Clubs may get top-rate boats

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33932, 27 August 1975, Page 30

Clubs may get top-rate boats

(From ROBERT HORROCKS, N.ZP.A. staff correspondent.)

NOTTINGHAM. ' New Zealand rowing; clubs might be offered international team shells at “fair and reasonable prices” after the 1978! world championships on I.ake Karapiro. The president of the New Zealand Rowing Association ; (Mr Don Rowlands) told delegates to the world annual congress that it was hoped to make arrangements which would avoid competing nations the cost of freighting their boats home after the championships. He said New Zealand clubs would be prepared to buv the boats if the cost was right. About 30 nations are ex-, pected to attend the championships. “We would have no trouble ■ absorbing the boats among. our clubs.” Mr Rowlands said later. “We will, however, have to reach some agreement over import duties and the likely effect on local manufacturers ” With one dissenting vote, that of Austria, New Zealand was confirmed as host for the 1978 championships bv the, congress. congress. Thev will be held in the first week of November. WORLD TRIP Mr Thomas Keller, president of F.1.5.A., said it was hoped that an international regatta could be arranged in America and another in Australia—one before and the other after the New Zealand event—so that oarsmen could i have the chance of a “once-in-a-lifetime trip” around the world. After the congress had applauded the decision to confirm New Zealand’s application, Mr Rowlands said: “The New Zealand public has given a Int of support to rowing in the nast, but it has never been able to watch our ton crews racing ” He said this was the major reason behind the application to ho'd the world championships. “It will give New Zealanders the chance to see for themselves what a trulv international regatta is like,” he said. Austria was the only country to record its vote against the decision to hold the championships in New Zealand and this was because of finance. Opposition once feared from Eastern bloc countries did not eventuate, and this is believed to largely reflect efforts made by Mr Keller to persuade ’ the Russians to drop a proposal for holding a European championships in 1978. The Belgian delegation!

tried to raise the question of a European championship, but Mr Keller used his considerable authority in firmly rejecting the suggestion. “There can be no question of a European championship," he said. “It could detract from the world championships, and that would not be fair on our New Zealand friends who have been supporting regattas in Europe year after year.” Mr Keller enthusiastically outlined to the meeting the prospect of chartering aircraft to carry rowing crews to New Zealand via Sydney, where it is proposed to hold one or two pre-championship regattas. Some racing, he suggested, could be arranged also in the United States on the way back to Europe.