Rame Gig Club celebrates a community effort
The sun shone down on a packed square at Cawsand on Saturday 9th April for the official opening of Rame Gig Club’s newly converted and refurbished boat house. The work has been long awaited and is part of an ambitious £200,000 development to increase and improve the storage area for the club’s three gigs, Spirit of Rame, Minnadhu and Penlee Point, as well as provide cloarkroom and kitchen facilities to the ground floor.
Rame’s boat house and fitness suite are based in Cawsand Square with balcony views over Cawsand Bay. The venue is the base for the club who train and race Cornish Pilot Gigs most evenings and weekends, racing in local Regatta’s and attending the annual World Championships for Cornish Pilot Gigs held in the Scillies each May. The intention is to expand in numbers and offer a wider choice to include indoor rowing to competition standard, and to increase the partnership with the local Schools in encouraging more young people to participate in the sport.
The development boasts a new first floor training room which can also be used as a meeting facility. The training room is to be named the Tony Jago Fitness Suite, in memory of one of the clubs original founders and constant fund raiser, who sadly passed away in 2010. The new facility will provide a training area for the entire local community. Over the last five years the Club has worked hard to promote the concept, develop the design, gain planning permission and secure sufficient funding to be able to award the development contract.
Members of the club have worked extremely hard to secure grant funding to allow this development to become a reality from Viridor Credits, East Cornwall Local Action Group, SITA Cornwall Trust, British Rowing, Sport England, Lottery-Awards for All, Torpoint Lions and with Maker with Rame Parish Council. The club was also indebted to its members for their individual fundraising efforts, the freely donated time and skills from those with trade skills, and the numerous and generous donations received from the local community.
Don Seymour Chairman of Rame Gig Club , said he was delighted, “To realise our Club vision we had to transform an almost derelict gig shed into a modern facility that will be an asset for the club and community for the foreseeable future. A newly refurbished and extended clubhouse will provide improved facilities for the sport as well as a much needed training and meeting area. With our members becoming affiliated with British Rowing, we will be well placed to benefit from their expertise in training to compliment our existing regime in order to develop our sport and maintain the art of Cornish Pilot Gig Rowing for generations to come”.
Gill Gibson Vice Chair, said, “This has been a long hard slog, and a huge team effort. It is wonderful that we were able to carry a large number of vital funders with us to get the project off the ground. We owe it to future generations to put facilities in place that will secure the long-term existence of an excellent sport. This is great news, not only for our current members, but also for the community in Cawsand and Kingsand and the surrounding area who will also benefit from this fantastic facility.”
Rame is the first gig club to be awarded funding from British Rowing and the new facility is a first step in the club’s development plan, put together by committee members with support from British Rowing. National Manager, Rosemary Napp, and Facilities Consultant, Alan Meegan, were delighted to join club members and the local community to witness the cutting of the ribbon.
