Here's the monthly roundup of what's happening in the club.

So much going on that I (Colin) even forgot a whole event in the last update. While I was focused on enjoying Baltimore wooden boat fest, others were enjoying Passaia. We've had regattas, fun regattas and the Blaskets Row became the Cape Clear row thanks to Met Éireann. Corkumnavigation was also on the table. Upcoming events include the Rebel Raid in West Cork, and the Villefranche trip in September. Any other adventures you want to organise, just speak up! Plenty of great things happening ! 

Additional trailer

The club will be looking at getting another trailer to facilitate trips. A small subcommittee will look at this. 

Duty captains

For Saturday morning duty captains, please give whoever is on the week after you notice of their duty so they have a chance to try to organise a stand in, or organise themselves, and watch the weather for a possible cancellation. Also please warn all members, but particularly day members about the pontoon. See the announcement on the forum regarding the state of the pontoon. 

Thank you

Thanks to Maighread Kelly for great work on our Adult and Child Safeguarding policies. We hope to be circulating this to all members in the near future. Hopefully we can lower our average age in the club by attracting younger talent and then the future of currachs could be in safe(r) hands!

Upcoming events and training

While speaking of safety, we had a good turnout to the "captains" training this month. Don't forget there's the training modules on the website and the safety discussion section of the forum with lots of relevant videos. Also note that the code of safe practices for leisure craft says we should do a capsize drill at least once a year. This will be an M.O.B. (man overboard) drill (rather than capsize) and we'll arrange it for late August for maximum water temperatures. Watch the forum for updates and do your obair bhaile by studying the M.O.B. video on the website. This can be a fun as well as useful event 

Cork Sports Partnership Currach Rowing ‘Taster’ event is coming up on Saturday 15th August to generate interest in the club. This organisation is who we have got grants from in the past and hopefully again in the future so our participation is welcomed. See the thread on the forum 

CLG status

The Committee has met with several of the Trustees and Maighread Kelly and we have (finally) taken the steps to move from a club to the first phase of a CLG. This step was voted on at the 2025 AGM, just to remind everyone. As the process unfolds, there will be more information on this, but in the meantime, thanks to Bill Holohan, Ed O’Leary, and Maighread who are driving this process. 

New boats

We have a lovely new 3 hand racer built by Monty O’Leary in the Maharees. Our two other 3 hand racers and the four hand racers have all been built by the O’Leary family. The Committee will have a name any day now – to keep with the bird theme we have with our 3 hand racers, as the bird we have chosen Geabhróg (Tern) as every winter 100-200 nesting pairs of Arctic Tern overwinter in the Maharees and she is a fast, light little boat. We are in the process of voting on Geabhróg Monty, to honour the builder, or An Geabhróg. Stay tuned!

Hopefully our two new 4 handers are due in September or October from Meitheal Mara.

New site works

We have got permission from the CCC to knock the shed on our new site and are looking at portable but functional alternatives for a replacement building.  

We have also had an Ecologist assess the site and she has made a brilliant plan to keep the flora on the site intact for wildlife, birds, bees and other pollinators while keeping our functionality in mind.

More on both of these over the coming months.

If we have forgotten anything, please let us know, and we apologise in advance! We hope you are having a lovely summer -

Colin and Stacy

The Blackrock Village Festival is on 22 Aug from 1-6 pm and is holding a parade of local clubs. From what I gather, we have participated in this event before but I am not around to organise this nor are several other committee members so I just wanted to let you know about the opportunity.

Clubs are to gather at 12:45 pm before the official opening. I am not familiar with the event but other club members have told me it is a sound local water event. Hammy has kindly volunteered to be the Committee point person for this row, should organisers need a committee contact. Tides would suit best for a 1-3 pm row if we were. 

Please let us know if you want to organise it and then interested rowers can sign up! Here is th elink to the event that was shared with me: https://forms.gle/qhTGFMztMowy6HcR9

Thanks all! Stacy

Here are some points that the participants were sent, just so you have the details about what they might be expecting. We'll suss out more in the morning, once we see who has shown up! Thanks everyone!

Stacy

• The tasters will begin at 10am on the 15^th or August.
• You will meet the Naomhoga Chorcai club members at the Shandon Boat Club in Cork City.
• The full session will be from 10am till 11am, but the purpose is to have a go at Curragh Rowing so shorter trials are fine too. The club will work with the participants in line with their own confidence levels.
• If you have booked child tickets, please note that they will likely need to be accompanied by an adult at a ratio of one-to-one. If additional children are attending, they will need to be supervised on the shore.
• Rowing sessions can be cancelled at short notice if necessary, but we hope that the lovely weather will persist and this won’t be an issue on the 15^th.
• There is some manual lifting of boats & equipment involved, please speak to a Duty Captain on arrival if you have any concerns about your ability to assist with lifting for any reason. This all adds to the experience.
• Newcomers and beginners will be allocated a ‘captain’ and an experienced crew who will look after them for the duration of the trip.
• The club members will ask you to fill in some details ahead of your rowing trial for insurance purposes.
• Please wear comfortable clothing (outdoors or sporty), consider gloves (fingerless cycling or weights gloves are good), a rain jacket, a bottle of water, and some change for that all-important coffee-break!
• This event is now fully booked so we would appreciate if you could let us know if you are no longer able to attend.

John Lynch put a patch on,  using Gorilla waterproof tape and it will be interesting to see how that lasts, it looks good .  She appears to be taking a small amount of water so she has been placed on stands West of the gate for inspection and a decision on her availability for use. 

Corcumnavigation fans might find this YouTube video of a Scottish guy walking around the island of some interest. Maybe we should invite him back for a real corcumnavigation 

Colin 

The 3h racer Churchfield located at PP has significant rot on port upper gunwale.

There will be a boat tarring Meitheal this Thursday at 6.30 at the club. Wear old clothes. Bring paint scrapers and wire brushes if you have them.

Gloves, painting rollers and paint will be supplied.

The best. John M