Rowing Ireland will hold the first water trials of the 2025 season on the weekends of March 8th and March 15th. The weekend of March 8th and 9th will be used to trial Juniors, U23’s, and Adaptive athletes as well as Senior B (senior athletes with the sole ambition of making a Home International team).

The following weekend, March 15th and 16th, will be used to trial athletes who wish to be part of the HP Senior A team and compete at World Cups, and World Rowing Championships. Athletes who compete at this trial will not be ruled out of Home Internationals selection.

Entries are to be made on Rowing Ireland’s Tracker System and must be in by Wednesday 26th February at 7pm for the first weekend, and Wednesday 5th March at 7pm for the second weekend.

There will be an entry fee of €10 per athlete to cover expenses such as ambulance cover, etc. Payments can be made under the payments section on the Rowing Ireland website and must be in before racing begins. Any club or athlete that has already paid for an entry for the cancelled trial in February will have the payment transferred and do not need to pay again.

Only athletes that have completed the December and January erg testing are eligible to enter the trial. Any athlete that cannot compete at the trial and wishes to progress to the next stages, must provide a relevant medical cert or exemption letter.

Boat Categories

U19U23U23 LWTSeniorSenior LWTAdaptive
1xxxxxxx
2-xxx

All racing will be over 2km with small boats on Saturday and crew boats on Sunday (2x and 4-). Sunday crews will be announced after racing on Saturday and will be based on the small boat rankings, not all athletes will progress to racing on Sunday.

Provisional Race Schedule

Friday

  • NRC open between 9am and 5pm for boat rigging. After 5pm trailers can come into the centre, but the compound will be closed. Please contact Clara (clara.obrien@rowingireland.ie) if your trailer will be arriving after 5pm.

Saturday

  • Safety briefing will take place one hour before the first race outside the boat bays.
  • AM: 2K races in lanes (small boats) approx. 9am first go
  • PM: 2K races in lanes, seeded from AM racing

Sunday

  • Safety briefing will take place one hour before the first race outside the boat bays.
  • AM: 2K races in lanes (doubles and fours) approx. 9am first go
    • E.g. (1+2)(3+4)(5+6)(7+8)(9+10) and so on
  • PM: 2K races in lanes (doubles and fours)
    • E.g. (1+3)(2+4)(5+7)(6+8)(9+11) and so on

Further Information

  • Clubs must provide enough doubles and fours to cover their athletes. A lack of boats may result in further cuts to the group moving through to Sunday.
  • Athletes must be in their club colours, and preferably club blades when racing.
  • Athletes entered in Lightweight events do not need to be at a certain weight however a weight check will be taken prior to the safety briefing.
  • Para athletes will only be competing on the Saturday. PR3 athletes are asked to be entered as PR2 on the tracker system as it currently does not have the facility to accept PR3 scullers.
  • U23 LW athletes are asked to be entered under their respective U23 category and please email Clara to confirm that they will be competing as lightweight.
  • Athletes may be moved around between sculling and sweep at the discretion of the Lead Coach and Pathway Coordinator.
  • To run the trial, we will need approximately 30 volunteers. Each club participating in the trial should have at least one volunteer available for the weekend.
  • Please email Clara at clara.obrien@rowingireland.ie with the boats that your club will be travelling with, and the name and contact details of volunteers from your club before Monday 3rd of March.
  • A WhatsApp group will be used to communicate information throughout the weekend. You can join the group using this link HERE
  • If weather conditions are looking poor, a final call will be made at 12pm on the Thursday before racing.
  • The weekend of March 15th and 16th will be used as a backup weekend for the U19, U23 and Senior Homes Trial if the weather is poor on the 8th and 9th.
  • If you have any other queries, please get in touch with Clara at clara.obrien@rowingireland.ie