November 2006
BRADFORD ON AVON ROWING CLUB’S COATE WATER REGATTA
The club, with the assistance of Swindon Rowing Club, have staged this Regatta for the last 25 years, so it is with great regret that the club committee has made the deciscion not to hold the event in 2007 and probably for the foreseeable future.
The regatta itself has always been a success (weather permitting!!), not only for Bradford on Avon, but the entire local and not so local, competing clubs, colleges and schools. Throughout it’s history it has always had one of the largest entries of all the West Country regattas, a tribute to the club, the businesses, and town who have supported the event over the years.
Unfortunately the job of actually putting the regatta together has become more onerous over the years, what with the demands of health and safety, insurance companies, the police and fire brigade, not to mention security and logistics of the remote site and equipment. This has quite frankly made the task too much for the small organising committee and the club to sustain.
We would like to thank all the entrants and clubs that have taken part over the years for your support, it has been very much appreciated. Through this support we now have a thriving junior section who regularly compete and the senior and veteran section bring home results well above average for such a small club and catchment area, bearing in mind that our main local opposition is Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Gloucester!
One of the subjects of discussion during the deliberations over the various issues of the event was the fact that it would be rather nice to have a small local regatta on the Avon at Bradford with the various interests of the town and locality participating , so if this does happen you your can rest assured that you will all be getting an invitation to take part.!
So no more Coate Water for 2007. But from the Club and Committee we would like to thank you once again for your generous support over the last 25 years .
Yours Sincerely
Trevor Lutkin and Mike Smith
For the Coate Water Regatta Committee