Vartry Victorious in Cork’s Ocean to City - An Rás Mór
l/r George O’Brien, chair, David O’Reilly, Michael O’Toole, Massio de’Luca, David Collard, Joe Quinn, Eimantas Grigaluis, Ryan Corcoran, Helen Moran, and Eimear Walsh of Vartry RC at the Ocean to City – An Rás Mór in Cork.
l/r Michael O’Toole, Massio de’Luca, Joe Quinn, David Collard and George O’Brien coxswain, winners of the Celtic Longboat category at the Ocean to City - An Rás Mór in Cork.
Vartry Rowing Club in Wicklow were victorious in two main categories at the Ocean to City - An Rás Mór in Cork recently, the flagship event of the annual Cork Harbour Festival. Vartry, which is sponsored by Flogas Ireland, won in the Celtic Longboat and the Mixed Crew categories. Over 200 boats from clubs all over Ireland competed in the 28km race, which began in Crosshaven and ended in Cork’s city centre.
The Celtic Longboats crew were Michael O’Toole, Massio de’Luca, Joe Quinn, David Collard and coxswain George O’Brien while the Mixed Crew were Helen Moran, Eimear Walsh, Ryan Corcoran, Eimantas Grigaluis with coxswain Dave O’Reilly.
Despite having no official home of their own, Vartry Rowing Club has an impressive track record in national competitions and won the bi-annual Celtic Challenge, the world’s longest open sea rowing race in May 2017. The club members are now training hard for the All-Ireland Coastal Rowing Championships to be held in Wexford this August.
George O’Brien, chair, Vartry Rowing Club,
“Our club has won seven national medals in the past two years and we deeply appreciate the support of Flogas, which has been a very important part of that success. However, we still do not have our own clubhouse and the members are training hard but with great difficulty because of this. We appeal to Wicklow County Council to recognise the fantastic work of the Club and its members by providing a space to store our boats safely near the water.”