Vandals cause $100,000 damage to rowing club

File photo / NZ Herald

Police are hunting vandals who caused up to $100,000 damage to rowing skiffs at an Otago rowing club on Christmas night.

They broke into the Dunstan Arms Rowing Club at Alexandra and smashed up eight skiffs, valued at $15,000 each, by removing them from their storage racks and dumping them on the floor, The Southland Times reported.

Club president Jacqui van Dam discovered the damaged skiffs when she arrived at the club to coach a training session yesterday morning.

The mindless vandalism was devastating, she said.

The rowing crews would not be able to train until the boats were repaired and this was the prime training period and two elite regattas were being held in the next month.

- NZPA