Vandals burn out six boats at rowing trials

GARDAÍ believe vandals were behind the destruction of six valuable sculling boats at the National Rowing Centre in Cork.

The boats, which are normally made of carbon fibre and are worth up to €8,000 each, were set on fire overnight on Friday night.

They belonged to a number of clubs including King’s Hospital, City of Derry, Portadown and St Michaels.

The clubs had brought the boats to the Inniscarra venue for national trials at both underage and senior levels.

One of the boats belonged to John Armstrong, one of the best country’s best-known rowers, who had attended the trials in a coaching capacity.

It is understood the boats which were burned were all single sculls.

The competitors had all been training solely in the single sculls on Friday so the rest of the larger boats — eights, fours and pairs — were still on the club’s trailers and were not affected by the blaze.

However, the sculls had been left on stands away from the trailers and so were easily moved.

According to Laura D’Urso of City of Derry rowing club, when people started turning up for the event on Saturday morning, they realised boats were missing.

After a search, the charred remains of the vessels were found close to the water.

The shells of the boats themselves had almost disappeared given the intensity of the fire.

It is thought the flames were not spotted because there are few houses in the area.

All that remained were the melted metal riggers which hold the oars.

Gardaí were called and they carried out a detailed examination of the scene.

Inspector Tony Sugrue said gardaí were carrying out a full investigation of the circumstances behind the attack.

Inniscarra is seen as the headquarters of Irish rowing, particularly since the completion of the €5.4m national rowing centre in May 2007. Nearly all national selection events are held in the adjoining lake, as well the national rowing championships.

Just last year a number of boats belonging to Trinity College were badly damaged in Waterford, again by vandals. In that incident, those responsible cut both ends off the custom-built sculling boats with what gardaí believed was a battery operated saw. More than €60,000 worth of damage was thought to have been caused on that occasion.