Rowers from all over Ireland pitted their skills against visiting crews from the Netherlands, Britain and the US over the weekend in Cork as part of the eighth annual Ocean to City race.
Ocean to City is open to competitors both from this country and overseas in any type of fixed-seat traditional and non-traditional craft: gigs, skiffs, whalers, working currachs, racing currachs, racing naomhógs, Irish Coastal Rowing Federation boats and Bantry Bay longboats.
Saturday’s course covered 15 nautical miles, starting at the Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven, travelling through Cork Harbour and finishing at Lapps Quay in Cork City centre.
The idea of organising the race developed when Padraig Ó Duinnín, founder of Meitheal Mara, inherited a working naomhóg and, with Jim and Frank Conroy as crew, won the Great River Race in London in 1992, ahead of more than 150 other traditional rowing boats.
When Cork was awarded the title European Capital of Culture in 2005, it was decided to seize the opportunity and organise the race. Saturday’s event had more than 400 entrants. An Rás Mór is unique in the Irish rowing calendar, and has few equivalents even in Britain, save for the Great River Race in London on which it was based.
Organiser Siubhán McCarthy says the event encourages people to make use of our best natural amenity, the harbour in Cork.