A TEAM from Bantry is heading to the US next month to compete in the highly prestigious Atlantic Challenge.
The Atlantic Challenge International (ACI) is a contest which has strong ties to Bantry and the town’s maritime heritage, as the Bantry Bay gig is the longboat used in all the events.
The Bantry Bay gigs are copies of 18th-century French navy captain’s gigs, captured on the shores of Bantry Bay in 1796, which are 38ft long and are powered by three masts and ten oars, making them the perfect design for crews to test their skills in leadership, communication, teamwork, and seamanship.
Diarmaid Murphy, international events chairman and Trustee for Ireland, said the Atlantic Challenge is an international contest of seamanship which is performed in Bantry Bay longboats.
‘The challenge started in 1986 with two boats – the USA and France and was held in new York.’ Since then, about 100 gigs have been built by 16 nations for participation in the Challenge.
There has been a contest held every two years from 1986 to 2018.
The contest was due to take place in St Petersburg in Russia in 2020 and 2022 but due to Covid and conflict, the events did not go ahead.
This year, the contest is going ahead and will be held in Belfast, Maine, USA.
‘We have developed the organisation organically in relation to boat building, sailing and rowing,’ said Diarmaid.
‘There are about 100 boats altogether but only a few will be participating this time, from about seven different countries. The last event we held was in 2018 in Antrim, Northern Ireland, so there has been a bit of a gap as we are rebuilding from the ground up.’
Aileen Daly, crew manager, coach, and team mentor m explained that there are currently 20 crew members on the team.
‘Diarmaid and I are training them. We are going over to Belfast, Maine on July 16th and the contest will be held from July 20th to 29th. The Atlantic Challenge is the brainchild of Lance Lee who wanted to bring countries together after the war. He picked a boat that could fit the most crew in it and which forced the team to have to work together. His niche was traditional seamanship, so it covers everything from sailing, rowing, docking, ropework, navigation to building friendly ties with international crews.’
The ethos behind the event is of moving humanity toward a path of co-operation and peace by getting young people together in boats, learning difficult manual skills, competing for shared success and living and eating together during the contest.
It is a powerful one, which transcends cultural, political and linguistic barriers by instilling trust, connection and friendship.
‘It is more of a contest than a competition and is aimed at mixing young people and encouraging collaboration between different countries,’ said Aileen.
‘In preparation, the Bantry crew has been training three times a week but recently has been training three times daily.’
Speaking about the logistics involved in getting the boat, the Unité, to Maine, Aileen explained that boat this week went into a container in Bantry to be shipped from Cork to Maine.
‘We have to allow for about five weeks of time for it to get there. When it clears customs at the port on the other side, it will be driven by truck to Maine.’
Once the event gets underway, participating teams will take part in activities and challenges which build resilience, personal growth and social skills, all through the medium of the sea.
The Navigation event tests the skills of the crews as do the Ropework, Captain’s Gig and Jackstay Transfer events.
‘The Jackstay Transfer is one of the most interesting events because it was designed to transfer things between boats and land when the weather was too treacherous to come alongside, or to land the boat,’ said Aileen.
‘I found out recently that a lot of the building materials for the Fastnet Rock were done via Jackstay Transfers. It is a very technical part of the contest and the winning team is the one that can get the bag transferred to shore without dropping it or incurring any penalties.’
After Maine, the next contest will be held in France in 2026 and then Bantry will host the international event again, in 2028.
This month there will be some local fundraising events for the team, such as a bake sale, a quiz and a flag day, which will be coming up shortly.
For more see www.atlanticchallenge.org
