Vandals caused up to €65,000 worth of damage to Trinity College Dublin rowing club boats, which were parked overnight at Villierstown, Co Waterford, early on Sunday.
The attackers cut both ends off the custom-built sculling craft, which had been left on a boat trailer at Villierstown slip on Saturday night.
Trinity rowing club, known as Dublin University Boat Club, has been using this stretch of water for training purposes on the river Blackwater for over 25 years during the first week of the new year.
Milo Murray, secretary of the Cappoquin Rowing Club, which has hosted the Trinity club for the last 25 years, said he had been horrified at the damage to the boats.
"The boats were parked on trailers, including our own trailer, and at least four of them had their ends cut off," he said.
"They also used some sort of power tool to damage the boats which they could not reach from the ground and cut the sides out of them," he said.
"They also slashed the tyres on the trailers. From what I could see and from what I was told, the damage caused could be as much as €60,000," he said. Other local estimates put the damages at up to €65,000.
Mr Murray said the craft were made of carbon fibre and were specially built for sculling.
He believed that some sort of angle grinder or power tool had to have been used in what he termed "this pointless" attack.
He said the Trinity club had been joined this year by a number of rowers from an English club, but they had not brought their boats to Ireland and had left yesterday.
Mr Murray said the scullers used the Villierstown slip because it allowed them get in two training sessions each day regardless of tidal conditions in the estuary.
Dungarvan gardaí, who are investigating the incident, took fingerprints and preserved the crime scene yesterday.
Supt Tom O'Grady condemned the vandalism, which, he said, had caused much anger in the local area given its association with the club, and he appealed to anyone with any information to contact the Garda in confidence in Dungarvan on 058- 48600.
The rowing club's beginnings can be traced to the setting up of the Pembroke Club in 1836, which was formed by university men and was primarily concerned with the rowing of small boats at Ringsend, Dublin.
