Row The Erne – Curach Launch – Saturday 30th Aug 2014 at 12 noon

Row The Erne (http://rowtheerne.com/) launched its community built Irish Curach (boat) on Saturday 30th August 2014 at 12 noon with Cancer Connect NI, your local cancer support service. Row the Erne had a procession with the new Curach through the streets of Enniskillen before its launch at the Round O.

The Curach is 33 ft long and will row with 10 people and 2 sails. It is a skin boat covered in canvas and tar and would have been used on the Erne Waterways as early as the 1st Century during the Bronze Age.

Click here to see us row the Colmcille Curach, a similar curach to the one we are building: http://vimeo.com/83993715

The Row the Erne procession went from Railway car park, beside LIDL, to the Round O across the two bridges that make Enniskillen an island. The Curach weighs 1 tonne and will be carried by 50 people at any time, with the carriers rotating as we walk along the streets.

The ceremony at the Round O commenced with some short speeches and entertainment before the Curach is launched into the water where it will joined by a flotilla of boats, canoes and kayaks to undertake its maiden voyage to the Castle Island where Cancer Connect NI, Erne Paddlers and Row the Erne have been working to reinvigorate this location as a place to enjoy and engage in outdoor activity.

Row the Erne invited any boat owners or paddlers to join it on its maiden voyage and for others who have followed the procession to come to Waterways Ireland for a reception and then to Castle Island for a hog roast. Access to Castle Island can be found behind the Lakeland Forum where you can walk across a floating jetty to join us on the island celebrate the launch of the Curach.