Posted 12 November 2025
UCD competed at the renowned Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston last weekend. It was a first for the university which saw its crews line up alongside some of the world’s top institutions on the famous course.
The Head of the Charles, celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, is billed as the world’s largest 3-day rowing competition, attracting over 400,000 spectators and 12,000 competitors across 74 categories, spanning the full gamut from youth to the Grand-Veteran category of over 85s, with Olympians sharing the water alongside relative newcomers.
The event is a “head” where crews race in a time trial format along the 3 mile or 4.8km course, in contrast to the side-by-side 2km format that is common later in the rowing season. This provides a steady stream of boats for spectators to assess while also allowing any crew to compare its time with another, regardless of their category.
Among the competitors were British universities Cambridge and Oxford, Ivy League universities Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale, along with other major US universities such as Colgate, MIT, Syracuse and Washington.
UCD had two student crews entries, a Men’s 8+ and a Women’s 4+, with both crews racing well on unfamiliar waters.
The Women’s 4+ competed in the Club category and found themselves starting behind the familiar faces of Trinity. Just under 8 seconds separated these two crews as UCD clocked the faster time of 18:41.249 to finish 13th among the 53 entries.
The Men’s 8+ raced in the Championship category, the fastest field at the event. The crew clocked 14:48.396 which compared well to the Collegiate category for which they were also eligible, and would have placed them 8th out of 42 in that category.
UCD alumni were also well represented at the race with Old Collegian’s Boat Club picking up a 5th place medal with their 16:35.584 time in the Women's Alumnae Eights field of 52, while Tara Phelan was 5th out of 53 with Southern Methodist University in the Women’s Club 4+ after moving from UCD this season.
UCD student and Olympian Daire Lynch was also in action, winning the Directors' Challenge Men's Quads with his Rowing Ireland teammates in a record breaking time of 14:36.177, and placing 2nd in the Men’s Alumni Eights with Yale in 14:48.018.
Women’s Club 4+ L-R Neasa Farrell (cox), Ailise O'Sullivan, Dervila O'Brien, Orla O'Sullivan, Niamh Campbell
Men’s Championship 8+ L-R Rhian Nelson (cox), Dach Murray, Conaill Cunningham, Ross Mason, Andrew O'Leary, Ryan Quinn, Conor O'Reilly, Ciaran Conway, Eoin McGrath
Report by Niall Farrell, UCD Boat Club