Marsa Regatta Club yesterday called on Sports Minister Jesmond Mugliett to set up a board of inquiry headed by a judge to investigate last Monday's regatta races, which ended in scuffles.

The club said the board should be asked to report within a month about the incidents, shortcomings in the organization of the event and measures which may be taken to reduce the possibility of controversy in the future. The club said it was not right that after every edition of the regatta there were some who felt cheated because of some incident during the races.

Marsa last year failed to win the shield in the open category because of "a controversial and mistaken decision" by the jury, the club said.

The club said the National Festivities Committee and the Regatta Commission were not in a position to judge what happened on Monday because some of the shortcomings that had led to the incidents could have been within their competence, including the unauthorized presence of certain people in the VIP area. It was no excuse that passes had been stolen, since different teams had warned officials of the situation even before the first race, the club said.

It said the National Festivities Committee would be making a serious mistake if it was only investigating whether the Marsa boat deliberately hit the Marsamxett boat in the last race on Monday.

"We believe that any investigations should be carried out by an independent board, not only to investigate the incidents that occurred during the races, but also to see why the VIP passes ended up in the hands of Marsamxett supporters and why the judges chosen were not up to scratch, besides being ill-equipped, just to mention a few things. All these factors contributed towards the disaster everyone saw after the races, and not just the collision that occurred between the boats during the last race."

Referring to the comments by the mayor of Valletta, the Marsa club said Paul Borg Olivier seemed to have seen only the last few races. "It seems that he was not present during the second race, when the Marsamxett boat rowed from lane two to lane five into the Marsa boat. At least during the incident of the last race the boats of Marsa and Marsamxett were next to each other on lane three and four respectively."

The club regretted remarks made by Joe Borda, a former secretary of Marsamxett club, saying it was a great pity that an influential person such as Mr. Borda, due to his post in Minister Mugliett's office, was not able to make an objective judgment of what happened during the second race. Everyone else who watched the races could clearly see how Marsamxett, who were rowing in lane two on the Valletta side of the fairway, crossed the harbour to bump into the Marsa boat which was rowing in lane five on the Senglea side, the Marsa club said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs yesterday thanked the police for their action following the incidents and congratulated them for promptly arraigning a number of persons.

The ministry condemned all incidents of this nature and urged the police to continue not to tolerate them.

It said it felt talks should be held with a view to introduce considerably stiffer penalties for criminal acts of this nature because it was not right that traditional and sports activities were not enjoyed by thousands of Maltese families as a result.