rachel Weldon	1^st
WJ15 1x	Rachel Weldon	1^st
WJ14 4x+	Amelie Mullins, Leah Trant, Amy Trant, Sofia Mulling, Siri O’Flynn(c)	1^st
WJ14 2x	Hannah Lemon, Faye O’Flaherty	1^st
WJ14 1x	Hannah Lemon	1^st
WJ14 1x	Faye O’Flaherty	1^st

Carlow Regatta 2024 results