The summer months have been a busy period for all at Inver Colpa Rowing Club, filled with fundraisers, training, races and thankfully, lots of medals and celebrations! After the success of the 9th Annual Boyne Boat Race on May 4th, the club geared up for the return of the Drogheda Raft Race on June 1st, aptly named ‘The Battle on the Boyne’, organised alongside the Boyne Fishermens Rescue & Recovery Service. The day was a huge success, with the GT Group coming out as the Grand Final Champions. The River Boyne is undoubtedly one of Drogheda’s greatest natural assets, and it was truly special to see it filled with life, laughter, and community spirit on the day, which also raised much needed funds for both Inver Colpa and the Boyne Fishermen.
Following after the Raft Race were three additional important fundraising events for the club as they continue to raise funds towards their 60,000euro target for their new boathouse on the Boyne. For almost a decade, the rowing club have operated out of containers at the Boyne Fishermen’s premises on the Marsh Road. Over 150 years after the former Drogheda Rowing Club built their clubhouse in 1867, this year will finally see the start of works on the site for the new boathouse to serve the community and to ensure that the sport of rowing is kept alive on the River Boyne for future generations to come. A short video of how the boathouse will look along the Boyne when complete can be seen here:
The club’s Flag Day took place around Drogheda on June 21st while the club were also delighted to work with Mosney Village who sponsored a roadside billboard campaign across prime locations in Louth and Meath, aiming to highlight the building of the new Boathouse. The billboard campaign GoFundMe for the new boathouse can be found at https://gofund.me/f084703f if anyone would like to make a donation.
Speaking about the billboard campaign, James McKevitt, Chairperson of the Inver Colpa Rowing Club said ‘The billboard campaign comes at an excellent time for the club, as we are about to embark on the construction of our new boathouse. The club is very busy fundraising, and the promotion through the billboards couldn’t come at a better time. The billboards also bring awareness of the rowing club to the locality, as the club continues to grow and support the sport of rowing in Drogheda and the Northeast. As a club that represents the community, the members and all involved appreciate the continued support and generosity of Mosney Village.’
The final fundraising event was the Rowathon which took place all day in Scotch Hall Shopping Centre on Sat 12th July, where 10 teams of 4 rowers per team aimed to row 120km against the clock. An endurance challenge for all that tested the rowers to both their physical and mental limits, the winners of the 3 Male / 1 Female category were SKF, while the winners of the 2 Male / 2 Female category were Just Pull It.
This was an amazing event that generated a lot of buzz throughout Scotch Hall on the day and the club are indebted to the management of Scotch Hall, the crews who gave it everything on the rowing machines, the volunteers who kept things running smoothly, the family and friends who showed up with water and support on a scorching day and all the local businesses who helped make it all possible with equipment, prizes, food, transport, training spaces and everything in between. The final fundraising total from these events over the last few months will be announced soon. The club would like to say thanks to all those who have taken part in and supported all the fundraisers so far as all the ongoing support is making a huge difference!
With all these fundraisers going on, the club still found lots of time for important sprint training sessions out on the sea in Clogherhead and on the river, along with attending three regattas on the Antrim coast in the lead up to the All Irelands, which are taking place in Glenarm from the 15th-17th August. The first regatta was in Cushendun, Antrim on June 15th, where the very wet weather didn’t dampen anyone’s rowing enthusiasm as the ladies team came first in their category, with our mixed team taking second in theirs, along with club member Orran helping the winning mixed team to their gold.
Not long after on July 6th, the club headed up North again to Ballygally for the Castle Regatta, taking home bronze in both the Veteran Ladies & Open Ladies along with silver in the Veteran Mixed. The final regatta of the summer for the club took place at Whitehead, Antrim on July 27th, where the club took home the Silver in both the Veteran Ladies and Open Ladies, along with the Gold in the Veteran Mixed, Silver in the Novice Mixed and Bronze in the Masters Mixed.
After these busy few months, it’s back to training until the All Irelands for the club, taking place back up on the beautiful Antrim coastline, this time in Glenarm from 15th-17th August. Hopefully more medals will be brought back home to Drogheda by the time the weekend is over! As usual, the club would like to thank all their main sponsors for their ongoing – Southgate Shopping Centre, KC Shipping, Flogas, Helpmypension.ie and The Mariner.
