Monthly update to members from the committee, May 2026

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