News

Posted: February 23, 2017

Statement from Alistair Neill
Chair (Temp) Domestic Regatta Organising Committee

The 2018 European Sports Championships is being hosted by Glasgow and Berlin with the rowing events taking place at Strathclyde Park. Part of the preparatory work for this event involves a full upgrade to the Finishing Tower at the Park. Due to this ongoing work, the tower and all of the systems incorporated in the tower will not available for SPR 2017. This means that we will not have the usual Regatta control system, timing, photo-finish or commentary facilities.

The Organising Committee are looking into alternatives to allow the regatta to be run as smoothly as possible, but we felt that Clubs should be made aware of the circumstances at this early date. Whilst we will do our best to minimise disruption, it is likely that there will be some changes to the usual way the regatta is run, and there may be some restrictions put in place.

The work on the tower has also required a temporary access pontoon to be put in place alongside the bridge to the tower. It is possible that this will still be in place at the time of SPR, and if so we will have to revise the circulation pattern to allow safe passage of boats from the pontoons to the start around the base of the tower. This would make lane eight as the “start-bound” lane with lane seven as a safety buffer. This will cut the number of lanes available for racing to six. This restriction in available lanes will further complicate what is an already difficult draw.

These constraints on the biggest regatta in Scotland will put a lot more pressure on those taking part, both organiser and competitors. We would ask that all clubs and competitors are mindful of this over the course of the regatta.

One thing that clubs and individuals can do is to volunteer to help out at the regatta.  There are many jobs which need to be done each day, and if you could find a few hours to give a little time to help out then this would be greatly appreciated. Our Volunteer coordinator Lindsey Vyse will be putting out a note on this in the near future.

I have been assured that the Tower and the improved facilities will be in place for Scottish Championships.

I look forward to seeing many of you at Strathclyde Park Regatta in April.