Festival brings welcome boost to local economy

THE annual Rosslare Small Boats Festival will take place from September 7 to 14 and is expected to bring around €300,000 to the local economy.

The event which has been running consecutively for the last 33 years will see around 40 state-of-the-art sea angling boats arrive in the village with crews coming from throughout Ireland, the UK, Spain and France.

Sponsored by Daiwa, Garmin, Inland Fisheries Ireland and Saltwater Boat Angling Magazine the aim of the competition is to see which boat can catch the biggest number of fish species over four specific days.

Although the competition is a week-long initiative it’s weather dependent to the extent that the best four days of the week to be on the water are the days during which the competitive fishing takes place.

Speaking to this newspaper about the competition the event organiser John Belger said the opening night, Friday, September 7, will see registration take place from 7.30 p.m. in the Coast Hotel in Rosslare.

‘The festival is running through the week until Friday, September 14, when there will be a presentation night in the same hotel,’ said Mr Belger.

‘We actually start the festival on the Saturday but the weather will dictate what the four best days are,’ he added.

While the festival is based in Rosslare the actual fishing takes place out of Kilmore Quay.

All of the fishing takes place from the boats at sea using rods. The boats have three-person crews on board and when they arrive in Rosslare they stay in local three-bedroom houses, however, Mr Belger said the number of competitors each year is actually restricted to the availability of vacant houses.

‘If we had more houses available we would be able to accept more crews and we would like to expand the festival if we could,’ said Mr Belger.

‘The competition could be three times as big but we are a bit restricted by the resources for accommodation in Rosslare,’ he added.

‘The competition is basically about catching the most diverse range fish that you can and the winning boat will be the one that has the most wide ranging species,’ he added.

It’s not unknown for in excess of 40 different species of fish to be caught throughout the festival and it always draws a lot of interest from locals and visitors - especially in terms of seeing some of the different fish caught.

In addition to the overall winner there will also be a number of other prizes on offer throughout the event and there is an overall prize-fund or around €30,000.

Anyone who might has three-bedroom accommodation that might be available for rent for the week can contact Mr Belger through jbandfirefly@aol.com

Truly an international event the Rosslare Small Boats Festival is an exciting event that brings an influx of visitors to the locality just as the tourist season is trailing off and best of all it benefits the local economy.