Seven motions to be debated and voted on at Rowing Ireland agm

There is business to be done at the Rowing Ireland agm on Sunday in Dublin. The delegates will debate and vote on seven motions and elect a new officer to the board.

Before all this there will be a discussion which might just resolve itself into the old chestnut of whether having the end-point of the domestic calendar, the Irish Rowing Championships, in mid summer makes sense.

One proposal which might have legs is to have the non-senior events in August and the senior championships two weeks after the World Championships in September.

The senior event would be thin, at least for a year or two – a big proportion of senior athletes are students, some of whom want to summer away.

At the agm, the one change in personnel on the board is that Dan Buckley has been nominated as treasurer.

Susan Dunlea is not standing again.

A motion proposed by the Rowing Ireland board would limit participation in the Irish Championships to those who have “completed two regattas under Rowing Ireland rules”; another would require the able-bodied rowers in the high-performance programme to compete only at senior level in the Irish Championships that year.

St Michael’s will ask that delegates vote to allow rowers to compete as intermediate only up to 500 points (the present level is 750). The aim is to stop seniors dipping down into this grade.

Other motions

Among other motions there are plans to: grant Rowing Ireland the power to bring in two “independent directors” and expand the board to 15 members (from 13); give the

Domestic Events Committee

the power to give a date of its choosing to events where permission is sought after February 1st of the year of the event; recognise that the tracker system now arranges the draws for regattas; bring Irish regattas into line with Fisa rules on eliminating the starter zone.

Meanwhile, the Row Around Ireland in aid of funding and awareness for Cystic Fibrosis will conclude with a special welcome home ceremony in Bray on Saturday.

The core rowers were Ger Crowley and his sons Fionn and Niall, but there were a host of guest coastal rowers as the boat negotiated the 1,000-mile journey – and raised up to €100,000.

Ger Crowley said that every cent raised will go to Cystic Fibrosis charity, with a concentration on post-transplant support.

“There was phenomenal support from the people and the clubs around the country,” he said.