It's getting to that time of year again. One of the best club trips, and a staple of the club calendar. It's the Baltimore Wooden Boat festival!
Plans for the festival can be found on their website, https://baltimorewoodenboatfestival.com/ and we often add to the official events by exploring the local area as and how the weather allows. There's no shortage of interesting places to go adventuring in roaring water bay! For those who are wooden boat festival novices, this often serves as a fun way of building up the miles in advance of ocean to city, and especially building up the miles in more open water. For those experienced wooden boat fest attendees, there's plenty more craic to be had, and plenty more exploring to be done
Friday 22nd
There's no specific on water plans for Friday, but depending on who's travelling, and tower availability, there may be options for some adventuring. To be arranged closer to the time.
Saturday 23rd,
we'll take part in the arranged race, a 12km row from the pier in Baltimore at 10.30am. This is expected to be a 2km row upriver to Ringarory Bridge, then back down to the north cardinal buoy between Baltimore and Sherkin, and then back to the pier. 12km in total I'm told. Later on in the afternoon we will arrange our own adventure according to the tide and weather conditions and peoples appetite for adventure (make sure not to get blisters on the first row!!). Popular options could be Sherkin Island, one of the Skeam islands etc. A stop off at a beach somewhere for a swim would not be unexpected. I'll gloss over the fact that some rain may not be unexpected either!
Sunday 24th,
the pilot race. Race briefing 10.00am. I often wonder if this race comes with guaranteed controversy and a way for each crew to claim some kind of a win! Anyway, it's a great way for the currachs and the sailing boats to intermingle. It's a great test of the agility of your "pilot" and also the boat handing skills of the naomhóg crews and sailing boat crews. Would someone please think of how our boats are carefully crafted and how fragile they are!!! Also remember they need to be ready to go for O2C the following weekend. Again, Sunday afternoon plans will be arranged closer to the time depending on weather, tide, peoples energy levels etc.
Logistics
Trailers will need to be loaded in advance of the trip (Thursday evening) and unloaded after our return. The trip costs will be funded by those who commit to it. If weather cancels the trip, then we won't have any towing costs. A decision would be made as late as the Thursday evening if there will be a cancelled trip due to weather forecast. There is a registration cost of 40€ per boat but I'm told that this includes the commemorative mug which will be more expensive to buy on the weekend rather than with boat registration. As always these trips are reliant on finding willing towers with suitable vehicles.
Signup
For now I'm trying to gauge levels of interest in the trip, so please indicate below if you're interested. Who's up for the ramhaíocht agus craic?
your club captain, Colin
I’m onboard
😊 Karen, Rafal agus Mise freisin!le do thoil Ruth P 😊
Yes, looking forward to it
Paula
Interested, can tow, if needed.
Miriam
Interested, might be able to tow.
Interested. I intend being there for the full weekend. C
Please add Stacy and John M please.
@clarehay Hello Clare! How are you? Karen, Rafal and I would like to row in the 12k on Saturday morning in Baltimore for the first time. Jim can’t be there. Would you be available to captain us please?
Ruth P
@grian Jim assures me that ye will be taking it easy Ruth in advance of OtC so yes I will happily captain your crew 😀
@clarehay Thank you Clare 😁. That’s great news. Karen and Rafal will be delighted 😁 too. All we need now is a Naomhóg and we’re set for a lovely row 😊
Do we need to form our own crews for the 12K race?
In the past names were drawn from a list of who was there for the event.
Mairead
Also available to tow as required. Marianne and I hope to be down there too. 😊
@kellyharpist Hi M, I may be mistaken but I think traditionally people have added their names to the list, with OtC crews often expressing an interest in rowing together - given the timing of Baltimore WBF so close to the race.
I'm sure that Colin & John M will compile a list of crews when they have the full list of rowers for the Saturday.
Apologies for the slow response. I'm working hard at the moment and I'm due home the evening before the Baltimore trip.
So it looks like we have...
Me, Mairead, Karen, Rafal, Ruth, Paula, Miriam, Shane, Clare, John & Stacey, Oisín and Marianne. So I expect we'll be bringing 2 trailers, with at least 3 boats. Let's see if any more sign up closer to the time. For now I'm going to sign up for 3 crews for the race with the Baltimore festival committee.
Regarding crews, I can definitely understand ocean to city crews wishing to row together for the race. I think this should be accommodated as much as possible, and I expect it should mostly work out.
It looks like we have plenty of options for towing. I intend organising boat loading on the Thursday evening, and I expect met eireann to understand our need for beautiful weather. Once met eireann have given us the go ahead I suggest boat loading at 7pm on the Thursday evening (let the worst of rush hour traffic pass).
Below is a copy and paste of information we have received
