Register a team

When: 17 March 2024
Where: BASE Nautica, Platja Mar Bella, Barcelona
Time:  from 10:00

 Join us for the

12th Kingspan Mediterranean Currach Regatta

About the Regatta:

The St Patricks Day Regatta celebrates all things Irish and centers around the Currach races. The energetic races bring together some spirited teams from across the globe!  The atmosphere is charged with vibrations of the beating drums. The event brings together culture, music, food, sun, sand and of course Guinness to quench the thirst of enthusiastic rowers. Enjoy a juicy burger & beer with lots of Irish love. Come with friends and family and enjoy a taste of Ireland in Barcelona.

  • The regatta takes place at CEM Mar Bella on Sunday March 17th 2024

Enter a Team:

Crews consist of 3 rowers. The currachs are styled on three hand Connemara racing currachs. There are two competitions, professional and amateur.

Registration is open. The registration fee is €90, If you are representing your pub or company,  you can choose the Corporate package and get a host of promotional benefits.

To apply, pay here and contact markeredden@gmail.com

 

Register your Team

 

 

The registration fee includes training sessions on the water in the weeks leading up to the event.

What are Currachs?

Currachs are traditional Irish rowing boats designed to face the Atlantic waves off the west coast of Ireland. You can read more about the history of these boats here.

The Currach is an ancient skin on frame craft that has been in existence in Ireland since people first inhabited the island. Fishermen depended on the Currach right into the twentieth century, especially in the Dingle peninsula and the Aran islands. Developed by a people with the barest of means, the Curach has evolved from an animal skin covered basket to sleek designs that nowadays race each summer around the coast of Ireland. In the hands of an experienced crew the Currach is an agile, seaworthy craft. Its buoyant, flexible, whale-like design has earned the currach a legendary status due to its capability to handle the rough Atlantic seas.

Skin boats gave life to the early people of Greenland, Alaska and Ireland – people who lived on the edges of lands dominated by broad oceans and rock. The currach was immortalised in Robert Flaherty´s 1934 film about the life of Aran islanders in the early 20th century, the classic Man Of Aran. The film portrayed the currach as a potent symbol of human endurance and hard won liberty in the face of nature.
Being an island nation, Ireland has a deep affinity with the sea. Irish monks once went on ocean voyages at the mercy of Nature. Iomramh they called it – an Irish version of a walkabout. Seeking isolation, tide and wind would direct their course and deliver them to a higher plane of consciousness.
As a physical object it represents something more than a leisure craft. It stands for the quality of ancient design, a legacy left to us by our forebears and a resourcefulness applicable to today’s life. A rethink of the modern value of things. An appreciation for the things that do not rely on producing emissions in order to work, vessels that have been fine-tuned for centuries following the trial and shaping of time.

A Curach is something that must be built so that it will not be forgotten.

The currachs used in the regatta were hand built by Mark Redden in his studio in Barcelona.currachconamara

€90.00 / team

Register your Team

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