The Crosshaven RNLI race night at the Curraheen Dog Track in Bishopstown was a fantastic success with over €10,000 being raised for the lifeboat station in Crosshaven. There was a very good attendance at the outing with over 200 corporate tickets sold for the event with many local companies buying tables and everyone certainly enjoying the atmosphere, keeping a close eye of the form, with some punters doing remarkably well on the night!Crosshaven RNLI chairman Mick Good said "It was a fantastic night and immensely successful and we were very pleased with the response from the business and people of Crosshaven on this particular venture. There were a lot of people who did and enormous amount of work over the past five to six weeks in preparing for the race night here in the Greyhound track and it has all paid off handsomely". He paid tribute to the sponsors of the 10 races to the people who bought dogs for the event and to Stephen McCarthy of Astra Construction who were the main sponsors of the fund raising night. There were 10 races on the cards during the evening, with local businesses sponsoring each race, many of which were present on the night. However the main race was the seventh race of the evening, The Astra Construction Stakes, which was won by "Cool Gamble", trained by Paul Hennessy who was presented with the winner’s cheque by Mr. McCarthy. As a mark of appreciation to the main sponsor of the evening, the Crosshaven RNLI committee made a presentation to Mr. McCarthy of Astra Construction for his valuable assistance and support of the Crosshaven Lifeboat. Emphasizing the need for funding, Mr. Good went on to say that it costs an estimated €2,800 just to launch an Atlantic 75 lifeboat such as the one in Crosshaven, through such expenses as stores, maintenances of the boat and station, and that it costs approximately €5 million to operate the RNLI in Ireland each year.
Report by: Howard Crowdy, County News Irish Examiner, 18th March 2003.
