ROWING HENLEY REGATTA:THIS IS a momentous time for rowing in Ireland. Just as the domestic season builds to its climax with the National Championships next weekend, the farseeing plan which proposes a new structure for the sport is being distributed for the perusal of those who can adopt or reject it.

It may be modestly titled as a Proposed Framework for Heads and Regattas for 2010, but what is laid out is a new beginning for the sport.

Some of the key points were cited here last week, including the bifurcated Championships, the league for Heads of the River and a Grand League for “performance” regattas, seven in number. There would also be a “Grow the Sport” set of regattas, with a separate league format.

The focus of the plan is to create a viable season for both “participation” and performance-driven athletes and a more attractive product for spectators and the families of the participants.

The objections to the plan will come. Some of the men and women who work hard behind the scenes may bristle at the prescriptive tone and the centralisation of power. Instead of a set of “stand alone” events, there would be a standardised format which event organisers must follow if they are to be designated as a Grand League or even a Grow the Sport regatta.

The events committee would have serious power here, not just helping run regattas – and Rowing Ireland may run some themselves – but also holding over event organisers the serious sanction of being dropped from the league(s) if it decided at the end of the season that standards had not been met.

In this quarter, at least, it seems advisable that this second power should be devolved to a different, at least partially independent, body.

Another worry is that the sport may be biting off more than it can chew. “We need help!” is the plaintive call on page 41 as the plan addresses the need to “broaden the base (and) entice people into the sport”. The critics will point out that if you lengthen the season from eight months (mid November to mid July) to 10 months (November to early September) with the same number of volunteers, then holidays will suffer and the base may diminish.

And the fade-out during the summer will hardly lessen as emigration and cash-starved students are sucked out of the country during this recession.

So can the plan succeed? It has to. Radical change is needed if the domestic season is not to fade to insignificance. Adopting a season which will see rowers compete in Ireland through the long days of July, August and early September will cut the Gordian knot which has tied the hands of the sport.

The most powerful part of the documentation released is the statistical analysis. Serious sports people need to train over 18 hours a week. The chances of doing high-volume training on the water go up significantly if you add in the months of July and August.

At a profound level, rowing needs to decide which direction it wishes to go. It can look upwards, prioritise attracting more athletes and making events more accessible to spectators, or it can continue to run a fragmentary, increasingly provincial set of events where there are a huge number of juniors and a proportionately small and diminishing number of senior athletes.

Clubs may choose to turn their back, to see their season solely in terms of one big blowout at the championships, with time for the sights of Ghent and the shot at glory in Henley. But this is to think small, to see Ireland as too small to maintain a vibrant season.

One of the big determinants of the success of this plan will be the degree to which Rowing Ireland can attract sponsorship. This year’s National Championships, which begin this day week at the National Rowing Centre in Cork, will be backed by Hudson Boat Works, who will provide a prize for the best overall club.

Many of the trends evident in the report on revamping the season are on show in the entry, with a huge junior entry: 49 entrants in the men’s junior 15 single scull; 39 in the men’s junior 18 A single and in the men’s intermediate, one single.

Former world champion Sinead Jennings and top junior Lisa Dilleen are entered in the senior single scull. However, Jennings has just begun work as a doctor in Tallaght Hospital and said yesterday that she was unaware of the entry and is set to work that day.

Dileen’s entry is a back-up to her bid to land the junior singles championship, where she will be up against her crewmate in the Ireland junior double scull, Laura D’Urso.

The men’s senior single scull looks particularly hot, with Seán Jacob, Richard Coakley, Cathal Moynihan, Dave Mannion and Dave Heffernan just five of the 14 entries. The lightweight single has a similarly competitive line-up. The men’s and women’s eights are also packed with real contenders.