ROTARIANS are hoping to raise £10,000 for a cancer charity while rowing a pirate ship to Venice.

The club, in Pickering, North Yorkshire, plan to take part in the Vogalonga, and annual regatta in the Italian city that last year saw more than 1,800 boats taking part.

Pickering Rotary Club member Hugh Morgan said that in the run-up to the 2016 race, the club was aiming to raise £10,000 for Marie Cure Cancer Care.

“We decided to start to raise money as soon as possible,” he added.

“We needed to find a suitable boat, and decided to transform it into a pirate ship and, with Rotarians dressed as pirates, to raise money before we went to Venice.”

Mr Morgan said: “We have turned it into a ship that Captain Pugwash would have been proud to sail in – and we have called it Sweet Charity.”

The Vogalonga is a 30km rowing race through the city of Venice and the lagoon which was born as a protest by those Venetians who wished to show the discomfort caused by motor boats.

Mr Morgan said as well as taking part in the event, the Rotarians had chosen to raise funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care because it was one of the leading charity providing care to people with any terminal illness in their own homes, or in one of its nine hospices.

Sweet Charity will be at many of the local agricultural shows and many other high profile events, including the Tour de Yorkshire, in the Ryedale area throughout the coming months.

For more information on the Pickering pirate ship, go to www.pickering-rotary.org.uk/ or on twitter @No1Rotary