Swimming from Ireland to Scotland

lostexpectation

just caught a program on tg4 about a women swimming from ireland to scotland called mna na mara?

never knew anybody had tried it

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/09/18/exclusive-swimmer-s-rare-feat-of-swimming-from-ireland-to-scotland-86908-20741544/

its about 32- 40k!!! in 15 hours

Killgore Trout

http://www.swimireland.ie/index.cfm/loc/9-1/articleId/75007026-C59D-140B-6D1C6503E588002D

AngryHippie

brrrr.

swimforever

It's known as one of the hardest crossings in open water world-besides the really cold temperatures, the lions mane jellies up there are really horrible-Alison Streeter (the person who has swum the English Channel the most times) was stung unconscious on her first North Channel attempt (she actually went back 3 weeks later and completed it...not sure that i'd have that determination!). And along with all that the weather is very unpredictable up there so you can actually train all year for it and never get the weather to allow you to make an attempt all summer.
And yet people want to swim it... (maybe this is a bad time to mention that I'm one of those people?)

AngryHippie

I'd love to do it too, but its 12 months training and a large element of luck, bit of a heavy duty commitment....:eek:

swimforever

So true. Big commitment and large possibility of it not paying off. The 12 months training I don't mind so much...it's the fact that you can do that 12 months and never have a chance to even make an attempt so that all the training goes down the drain. One of my friends trained for it two years in a row and she didn't get the weather for it either year. That would drive me nuts!

pgibbo

swimforever wrote: »

And yet people want to swim it... (maybe this is a bad time to mention that I'm one of those people?)

It says on the Swim Ireland site:

"Unless a swimmer has completed the English Channel successfully they are not considered for this swim."

I assume you did this based on the above? How did you get on with it?

It sounds like the The North Channel swim is quite a challenge. :eek: All the best with it. When do you hope to do it? This summer? How's the preparation going?

swimforever

Sorry if my last post was misleading...I'm not actually training for the North Channel at the moment, it's just on my list of swims that I'd love to do at some stage. At the moment I'm training for a two-way crossing of the English Channel (England to France to England), I'm hoping to be the first Irish person to complete it this summer. So that's enough for me for now!

Cul a cnoic

You can see it on TG4 live,
http://www.tg4.tv/ , Faisnéis - Cartlann , Mná na Mara - 5/4/09, about 20min into programme.

Brother-in-law was part of the safety team for this swim and he said she was fantastic.
With everything against her, weather, tides, 17 hours in the water and 5 mile from Scotland, its called off and then she apoligises to the team for failing. Thats not failing.

She was also one of the swimmers in the round Ireland Swim with Henry O'Don nell.

Another hardy woman is on it this Friday, Susan Feir tear, fishing in Alaska.

Cul a cnoic

Sorry, forgot to mention her name, Anne Marie Ward.

Zuppy

Usually people attempt the English Channel first.

While it is "easier" it is considered the Gold standard in open water swimming. A degree or two warmer, more weather windows and sometimes you might get a smoother crossing (which from what I understand almost never happens in the North Channel).

Think of it as progressing from the road marathon (EC) to the vertical mountain marathon. Had it explained to me like this and it makes sense. The distance may be the same but there is a world of difference.

mjon3105

Cul a cnoic wrote: »

Sorry, forgot to mention her name, Anne Marie Ward.

She is now leading in the 2010 World poll for Open Water Swimmer of the year award. You can vote for her via this story I did for EuropeanIrish website. What a fantastic achievement it would be to have an Irish woman as World No 1 ?

Grainne Murphy,Katie Taylor, AnnMarie Ward - just three of Ireland's top female sports personalities and yet they receive so little recognition in the mainstream media within Ireland in comparison with top male sports stars. Sad"

Vote for Anne Marie Ward !


http://www.europeanirish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=660

mjon3105

Congratulations to Anne Marie .

by Michael O'Neill


"Honoured - humbled - gobsmacked -a little surreal - fantastic for OpenWater Swimming - fantastic for Donegal" that was the immediate reaction of Anne Marie Ward, the 44 years old from Portnablagh, in Donegal, on hearing that she has been voted the 2010 World Open Water Swimmer of the Year


Speaking with EuropeanIrish.com she said she had been deeply honoured even to be on the short list (of 12) in the company of so many greats in the world of open water swimming as Brazil's Ana Marcela Cunha ( 5th in the Beijing Olympics and one of the medal favourites for the 2012 London games and the current FINA 10KM Marathon Swimming World Cup titleholder) , World & European record holder, Lynsey Heister of The Netherlands , Eva Fabian (World 5km titleholder) of the United States and Britain's Jackie Cobell, the British endurance athlete who had overcome so many injuries and setbacks yet joined the exclusive English Channel's Half Century Club recently and like Anne Marie, an amateur, without sponsorship or sports funding.

Open Water Swimming guru Steve Munatones of the United States announced the results via Twitter in the early hours of this morning with these comments :


"The North (Irish Channel" is renowned for being the toughest channel swim in the world - cold, rough, filled with jellyfish and fraught with unpredictable weather. But it was site to the tenacious efforts of one Irish women who never quit until she reached the other side.

Anne Marie Ward, an unlikely endurance heroine, joined one of the most elite and exclusive marathon swimming clubs in the world - the 11 members of the North Irish Channel club. Her never-say-never 18 hour and 59 minute effort - on her fourth attempt - courageously ended in darkness at 3:35 am.

With both the English Channel and North Channel under her belt, Anne Marie completely reversed her previously unhealthful lifestyle - an inspirational story in itself - and is now one of the world's most accomplished cold-water channel swimmers. Starting humbly and simply with a 2-mile charity swim, Anne Marie is now deservedly recognized by her peers and honored for reaching the pinnacle of her sport.

For her amazing swim between Ireland and Scotland her admirable lifestyle turnaround and dedication to charity swims, Anne Marie Ward was selected as the 2010 World Open Water Swimming Woman Of The Year.

Among the millions of female open water swimmers around the world, the 12 nominees clearly stood out - their exploits, histories and lifestyles are all incredibly inspirational for they overcame failures, obstacles and disappointments at some point in their swimming careers. But they forged on, positively and courageously. As the award is meant to symbolize, the nominees (1) embodied the spirit of open water swimming, (2) possess the sense of adventure, tenacity and perseverance that open water swimmers are known for, and (3) most positively influenced the world of open water swimming in 2010.

The final results of the 2010 vote were as follows:

1. Anne Marie Ward, Swimmer (Ireland) 47.36% (2,558 votes)
2. Ana Marcela Cunha, Swimmer (Brazil) 28.74% (1,552 votes)
3. Linsy Heister, Swimmer (Netherlands) 10.39% (561 votes)
4. Jackie Cobell, Swimmer (Great Britain) 3.43% (185 votes)
5. Barbara Held, Swimmer (USA) 3.35% (181 votes)
6. Penny Palfrey, Swimmer (Australia) 2.24% (121 votes)
7. Angela Maurer, Swimmer (Germany) 1.72% (93 votes)
8. Eva Fabian, Swimmer (USA) 0.7% (38 votes)
9. Freda Streeter, Coach/Motivator (Great Britain) 0.65% (35 votes)
10. Diana Nyad, Swimmer (USA) 0.63% (34 votes)
11. Sue Oldham, Swimmer (Australia) 0.5% (27 votes)
12. Mighty Mermaids, Swimmers (USA) 0.3% (16 votes)

(Copyright © 2010 by Open Water Source)



A tremendous feat then and yet a very modest Anne Marie reserved most of her praise for her team preferring to extoll their virtues . She also thanked , her Family and Friends and all her supporters,(including the many EuropeanIrish readers.SportsWorldIreland and Boards.ie subscribers who voted for her ) , for their help during the years preparing for the actual swim and during the voting ) with these simple words of gratitude:

"I'd just like to thank everyone who supported me - thanks for the patience - three years of waiting for this (her North Channel swim achievement),perseverance when we went back several times.Thanks to the team who kept changing the plan until we got it right, thanks to my H.S.E work colleagues for all the support, for believing that we could do it. To the local newspapers who were great - that means a lot."

"This award is a huge recognition worldwide of what a group of people can achieve together - it's always about 'enjoying it' .Now all my team can have a year off!"


Tonight there will no doubt be more celebrations not only in Portnablagh and Dunfanaghy but throughout Donegal.

Meantime here in the words of her friend and Round Ireland team member Nuala Moore from Dingle is a detailed account of the achievement which has resulted in Anne Marie Ward being selected as the 2010 World Open Water Swimming Woman Of The Year.





http://theforceofnature-northchannelswimmer.blogspot.com/?spref=fb

siestaguard01

Hello to all. Just trying to gather any info on Ireland/Scotland swims. In particular the shortest route and the logistics involved. In advance thanks. siestaguard.

Finelli

The best thing to do is get in touch with the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association (www.ildsa.info)

They should have the information you require.

I know that they recently helped with an American swimmers successful attempt

swimforever

siestaguard01 wrote: »

Hello to all. Just trying to gather any info on Ireland/Scotland swims. In particular the shortest route and the logistics involved. In advance thanks. siestaguard.

The best person to contact is Brian Meharg, he's the main pilot for the swim. His website is http://www.bangorboat.com (it's not the easiest website to go through but it has his contact details and some details about the swim on there). It's best to ring him rather than email, you may not get an email response (speaking from experience).

The shortest route is from Larne to Stranraer (or vice versa). It's a slightly shorter swim than the English Channel but the tides are worse and it's much colder (Howard Keech was the most recent successful North Channel swimmer on Aug 2nd last. On his day the highest water temp they measured was 12.5degC, the lowest was 10.6degC). And there can be lots of horrible Lion's Mane jellyfish (which is a much bigger obstacle for me than the cold)!

To attempt the swim with Brian as your pilot, you need to have previously completed an English Channel crossing. I'd suspect that you need to be signing up at least a year in advance, but it could be longer. As far as I know he only signs up 3 or 4 swimmers per summer. I'm not sure how long a window you sign up for...I suspect it may be longer than the one-tide English Channel window since the weather is not all that co-operative up there for swimming.

Brian is, as far as I know, the only pilot that takes swimmers across. You could organise your own crew and pilot (like Anne-Marie did last year), but you'd want to really make sure that they know what they're doing. If you were thinking of doing this you'd need to talk to ILDSA anyway because to get a swim officially recognised, you'd need to have one of their observers on board.

Are you seriously thinking of doing it or just curious? Have you done an English Channel solo?