Charlie wrote:
I've been asked to do the Liffey Descent this year with some guys from my
club and was after some information about it that I can't really figure out
from any websites!

The first is, what grade is the river? If there's something nasty you don't
like the look of can you portage?

The river is grade 1 & 2. The only nasties are the weirs. About 10 of
them if I remember. You probably can portage them, but there's not
really much point because they're the fun bit! The rest of the race is a
long slog! (17 miles)

There is a portage around a dam about half-way along the course.


The second is, we're not really in it for the winning and the racing. More
for the laughs and the fun of doing it! Is this something that is
acceptable? All the info I've seen is focussing on the winning.

They vaguely try to discourage 'social' paddlers, but there are plenty
of social paddlers there. Why else would they have a class for
general-purpose boats? They do, however, have a time cutoff to complete
the race. When I paddled it - a long time ago - the cut-off was 5 hours,
and myself & friends completed in about 4.5 hours. I was paddling a
Corsica S.

I haven't looked in any detail, but here is the main web site:
http://www.liffeydescent.com/

--
Conor O'Neill, at home in Bristol, UK