“Coastal Rowing – Bringing All Generations Together” project primary objective is to give the sports/managing directors and coaches in interested partner clubs a set of new - coastal/open water rowing – skills. These skills will help them educate their current club members and gain new membership from wide range of generations that will be able to train and learn coastal rowing in safe and attractive surroundings, using the capacities of the local sports clubs. All of this make the main project task.

Preparation phase in the respective clubs starts with formal appointment (by their clubs) of the coaches (their names are already known and listed in section G of this application) who will step into the world of coastal rowing and turn their mind from all-competitive approach to a different one, where simple recreational outings as means to enhance one’s health and experience new challenges are generators of new club memberships. Sports/managing directors will need to prepare the budget by the end of 2020 to buy a few new or used coastal rowing boats to accommodate the newcomers or current club members willing to transition from classic rowing to coastal rowing. Depending on each club affinities, this budget might be between 10.000 EUR (enough to buy 2 singles and 2 doubles) and 20.000 EUR (twice more boats or if the club membership is bigger, choosing to buy a 4x+). The funds for these purchases come from club’s own budget (private or public donations, membership fees etc.). The project coordinator, Mr. Igor Boraska, who is already in contact with FISA Development Office in Lausanne, Switzerand, at the end of 2020 and at the beginning of 2021 will agree on one of FISA experts who is available (depending on possible travel restrictions next year and possible changes to FISA rowing events calendar) to lead the Level 1 course on coastal rowing, planned for the February 2021. In a preparation phase, and before the first partners meeting in February 2021, all partners will need to collect detailed statistics of:

• current number of coaches in their clubs and countries that work with coastal rowing individuals and teams, with and without FISA coastal rowing Level 1,2 and 3 certificates
• number of competitive and recreational rowers (in men’s and women’s categories in all age groups – junior, senior and masters – plus number of rowers with disabilities in the so-called adaptive type of rowing) in their clubs and countries
• number of clubs in their respective countries which own coastal rowing boats and provide coastal rowing programs (competitive and recreational) to their members
• number of clubs that operate competitive programs only and those who provide the programs and equipment for both, competitive and recreational coastal rowing
• number of events organized by respective clubs and/or federations with the aim of promotion of coastal rowing in the last 2 years

Implementation of the project will begin after the project is eventually accepted for funding. First of all, participants in this project will have to familiarize themselves with FISA coastal rowing rules and regulations at the meeting in Dubrovnik, when the first official meeting between the partners will take place and specific tasks, roles and responsibilities will be assigned. In this project, club’s coaches and sports managers will be crucial by first learning and then teaching youngsters and adults new skills.

Boat rigging, new training methods as well as general international maritime navigation and specific conditions of the naval areas near the rowing clubs boathouses will be discussed in detail during the meetings in Trieste and Limassol. That newly acquired knowledge will be used to get some real practice done, first by the coaches themselves and later by existing rowers and newcomers in different types of naval areas (sheltered in Bay of Trieste compared to open water Mediterranean near Limassol). The latter ones will be recruited from nearby high schools, universities and also by promotion in local media (club events, free memberships offers for the first few months for those wishing to try out coastal rowing, TV shows, social networks etc). Inclusion of coastal rowing as new Olympic sport to YOG in 2022 and OG in 2028 will certainly attract more media attention and young generation, but it can also be interesting for the mature-aged citizens wishing to try out something new, have fun and live a healthy life. The meeting in Gdansk will focus on working methods and tools with the youth as the club works mostly with high-school students from ZSO6 secondary school and few university students. The final meeting is Split in October 2022 will be used to meet the Croatian Rowing Federation leading persons and discuss the possibilities to arrange a short and week-long tours from the Croatian coastline and around the hundreds of Croatian islands for recreational rowing tours, thus combining sport and adventure tourism.

The project implementation will officially last for 2 years, what the duration of the project is, but will continue long into the future – because coastal rowing is an exciting future of traditional sport of rowing and that process cannot be stopped! Indicative are similarities with BMX bicycle or beach volleyball events which are now full Olympic sports/disciplines and arguably even more attractive for media and young generations than original sports which they arose from – classic cycling and volleyball! It will be a long process, but we hope that that coastal rowing can grow in numbers and media attention more quickly than expected by the general rowing community.

Monitoring of the project will be done on monthly basis, with new statistical information (mentioned above) sent to the Project Coordinator (Mr. Igor Boraska) by respective club sports/managing directors by e-mail. That way, we will be able to track the progress of each club and country in terms of coastal rowing development and number of participants in all age groups and both sexes. Statistical control/monitoring from all of the partners will be a base for quality control. Mr. Boraska – QMS Lead Auditor, from the applicant organization, VK Val – Split, will be in charge of general project quality control while respective club sports directors, in line with good governance of their organizations will do monitoring in their respective clubs and provide the statistical information and suggestions/proposal for action during the process of implementation.

Evaluation of the success of the project will be done after 10 months (meeting in Limassol in November 2021) and at the final meetings in Split (October 2022) and Trieste in December 2022, where all clubs are expected to arrive with their managers, coaches and several rowers to compete at the traditional Borin Coastal Regatta. Risk assessment or evaluation prior and during the implementation phase will be written by Mr. Čular from VK Val and it will include possible shortcomings due to the lack of funding for acquisition of new equipment due to the club, federation and local government budget constraints, due mostly to the very likely large financial crisis generated by COVID-19 prevention measures in all European countries/societies. The way we can tackle this issue is by contacting one of the manufacturers (the closest ones are Filippi Lido S.R.L from Italy and Lite Boats from Czech Republic) and renting a couple of used or new boats in order to explain rigging methods for coastal rowing and to try them out on the open water… or by using the existing club boats at fixed and pre-arranged times with the hosting organization/club, so as not to disturb the training times of their members. The aims of the project will be evaluated on the basis of quantitative and qualitative indicators. Our aim is to have the number of participants in coastal rowing increase by 25% at the end of the first year and by 40% at the end of the project (right now, the numbers of rowers in the clubs - both male and female, competitive and recreational – are 140 in C.C. Saturnia, 60 in LNC, 40 in VK Val and 40 in UKS Szostka). The clubs have not kept the statistics regarding the coastal rowing numbers, but rough estimate of coastal rowers in these clubs right now is between 15-20% of the numbers written above. This issue will be covered in detail during the preparation phase of the project and will be continuously kept track of for the duration of the project. The quantitative (but also qualitative) indicators will also be shown by the number of coaches in the partner clubs, but also in the partner countries, that will want to gain new skills by attending a formal Level 1 course on coastal rowing and in latter phases of the project, Level 2 and Level 3 coaches’ certificates. Quality of their education and skill will certainly be shown by the success and results of the club members in the coastal rowing regattas, although primary goal here is actually their acquisition of new skills. If these skills and new clubs’ policies are successful in bringing in new rowers to the club, in accord with the Project title, it is estimated that could open the door for the newly-employed coaches in all clubs.

Dissemination of the project is achieved through the free distribution of the written material made during the phases of the project - preparation(analysis), implementation, monitoring and evaluation statistics - as well as media (photos, videos) on social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram), club’s and federation’s web pages. This project will help not only coastal rowing coaches and communities in this 4 partner countries, but the impact will be spread out throughout the EU countries which are coastal oriented and have natural conditions and people with long maritime tradition, but where coastal rowing is virtually underdeveloped (for example countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Greece, Malta, Portugal, The Netherlands and Scandinavian countries). Exchange of ideas and practical knowledge will help in building a network of European coastal rowing clubs, making it possible and more likely to organize joint training camps, workshops and even international regattas in coastal rowing.

As these 4 partners/clubs will become the leaders of coastal rowing movement in their respective countries, dissemination will be achieved by collaboration not only on club level but on the national rowing federation’s level. In collaboration with FISA (International Rowing Federation) and their European Management Board, which started with conduction of certified courses on coastal rowing just recently, the target groups will be up-and-coming coaches as well as the coaches willing to learn new skills and transition from concentration in classic rowing to coastal rowing - not only in these 4 partner countries but in rest of coastal Europe. Even physically, we can say that tens of thousands of kilometres rich coastlines, towns, cities and European history long to be discovered by coastal rowing communities, some of them already established in bigger cities on the Mediterranean and along the Atlantic, North and Baltic Seas and some in its infancy.

The proposed methodology is in accord with quality management systems key indicators and quality control mechanism which are presented in previous chapter. The fact that all four participating clubs are complementary organizations which aspire to be coastal rowing leaders in their respective countries, with excellent mix of experienced staff and rowers. The coaches are excited to learn and apply new - coastal rowing skills and to use them to attract all generations to this exciting sport. The fact that coastal rowing is now an official sport at the YOG 2022 will attract more youth. Becoming a fully Olympic sport at the OG 2024 will help in development of this sport around the globe and particularly in EU which has a centuries old maritime tradition. All that said, feasibility of this project is unquestionable.

Project objectives are fully consistent with methodology, activities and the proposed budget. Quality control for the duration of the project will be made by the use of statistical control from all 4 participating partners during and after all planned activities and by the evaluation questionnaire towards the end of the project. Few days after each of the 5 meetings, the video conferences will be organized to reflect on a previous meeting and potentially give fresh ideas for the future actions.

Project coordinator, Mr. I.Boraska, from the applicant organization, VK Val – Split, will be in charge of general project quality control while respective club sports directors, in line with good governance of their organizations will do monitoring of the key performance indicators (statistical information about the number of coastal rowing programs, coaches, rowers, events etc., mentioned in the previous chapter, F.1.) in their respective clubs and countries. The project aims to bring all generations together by educating a number of club coaches and sport/managing directors from 4 clubs with the primary objective to teach them new - coastal rowing – skills, which combined with their enthusiasm for this new type of rowing, will help them gain new members and generally expand the base of this sport on micro and macro levels. The clubs have agreed on the budget of the project, number of meetings and their own participation in the project, as well as their own cost participation which include travel cost of their teams on the coastal rowing regattas in Split (October 2022) and Trieste (December 2022), towards the end of the project.