Pirate crew raise £16,000 for charity in Venice boat race

Members of Pickering Rotary Club have completed their 18-month fundraiser by competing in the boat race.

The project, in aid of Marie Curie, started with a former rowing boat which was converted into a pirate ship for the annual event, born as a protest by those Venetians who wished to show the discomfort caused by motor boats, still one of the greatest problems in safeguarding the structure of the city.

It takes place every May with more than 1800 boats racing from the island of San Giorgio Maggiore over 30km back to Venice.

Hugh Morgan, from Pickering Rotary Club, said: "Finding a suitable boat that could be modified to look like a pirate boat, and be rowed in the Vogalonga proved to be problematic, but after a false start a boat was found where it had been resting for many years in a boatyard in Hartlepool. It needed quite a lot of renovation work, and it also needed a new name.

"With modifications proceeding apace we also had to decide on a charity and after some discussion it was determined that Marie Curie North Yorkshire Branch fitted the bill. The name we came up with for the boat did not sound terribly blood thirsty, but we thought was apt 'Sweet Charity'."

Throughout last summer Sweet Charity visited numerous shows and events travelling as far a field as Rochdale and close to home to Morrison's supermarket in Malton.

The initial financial target was to raise £10,000 of which 75 per cent would go to Marie Curie and the rest to Rotary charities. In early 2016 the target was raised to £15,000 and then recently to £20,000.

Hugh added: "Throughout last winter, the rotary crew trained hard at Wykeham Lakes, quite often in appalling weather conditions. Two trips were made to the Lake District to extend the crew on open water.

"In between all the rowing at weekends the crew trained hard in the Jack Berry House in Malton."

With Sweet Charity ready, the crew - Hugh Morgan, Peter Williamson and Luke Arnold - had the very simple task of getting the boat right across Europe to Venice.

Hugh said: "In fact the trip was remarkably trouble free. Apart from a slight fracas with an Italian Customs Officer who wanted to see the ship's papers, but that was rapidly resolved with the words "English Venice Vogalonga".

"The task of craning Sweet Charity into the water turned out to be extremely easy with a very helpful crane crew. So with Sweet Charity on the water we felt pretty relaxed about things. The night before the regatta there was an enormous thunderstorm, and when the crew arrived at the boat on the morning of the event she had a significant amount of water in her. After some 40 minutes of bailing and pumping we were ready for the off."

Hugh added: "The start of the Vogalonga is in the St Mark's lagoon which is quite large. However, put 1,800 boats in there crewed by a multitude of different nationalities, and an Italian starter things quite get heated and excited. At precisely 9am the gun fired and eventually everyone set off."

He said: "There were a number of mishaps on the way with collisions with other boats. Our figurehead lost an arm which was returned to us by a passing canoeist.

"Sweet Charity crossed the finishing line in the very respectable time of five hours 30 minutes so the crew were well pleased."

Now 18 months after the project was started Pickering Rotary Club has two more fundraising events - the Art Exhibition in Pickering Memorial Hall, until June 26 and a charity golf match at Kirkbymoorside golf club on July 13 - before a cheque will be presented to Marie Curie on July 22.

The treasure chest currently stands at £16,000. If you want to help, visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/pickeringrotaryclub