KCS Students were ‘Big Winners’ this summer with Kilmacsimon Rowing Club

Deputy Principal Ger Hogan with KCS students who row with Kilmacsimon Rowing Club: 1st year students Gearoid Kelly and Fiacra Corrigan; 2nd year students Cathal and Tadhg Murray, Roisin Kelly and Isabelle Boyce; 3rd year students Caitlin McNamara and Daragh Chossis; 4th year students Caitlin Kelly, Jake Grace and Ronan Hawkins; and 5th year students Cathal McShane and Tuan Reynolds.

KCS students who are members of Kilmacsimon Rowing Club are thrilled with their haul of medals for 2022.

Since the easing of Covid restrictions in the spring, these rowers have enjoyed a full line-up of social and competitive rowing regattas and they certainly have made the most of it.

Kilmacsimon Rowing Club is located on the banks of the River Bandon close to Kilmacsimon Quay. Since it was founded in 1984, the club has always competed in coastal rowing which is typically done in the relatively flat waters of rivers, lakes or inlets and which involves rowers using just one oar.

More recently, Kilmacsimon began to also compete in offshore rowing which is the more extreme side of the sport and is performed at sea. To withstand the harsher conditions of this type of rowing, offshore boats are usually narrower and more robust than coastal boats. Rowers use two oars and must learn how to row in waves, how to read and adjust for tides and currents, and how to perfect beach launching and landing.

This year, Kilmacsimon’s rowing season kicked off in March with an offshore regatta in Drinagh, followed a week later by a coastal fun regatta at Courtmacsharry. In April, Kilmacsimon hosted huge numbers of visitors from neighbouring rowing clubs at a competitive coastal regatta entitled ‘The Head of the River”.

May saw two more coastal fun regattas at Rosscarbery and Kilmacsimon. These provided a great opportunity for rowing teams to fine tune their racing skills in preparation for the more competitive regattas that followed over the summer.

This preparation paid huge dividends with Kilmacsimon rowing teams taking home many gold, silver and bronze medals from coastal championship races held at Glandore, at Castletownsend and at Schull.  

Kilmacsimon also won medals against intense competition at the Cork County Rowing Finals held at Blind Strand. It was the icing on the cake when a number of Kilmacsimon teams also achieved podium places in August at the National Coastal Rowing Championships which were hosted by Rowing Ireland and The South West Yawl Rowing Association in Schull.

Although Kilmacsimon is relatively new to offshore rowing, it was very encouraging that a number of these rowers also found success in offshore racing – winning silver and bronze medals at offshore regattas hosted by Kinmare, Castletownbere, Bantry and Wicklow rowing clubs.

As the rowing season draws to a close, many of these students plan to use school facilities to continue training with KCS Rowing Club as well as working out on rowing machines at Kilmacsimon Rowing Club’s gym.

There will be no relaxing for these rowers who know only too well the demands of this fiercely competitive Olympic sport. They are already looking forward to getting back on the water next spring with their winning formula:

Dedication + Teamwork + Love of Rowing = Success

Kilmacsimon’s offshore racing quad – ‘The Queen of the Quay’.

Offshore quad boats racing at Bantry championship regatta on the 27th of August.