Cork Regatta, a premier event on the Irish rowing calendar, has been cancelled because of the weather.
The annual event was scheduled for this weekend at the National Rowing Centre (NRC) in Farren Woods, County Cork.
Cork Regatta Committee met and consulted with Met Eireann regarding the weather on Saturday and Sunday. The wind speed at 07:00 on Saturday is 20kph and steadily increases to 26kph at 19:00 with gusts over 40kph. The wind direction is a south, south–westerly moving to a southerly direction. This means that the wind is cross-tail moving to a crosswind which is unsafe in any way for rowing.
The situation on Sunday is much the same as Saturday, with the wind moving to a west-south westerly with a wind speed from 24kph at 07:00 to 29kph at 16:00 with gusts again in excess of 40kph. A lot of preparations, along with weekly meetings, have taken place in the last few weeks in order to get Cork Regatta up and running for 2023. It is with great regret that we now have to cancel the event. This is being done in the interest of safety and well-being of the competitors, coaches, volunteers, and the committee.
"This is such bad news. The season in Ireland is already short of big events. Feel really sorry for the prospective competitors and the organisers, Rowing Correspondent Liam Gorman said on Twitter.
"To say that we are disappointed is an understatement, and any decision like this is never taken lightly", James Moroney, Regatta Secretary, said.
The Home International Committee will discuss a new date for Home International trials.
