Double celebration for Charlestown Rowing Club
On Saturday 21st April, the sun shone down on Cornwall as Charlestown Rowing Club hosted a joint celebration – opening their new rowing shed and blessing their new Cornish Pilot Gig, ‘Grace’.
Shane Sullivan, Chairperson of Charlestown RC, spoke of how the Gig Shed project had been years in the making – the club pursuing funding schemes to varying levels of success for the last 15 years.
Since its formation in 1990 the club has survived by storing gigs on borrowed land and the harbour wall, having never had the luxury of a boat store.
The new shed is situated in the car park of the Rashleigh Arms, which is owned by St. Austell Brewery and is also a heritage site.
The new facility will house the club’s three wooden racing gigs, as well as giving the club a base in the village.
The Rowing Club, which was among the first group of fixed seat clubs to be awarded Club Mark status, has been supported by a range of funders to enable them to complete the boathouse project; including British Rowing, the Cornwall Community Foundation and other local funding partners.
In order to cater for the anticipated boost to club membership, the club also benefitted from funding via SITA Cornwall Trust to purchase a new Cornish Pilot Gig.
The new gig, ‘Grace’, was named by Wendy Reading (fund manager for SITA) and will soon be shipped to the Isles of Scilly to compete in the World Pilot Gig Championships in two weeks time.
Di Ellis, Chairman of British Rowing, spoke at the opening on how pleased she was to support this project. Di had witnessed the clubs junior section out training from the harbour that morning.
Charlestown Rowing Club is open to all and will be looking to build their membership in the years to come, for more information visit the club website: www.charlestown.org.uk.
