Shipping News - Ballydavid Regatta

Write-up by Mirjam Winter

Yesterday’s regatta in Ballydavid kicked off the racing season in Kerry and so we are back with our first shipping news of the year!

As the posts on fb have already eluded, it was a very successful day for NC!

The first thrilling race of the day in which NC members participated was the men’s race.  Alan, Danny, John Mitchell and Zoltan put in all their strength and perseverance fighting against a young Dingle-Maharees Crew for second place. One crew gaining a bit, the other pulling away, slowing down for a stroke or two and the other pushing up against the stern again all the way through. Close all the way to the finish line, the Cork crew was able to pull away a bit and won that fight on the home stretch coming in second after the Maharees in first.

Next up on the start-line was the women’s race. As there was no full Cork-crew available yesterday, Diana and myself had the honour of racing with Shelly-Ann Lynch and Edel Lovett. After a good start, we were overtaken by the strong Camp Crew, but managed to hold our position in second place with a young Dingle crew in third on the first lap. The number of different buoys and boats in the bay caused a bit of confusion for our crew at the start of our second lap regarding which buoy to aim at for our next turn. So we ended up extending our course a bit (we didn’t miss the buoy completely though!) and the young Dingle Crew got ahead of us. Once we caught up with them again, it was another proper race. In the end, our Dingle-Cork-crew crossed the finish-line in second place after Camp.

Unfortunately, Danny had some hard luck starting off in the single-man race. He got caught on the start line and lost some lengths to the others. Alan also had a rather unlucky start but kept up his pace and crossed the finish-line after John Joe Hussey and Davin Lynch in a respectable third place!

A very well represented NC entered the mixed race. After an amazing start, Alan (in a crew with Alan O’Leary, Ailise Deane and Ellie), kept up their front position the whole way through the race. In contrast, the crews of John Mitchell, Danny, Eileen Quirke and Sarah O’Connor and Zoltan, John Joe Hussey, Diana and myself struggled with tangles around the buoys and ended up in fourth and fifth position respectively.

The biggest surprise came with the last race of the day: the fear agus bean – drawn out of a hat. Danny convinced me just before the race to enter my name and it happened that the two of us were drawn out together!

Competing with four very strong crews, they all got ahead of us right after the start-line. But luck was with us and the crews in third and fourth tangled before the first buoy meaning we could overtake finding ourselves suddenly in third position. By that time, the first and second crews – Shelly Ann Lynch and John Joe Hussey and Ailise Deane and Davin Lynch – were already 5-6 boat lengths ahead of us. Unfortunately for them, they ended up in a tangle around the first buoy and we ceased our opportunity to overtaking them as well. Picking up the pace, we were able to get a bit of distance between them and us and could hold our position up to the finish line.

With the success of winning our first fear agus bean prize, an amazing racing-day came to an end.

Oarswoman of the day was Ailise Deane and Oarsman Alan O’Leary. And even though Maunza retired from racing herself, she still ended up winning a special award!

NC’s start to the racing season in Kerry couldn’t have been better – amazing weather, a great atmosphere and exciting races. Thanks to Ballydavid for hosting, we really enjoyed the day.

To finish up, all the best to all the racers out there for the rest of the season, it was a pleasure to join you at least for one regatta this year and thanks to NC for another amazing week in Cork 😊