This is your Captain Speaking

Please keep your hands inside the craft, your tray tables up, your seats in the upright and locked position and brace for impact...

The 2009 Lord Mayor's Cup, national championships, pre-season training, state pennant competitive season (and the little issue of a 2-month-long row across an ocean) are all bearing down on us, so it's going to be all hands on deck for a busy couple of months down at the shed.

Fortunately your dedicated cabin crew are here to see to your every need. Attendance at the shed has been fantastic over summer, so let's keep it up over the coming months and make the 2009 season a huge success!

As usual, please send any comments, queries, hate mail and love letters to captainwarc@iinet.net.au

- David Winch
WARC Captain 2009

Lord Mayor's Cup

The Lord Mayor's Cup is drawing ever closer - the start of LMC training is now less than one month away! As the LMC committee are frantically racing to get everything done in time, there are a couple of things we need your help with:

1. If your firm is intending to register a crew (or four) for this year’s LMC, please make sure the forms are registered this week. The deadline is 11 February 2009, which is this Wednesday. There is always a flurry of late registrations, which simply adds to the administrative burden. Please get your teams registered as soon as you can.

2. A reminder that every member of WARC is tasked with the responsibility of being involved in the Lord Mayor’s Cup. It is singularly Westies most important, competitor-supported fundraiser. Every member is expected to help out with the LMC by coaching at least one crew and taking on a role on the day of the regatta. If you’re a bit nervous about coaching, fear not: we have a very structured support network to “coach the coaches” and any athlete who rows at a competitive level at WARC definitely has the skills to coach a LMC crew.

3. Please email Deirdre today at deirdre.devery@arup.com with your preferred day to coach a crew or crews so that Deirdre can get the schedule finished in plenty of time.

4. There is a raffle as part of the LMC, and we're looking for donations of prizes. Anything you could donate would be greatly appreciated. A box will be placed in the gym this week for you to place your donations of wine, gourmet stuff and anything else you consider raffle-worthy.

5. Three of the trophies awarded at last year's regatta are still missing: the Lord Mayor's Cup, the Swan River Trust Cup and the Main Peak Cup are unaccounted for. If you know their whereabouts or the details of the crew who won them last year, could you please get in touch with Glenda at glenda.hirsch@zurich.com.au

6. Finally, a reminder that once LMC training starts on March 2, the shed will be unavailable for use on weekday mornings, as it was last year. With so many corporate rowers down, we simply won't have room for everyone! All afternoons and Saturday and Sunday mornings will still be available for members to get a boat out.

Boat Damage

On a less positive note, a huge amount of damage has been inflicted on the Westies fleet over the last two months. Whether through wear, accidents or carelessness, 26 separate incidents in the last two months alone have left as many as 7 boats out of action at any one given time, and cost the club thousands of dollars (and a good number of volunteer hours) to repair.

All members must take personal responsibility for the club's equipment and always take extreme caution when using boats. Failure to do so will result in penalties being applied by the club to an individual or crew.

From Monday, 9 February 2009, any member who damages a boat or is in a boat that becomes damaged, either through their own lack of care, or the lack of care of other crew members, will have to contribute $20 toward the repair of the boat. Failure to pay this sum to the club will result in boat rights being withdrawn until payment is made.

Sundowner

With so many new faces at the shed, it’s high time for a social function to kick off the season for the competitive squad.

The club is hosting a sundowner at the WARC Boatshed Function Room at 6:00pm on Friday 27th February. All club members old and new and partners are welcome to attend, so please come down and celebrate the beginning of the season with us!

Start of Training for the Competitive Squad

By now the competitive squad members should have received the training plan for the WARC 2009 Winter Season. Formal land training begins on Monday 9 February, and formal water training begins on Monday April 6, the day after the LMC regatta. It's been great to see so many people down at the shed all the way through summer, so now it's time to get serious and build a solid base for the coming season!

Nationals

A group of intrepid athletes from the WARC J-Squad will soon travel to sunny Tasmania to represent WARC at the National Rowing Championships. They've been training like maniacs for the last 20 or so weeks and we wish them the best of luck.

Go West

The Go West Indian Ocean rowing team have been preparing for over a year, and the countdown to the start of their race is definitely on - there is now just over two months to go til the start of the great race from Geraldton to Mauritius. "The" boat has arrived - painted in Westies colours, no less - and can be seen up and down the river (and soon, out to sea!). The crew have also been in the press - you can see their article in the West here http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=77&ContentID=120780

For more information about the race, the boat or the crew visit their website at http://crossingtheindian.com

Boat Naming Ceremony

The club's new boats are (finally!) due to arrive, and we will be celebrating with a boat naming ceremony on the grass at the front of the WARC boatshed at 10:00am on Sunday February 15.

As mentioned in my last newsletter, the club has purchased the following ex-AIS boats: Heavyweight Single, Midweight Double/pair, Heavyweight Double/pair and a brand spanking new Heavyweight coxed 4/quad.

All members, family and friends of the club are encouraged to attend, please come along if you can to celebrate with us!

Umpires

As you may be aware, for 2009, RWA have introduced rules related to each club’s obligation to provide umpires for regattas throughout the season. In short, if we do not provide enough umpiring hours over the season, Westies may lose the right to compete at regattas, including States.

At the moment, Westies has three people sharing the umpiring load across the regattas, one of whom is also a competitive member.

If you are interested in becoming more involved in the sport of rowing and would like to take part in umpire training (and help Westies out in a significant way), please email me at captainwarc@iinet.net.au and I will put your name forward for the umpiring course that is due to take place toward the end of January.

The course is a few hours in duration, followed by training at regattas throughout the season – as few or as many as you are comfortable with. Importantly, your regatta training hours count toward Westies total umpiring hours, so you contribute your assistance in a meaningful way almost immediately.

Unfortunately this article is a repeat from last time as we haven't had a huge response. Please get back to us if you can help out!

For the Diary...

Feb 9 - Land Training Begins
Feb 15 - Boat Naming for NEW BOATS!
Feb 25 - LMC Orientation
Feb 27 - WARC Sundowner
Feb 28 - Nationals Begins
Mar 2 - LMC Coaching Begins
Mar 9 - Nationals Ends
Mar 13/14 - 24 Hour Ergo
Apr 5 - LMC Regatta

Freddos

The club sells chocolate frogs and assorted other health food as a fundraiser. This is a significant contributor to the club’s bottom line. If you take a box to work, I guarantee your workmates will love you for it.

Tenille Scott is the Freddo liaison officer. She has boxes of them mixed and ready for you to sell (or eat yourself).

Contact Tenille on elmofreak@iinet.net.au and she will get you a box or two asap.