Check your swim gear
- Wetsuit, if you are wearing one on the day
- Tow float · mandatory
- Two pairs of goggles
- Spare hats, to wear under the event hat if needed
- Body Glide or Vaseline
- Garmin or sports watch
One phone per team for the tracker
Fully charged, with the tracker app installed. Share tracker.castletocastleswim.ie with family and friends.
Pack for the boat, and for after
Towels, dryrobe, waterproof layers, hat and gloves for sitting on the boat between legs. Separate warm clothes for after the swim.
Nutrition and hydration
–8.20
Registration · Baysports, Hodson Bay
Barry More, Kiltoom, Co. Roscommon, N37 KH72. Parking around Baysports and Hodson Bay Hotel.
- Complete the waiver form. Under-18s need a parent or guardian signature
- Any outstanding donations to Joanne O'Connor · cash, card or cheque to Pieta
- You get a green swim cap (mandatory), a t-shirt, your swim number written on your hand, and a bag sticker
Change at Baysports
Changing rooms, toilets, drinking water, and complimentary tea and coffee from Baysports.
Two bags, two destinations
- Finish bag · everything you want at the finish. Compact, secured, sticker with your name and number. Leave it at the Drop-off Point van at Baysports and it travels to Athlone Castle
- Boat bag · hats, goggles, tow float, towel, dryrobe, warm layers, nutrition, medication, and the team tracker phone
Agree with your boat captain where you collect boat bags afterwards. All items are left at your own risk.
Before you swim
Body Glide, lanolin or Vaseline on the back of your neck and under your arms. It is a long swim and friction burns are miserable.
Safety briefing · mandatory
At Baysports. Attendance is a rule, not a suggestion.
Board your boat · Hodson Bay Pier
All swimmers must be at the pier to board their support boat.
Convoy departs, sharp
All team boats leave Hodson Bay under escort. The journey to the start can take up to 45 minutes.
Holding area · Rindoon
Boats hold north of the pontoon at Rindoon Castle to avoid grounding in shallow water.
Relay 1 starts
Teams go one minute apart, in time trial order, fastest first. Your boat is called to the start line by David Warby on Channel 8. Your nominated fastest swimmer enters the water at least 30 seconds before your slot and goes on the hooter.
All 20 relays away
Cut-off 1 · Buoy K
6km from your start at Rindoon Jetty. Miss it and your team leaves the water.
Cut-off 2 · Buoy S
10km.
Overall limit
Anyone still on the course at 7 hours is stopped and returned by boat to Athlone Marina.
–4.15
Finish · Athlone Castle
DJ and MC Ray Reilly from 1.00pm. Food in the hospitality tent, free tea and coffee at The Bounty Coffee Dock.
After party · The Snug Bar, Fry Place
The two rules that matter
And one more
You and your support boat pass within 20 metres of every yellow buoy, keeping it on your left. That includes Buoy A. Buoys are 500m apart and lettered A to T.
The start · Rindoon Jetty
The first leg is the fastest swimmer's
Your team's nominated fastest swimmer takes the first leg, at least as far as Buoy A, which is about 1km. That rule exists to spread the field and stop twenty teams converging in the first kilometre.
Your first swimmer starts from the boat. In windy conditions, enter on the windward side.
Down Lough Ree
Your distances
From Rindoon Jetty: Buoy A is 1km, then every buoy adds 500m.
Buoy K is 6km · reach it inside 3 hours. Buoy S is 10km · inside 5 hours. Then Buoy T, and roughly 3km of river to the finish.
The overall limit is 7 hours. Anyone still on the course then is stopped and returned by boat to Athlone Marina.
The three narrow gates
Your boat holds. You go through first.
At all three, your boat waits and lets you swim through, then follows you. This is the opposite of how you swim the rest of the course, so expect it.
No overtaking inside a gate. Passing another team while going through a narrow navigational gate is forbidden.
The last stretch
Relay swimmers who want to can re-enter the water at Athlone Boat Club for the final leg to Athlone Castle, and a whole team may go in together for that leg.
This depends on conditions, river flow and how spread out the field is on the day. It may be withdrawn. Listen at the briefing.
HELP
HELP"
at Buoy [nearest letter]
The nearest safety boat comes to you. Safety boats cover the full course.
For anything that is not an emergency, call "Swim Control" on Channel 8. Phone is the backup if VHF fails.
Everyone you might need
If you are in trouble
Hold your tow float and raise a hand.
Safety kayakers, safety boats and divers are stationed along the whole course too.
Signal the moment you feel unwell. Nobody has ever been given out to for calling something in that turned out to be nothing.
Who is out there with you
A doctor on the Command Control Vessel
Order of Malta ambulances at Judy's Harbour Rindoon, Hodson Bay and the finish line
Safety boats covering the full course, plus the RNLI
Divers stationed along the route
Watch for hypothermia
Exhaustion or feeling very tired
Confusion
Memory loss
Slurred speech
Ask a simple question every so often and listen to how the answer comes back. Not what they say, how they say it. That is the easiest check there is.
If your boat breaks down
Get out of the water and onto your support boat. Your captain notifies Swim Control on Channel 8 with your location and team, and drops anchor. Your relay can only continue if a backup boat arrives.
Lost your position?
In reduced visibility, prioritise situational awareness. If you are not certain where you are, stop. Do not guess and do not press on hoping. Call Swim Control on Channel 8 and they will assess your situation.
Given to you at registration
✓ A bright green swim cap. Mandatory, worn and visible the whole way
✓ Your t-shirt, in the size you gave at sign-up
✓ Your swim number, written on your hand
✓ A bag sticker for your finish bag
Bring it yourself · tap to tick
- ✓Tow floatMandatory. No exceptions.
- ✓Wetsuit, if you registered or time-trialled in oneIf you did, you must wear it on the day.
- ✓Two pairs of gogglesOne pair is one pair away from a bad day.
- ✓Spare hatsTo wear under the green event cap if it is cold.
- ✓Body Glide, lanolin or VaselineBack of the neck and under the arms.
- ✓Garmin or sports watchThere are no timing chips, so record your own.
- ✓One phone per team with the tracker appGoes on the boat. Share tracker.castletocastleswim.ie.
- ✓Nutrition and hydrationFor a long day, most of it sitting on a boat.
- ✓Towel, dryrobe, waterproof layers, hat and glovesFor the boat between legs.
- ✓Warm clothes for afterIn your finish bag, not your boat bag.
- ✓SunscreenEspecially if you are swimming in skins.
- ✓Medication, if you need itIn the boat bag.
The rules you swim under
Green swim cap, worn and visible the whole way
Tow float, mandatory
No fins, paddles, boards or pull buoys
Wetsuit if you registered or time-trialled in one
The nominated fastest swimmer takes the first leg, at least to Buoy A
Only one swimmer from your team in the water at a time, except possibly the final leg from the Boat Club
Timing
This is a charity swim, not a race. There are no timing chips. Times are recorded from your relay's start and finish and published afterwards. Record your own where you can.
And for everyone
Respect the environment and the people who live along this water. No litter, anywhere.
Respect and help your fellow swimmers, kayakers and crews.
Listen to the marshals and safety teams. They are there so everybody gets home.
Where to swim
Beside the boat. Never behind it.
Behind the boat is the propeller and the engine fumes. Stay towards the bow, at a safe distance.
Always know where you are in relation to the propeller.
Pick a spot on the front half of the boat and stay level with it. Your captain agrees your side with you in advance.
If you drift more than 10 metres off, your captain will hold their direction until you notice and come back.
In wind, the order is fixed
WIND → SWIMMER → BOAT
You swim on the windward side. That way wind and swell push the boat away from you rather than onto you. It is not negotiable and it overrides whatever side you agreed.
Who decides what
Changeovers
Engine off, every time.
Only once they are aboard does the next swimmer enter.
Passing another team
Neither you nor your boat may enter the 20 metre safety zone around another vessel. Front, side or back.
Make the move entirely outside that zone, staying inside the navigation channel.
Your captain or crew warns you before adjusting course to pass.
Never pass inside a narrow gate.