Rowing club regatta cancelled due to Ashe Quay works delay
The decision to finally pull the annual Fermoy Rowing Club Regatta, has been announced, due to the lack of necessary progress on the flood relief works on Ashe Quay in the town.
Delays in the Ashe Quay flood protection works which is to result in part of the quay being closed to vehicles for three weeks in June, has led to the cancellation of Fermoy Rowing Club's annual regatta.
"We are gutted. We have exhausted all possibilities, but to no avail and the most disruptive work on the quay has yet to come," Paul Kavanagh, the club's vice chair, said.
FAILED TO GET ASSURANCES
An emergency meeting of the organising committee decided at the weekend that, in the interests of safety of the competitors and public alike, there was no other option available to them. The decision was made, reluctantly, after every possible alternative was examined, in conjunction with the Blackwater Sub Aqua Club. With the contractor and OPW unable to offer the club the required assurances that Ashe Quay would be in a fit state at the end of June to satisfy health and safety requirements, or indeed the insurance requirements to hold the national event, they were left with no other choice.
This was to be the club's 50th consecutive regatta on the Barnane stretch. It's understood the club's governing body, Rowing Ireland, gave the club every opportunity to come up with a safe plan to run the regatta, however the Ashe Quay works were simply too big an obstacle to overcome.
LOST REVENUE
"The club was left in an untenable position of waiting and waiting for promised progress but despite getting better in May things got worse," Pat Granville, chairman of the club, said. "We are now in a perilous financial situation as the regatta is our biggest income generator and our showcase for the people of Fermoy. Our date is now lost and has already been allocated to another club. What can the club do now? Nothing really, as the season ends on July 12th with the National Championships at the National Rowing Centre," the clearly disappointed and frustrated chairman told The Avondhu.
He said there'd be a lot of people disappointed including the business people in the town and surrounding areas, hotels, guest houses, restaurants, cafes and convenience outlets as well as athletes and potential spectators.
Lagan's spokesman Cian O'Sullivan told The Avondhu that the club representative they'd met with on Friday last, while obviously disappointed with the news, aired no issues about it and signalled their intention to run an alternative event on the weekend of September 21st.
Published:
Friday 24th May 2:50pm
