Time 12.45pm (after Saturdays usual row)

arrive in Blackrock 1.30pm and stay around for an hour.

it would be great to decorate the currachs if anyone can help.

Please contact me Hammy (William Hammond) at 0876486922 if you are willing to take part.

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

We have had a busy month (from May to June) both on and off the water as a club and as a Committee! Here’s the latest:

• Our CLG meeting was cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances, and the meeting is rescheduled for later this month.
• Our Forum Q&A with Alan Murphy and Ciara McKernan went well for the small number of people who attended. A summary email of important take home messages and troubleshooting tips is forthcoming. Thanks again to Alan and Ciara!
• ST is still trying to sort out club email (info@naomhogachorcai.ie) not receiving replies so please continue to use currachs@gmail.com to contact the Committee for now.
• We are working on acquiring some storage containers for Paddy’s Point and getting some proper boat stands in place. 
• We are the proud owners of a new 3 hand racer from Monty O’Leary in the Maharees! The current plan for pick up is the weekend of the Maharees Regatta, 5 July, weather permitting. We have ordered a fourth 3 hand racer from Monty as well so our club will have 4 of the same boats to host regattas and for our club rows in the future.
• The two 4-hand naomhogs are under construction at Meitheal Mara so stay tuned for news of their arrival sometime soon.
• Please welcome Clare Hayden as MM Liaison on the NC Committee – hooray Clare, we are delighted to have you as part of the Committee!
• 2 meitheals have happened, one in May and one in June, to help maintain our site. Thanks to all who have participated in caring for the grounds, we couldn’t have done it without you! The club now has a heavy-duty strimmer and a lighter, battery powered strimmer for ground maintenance use, both of which are fantastic. Thanks to Mark Ryan for his help with acquiring some of these tools!
• Bat boxes and bird boxes that were acquired several years ago and sitting in the old shed have been stained and placed in trees around our site thanks to John Mitchell and Colm Tyers – thanks lads!
• Baltimore Wooden boat fest was a great success with spectacular weather this year. The pilot race certainly lived up to its controversial reputation! 
• Ocean to City was a great success again this year with thanks to a very long list of people, so long that it had to be a post all of its own and still it couldn’t list everyone. I’m sure you’ll all agree that the Spanish Galleon and the stage area for the finish line and prize giving was the most spectacular ever in the history of O2C.

Apologies for the delay with this update, we're just mere mortals, and VOLUNTEERS!! 

Stacy (your club Chairperson)

Colin (your club Captain)

Chairperson Stacy Tinkler

Deputy Chair Hammy, William Hammond

Captain Colin O Donnell

Deputy Captain John Mitchell

Treasurer Deirdre O’Shea

Paula Spillane

Caitriona Ni Mhaidin

Oisin Creagh

Since our last monthly update we are delighted to welcome John Mitchell to the committee as deputy captain. Both John and Jim Malone have done a great job with the ocean to city training sessions.

Our club regatta organised by John Tynan and John Mitchell was a great success despite having to re-arrange due to weather. The Pasaia trip is underway at the moment, so we're looking forward to hearing of their exploits. The next events we are looking forward to are the Baltimore Wooden boat Festival and our beloved Ocean to City race. Best of luck to all involved in these events. Further on the horizon is the trip to Villefranche sur Mer (between Nice and Monaco) being organised for September. This sounds like a wonderful trip. Bridín and Ed are leading this one. Plenty going on in the club!

Another event to look forward to is, our club is hosting Dr. Breandán Mac Conamhna, author of The Curraghs and Naomhóga of Ireland, at the Cork Harbour Festival.  He will be speaking in the Cork City Library, Grand Parade on Saturday June 6th at 3pm. He will speak for 45 mins along with presenting a slide show and there will be an opportunity for questions afterwards. He will also have copies of his book for sale. He is not just deeply knowledgable about currachs, he is also one of the last speakers of Erris Irish. Erris is a small Gaeltact area in north Mayo. He seems an interesting man, do come and see him if you are interested in learning more.

It has come up numerous times recently, so just a reminder to members that members are allowed to take club boats out, outside of the regular organised rows. This is especially useful for ocean to city training, or simply because the sun is out and the mood takes you. Just the usual things to follow, everyone in the boat must be a fully signed up member, you must have a suitably qualified and experienced captain, you must have enough people for manual handling of the boat for launch and recovery, you must have an onshore contact, and you must have a minimum of 2 boats on the water during the hours of darkness. It seems many members were not aware of this possibility.

I had intended to run captains training last month, but it didn't work out. I hope to be doing this in June if Ocean to City doesn't get too busy. Keep an eye on the forum for updates.

Also training related, we are looking to organise an educational talk/session with Christy O'Donovan, lead Search Co-Ordinator for Cork City Missing Persons Search and Recovery (CCMPSR) about what they do and also for them to share some tips with us to make us more safe on the water should we encounter any tough situations.  We'll try and arrange this for sometime over the next few months, once we get through O2C.

We are hoping to get more engagement on the club forum, so hopefully the Q&A session on the 18th of May  will be useful to members. The forum does solve a number of issues that facebook, what's app, or email was not able to solve, but nothing is perfect but a little knowledge on how to work it would be good. Hopefully this Q&A session helps in this regard.

The next committee meeting will be looking at the CLG (Company Limited by Guarantee) issue. We will have more to share in the next update.

Plenty of work is ongoing to get all boats ready for ocean to city and looking their best. I'm afraid to start a list of people to thank because I'm sure to omit someone. Also great work has been done at updating the first aid kits, thanks to Paula (more details will be announced soon on the forum). We have new boats on order, and we hope to have new stands organised shortly, and work is also underway on a possible new launching trolley. Loads of great work happening in the background!

We all have a different name for the Saturday morning row. The coffee row (I think most of them are coffee rows!), the public row, the row for newcomers etc. I think it's important to remind people that it is the row where we give back to the club and to rowing. I think it is a big part of the reason the club has grown so much. You can't beat a good friendly vibe and a good friendly welcome to a club when you're new to something. We want all newcomers to feel this welcome and we need to do everything to keep them safe on the water. Any feedback on this don't hesitate to get in touch with the committee. I don't think we sit in an ivory tower, hopefully you all agree. If you notice any situation where anyone is not treated with respect on or off the water please feed this back to the committee for action.

Regarding feedback, the majority of the feedback that got to the committee on the 10am experiment to resolve car parking issues on Saturday was positive, so we are continuing with this change.

We'll be picking up a new 3 hand racer from Monty O'Leary in the Maharees in early June (weekend of June 7th actually as we have a regatta in Ballydavid that weekend, Alan Murphy has offered to trailer - thanks Alan!)

It was reported to the committee that the gate between our SBC site and our new site is quite heavy and hard to open/lock and likely needs an alteration of some kind, so please be aware of this.  We are looking into solutions.

A shout out to Mark Ryan for graciously helping out with acquiring a new battery powered strimmers for ground maintenance, bringing our total to 2 strimmers - one heavy one for thicker/tougher plants (fuel powered) and this second smaller one for grass and softer foliage, both currently being stored in Bishopstown until our storage situation on the new site is more appropriate - thanks a million, Mark!

Another meitheal for grounds maintenance will be called as soon as the weather allows for it, so please stay tuned.

Best of luck to all the crews in this years ocean to city, and thanks to any members who have volunteered their time for the event

Club Captain,and Chairperson

Colin, and Stacy

Chairperson Stacy Tinkler

Deputy Chair Hammy, William Hammond

Captain Colin O Donnell

Deputy Captain John Mitchell

Treasurer Deirdre O’Shea

Oisin Creagh

Paula Spillane

Caitriona Ni Mhaidin

Just a little update to keep you all informed of the work happening on all of our behalf in April 2026. There will be another post from the Captain and Vice-Captain regarding more specific on-the-water matters so please stay tuned for that.

• John Mitchell has agreed to help out as Vice-Captain when our club Captain, Colin O'Donnell is away at sea for work and has officially been co-opted by the committee. Thanks John!
• Meitheal Mara are looking for volunteers for their Dragon boat challenge to be held on Saturday 18^thof April and for training 13 April..
• Plans are progressing well with the Fun Regatta that our club is hosting on the 12^thof April. Any members not competing please watch for a call-out for volunteers over the coming days from John Tynan who has been doing great work organizing this event.
• Discussions are ongoing regarding CMAC, Cork Maritime Activity Centre. We now have a representative for the CMAC Ops Committee, thanks to Shane Murphy! But we are still missing a rep for the Financial/Fundraising Working Group.  The first meeting is being held 14 April at 6 pm online. Please let us know if you are inspired to represent NC on that working group.
• We are looking at our site, sussing out funding from old grants, looking at new grant opportunities and trying to figure out next steps as to how to proceed.
• We will need members' help maintaining our new site next to SBC as it is already very overgrown and will be calling for meitheals/volunteers to help with strimming, rubbish pick-up etc so please stay-tuned.
• The Club Calendar has been updated on the Forum so club members can see all events and weekly rows offered by the club. Special events will be added as they come up.
• The subject of the Saturday morning row time and parking issues has been raised by several members, which the committee has discussed. We will be seeking feedback from you as to the preference for a time change to 10am. Please stay-tuned.

Have a lovely Easter weekend!

Mise le meas,

The NC Committee

Chairperson Stacy Tinkler

Deputy Chair Hammy, William Hammond

Captain Colin O Donnell

Deputy Captain Feel free to get your name inserted here!!!

Treasurer Deirdre O’Shea

Paula Spillane

Caitriona Ni Mhaidin

• A very successful first aid course was well attended by club members. In light of what we learned we will need to renew the first aid kits in the boats, and I have located the defibrillator (just inside shandon boat club outside the disabled toilets) Clearly only any use if people know where to find it in a hurry!!
• We had our first in person captains training evening. Just one more sign that covid is a distant strange memory. This proved to be a very successful evening with plenty being learned. Don’t forget that there’s loads also on the website (click about, practical guidance) and also plenty of safety discussion and videos on the forum (click club safety training). Plenty of people were unable to attend this one, so I’ll re-run it in April. Many thanks to Meitheal Mara for the free use of their facilities
• Meitheal Mara will be looking for volunteers for their Dragon boat challenge to be held on Saturday 18^thof April.
• May I remind members that our club rule that we read out every Saturday morning regarding the need for everyone to be treated with respect on and off the water is not some empty words. I would actively encourage people to call out this type of behaviour and please also report it to the committee so that we can respond appropriately.
• Plans are progressing well with our planned regatta that our club is hosting on the 12^thof April. Any members not competing I’m sure we will be calling out for volunteers closer to the time.
• Regarding use of the club forum, many people when viewing via email have said it would be very helpful if people put their names at the end of any forum posts.
• Discussions are ongoing, and will be ongoing regarding CMAC, Cork Maritime Activity Centre. If any member would like to commit to being on a committee to organise this please let us know.
• You may remember that we didn’t elect a deputy club captain at the club AGM. This is unfortunate as I will now be working 3 weeks away, and then 3 weeks off at home. This means I’ll only be around to help organise things half the time. If we have a member who would like to volunteer themselves as deputy club captain please make yourself known to the committee

Mise le meas,

Colin