Our Boats

At the Stella Maris we are fortunate enough to have a range of boats available to us for different uses in the sport of rowing.

Our main boat, the ones in most use, is our Traditional Clinker Skiff Boat. This is the only boat type used throughout our East Coast regattas. We currently have 5 skiffs in our club, including our newest boat “Realt na Mara”. Our oldest “The Old Stella” was built locally in 1952 and is still used by crews for training in the club to this day.

Our next type of boat is our One Design. This is better known to our rowers as “The All Ireland boat” as we compete at the All Ireland in our one design. These were designed and adopted originally by the Irish Coastal Rowing Federation and are used and raced throughout the country. They are intended to allow clubs from different coastal traditions to race each other without anyone gaining advantage due to boat design. Prior to these boats being used clubs raced each other nationally in their own regional boats.

Our third type of boat, currently on its way to our club is Offshore/Coastal Double. FISA standard boats are a completely different design to our traditional wooden skiffs and coastal one design boats. It will be a welcome addition to our fleet and allow our members to branch out and try something new within the sport of rowing. They are currently the boat of choice at the World Rowing Championships.

As you can see our boats really differ in shape, size and above all, the oars of each boat are different. Because of the difference in the boats and oars, no two boats are rowed with the same technique. The rowers in our club have all trained and competed in both, something that it not taken up easily and is a testament to our members dedication and skill of the rowing sport.

We hope to continue to grow our fleet as our club progesses and grows. Investment in our boats is extremely important especially as we look to branch out on rowing styles and look into new competitions for our members to compete in, in the coming years.