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This is Your Captain Speaking Hi everyone and welcome to another edition of the Captain's newsletter. I honestly can't believe we're in Week 5 of the season already. The first glassware of the season has been won, we've already blooded a number of new novices into competitive racing (and they did it the hardest way possible, more on that later), and we've had three athletes get picked up for NTID and Australian U23 team representation. The next month is due to be even bigger with the first Bunbury trip looming as well as our first trip to Champion Lakes for the year. Oh, and we have a shiny new boat - Christmas has come early this year! Cheers, |
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Perth to Fremantle: Race Wrap-Up Row of the Day had to go to Mike “Dash” Lane who was the stand-out performer for the 16km slog from Perth to Fremantle for this year’s annual event. An elder of the club in both experience and, well, experience, Dash picked up 16 points for WARC all by himself by crossing fourth across the line in his single scull, the sexy Fluidesign boat “Lois Lane.” It was a strong performance for the eights as well – WARC had a record five eights cover the course, which is the biggest number in at least a decade, possibly ever. The men’s B8 crossed the line second behind an ANA crew which had a comfortable 12-minute head-start on the lads, and they picked up a cruisy 26 points for WARC. The WARC guys in the Irvine were followed by our motley C-Grade crew which contained “we don’t need to train” rowers such as Stink, Dazzle and Tugga who have carried on the Viking traditions of rowing, playing and partying hard. The good news is, their efforts were not in vain and they picked up .7777 of a point each (including Courtney on the coxswain’s seat) to total 7 points for the crew. Over in girl-world, Mat Higgins' supercrew, stroked by Meg Downes, had a horror start and fell behind the Fremantle B crew but still crossed the line third in one hour and three minutes. They picked up 22 points but missed out on the fastest women’s crew time, despite initially being awarded it. Nine minutes later, Pam Riley stroked the second crew across the line in the Zinga to score WARC an additional four points. Play of the Day was a close-call this year. Andrew “Shaggy” Taylor crossed the line a fair while after Mike Lane, only to discover Dash was waiting there on the water at the finish line to let him know he’d lost the $50 bet on who was going to win. But the true POTD has really had to go to the lads from Squad X. For the first time in recent history, a crew didn’t let the small fact a few athletes were missing stop them and they boated the Clarkson as a sturdy six-man crew and positively nailed the course, steered carefully by Claire Woolfitt. And at the Norfolk afterwards, the boys were lauded as local heroes. In total, the day was worth 75 pennant points to WARC but we’ve lost our top position to Fremantle, which is ahead of our 137 points by 29, currently sitting pretty on 166. Don’t worry, we’ll get ‘em back. Thanks
to Andrew Taylor for driving the trailer, Jade Mitchell and Peta
Rule for being bag ladies, and Rowan “speed racer” Ellis, TC,
Nikita, Courts and Claire for coxing. |
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Australian U23 Team Selections and NTID Congratulations to Matt Cochran and Hannah Vermeersch, who were selected in the Australian U23 M8+ and W4- to represent the country in the U23 World Championships later this year. Congratulations and do us proud! Also congratulations go to Sarah Steger for qualifying for the Junior NTID Camp at the AIS earlier this month, despite having another year to go in the Junior age category. Well done! (Honestly,
I should put a permanent article placeholder in these newsletters
about you guys. You're always winning something or being selected
for something or doing other stuff that's generally awesome.) |
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Memberships Are Due From May 9, all memberships must be paid. If you have not filled out a membership form this season, or not paid fees yet, your coach will be instructed not to boat you.
Please make our lives easier and pay your subscription fees. WARC
is less than half the cost of a gym membership, but 10 times the
fun. |
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Fundraising and the Campbell Effect We have just taken a quick look at fundraising achievements in recent months. And it’s looking impressive. The quiz night (ably emceed by Blake Johnson, organised by Rita and Emma and won by the Vikings) raised somewhere near $4000 including bar takings. In addition, we have a new Learn To Row course about to start – Sam Hughes is coordinating – which will raise an additional $3600 if it manages to sell out and we picked up $1500 from the Eat a Cow night. From these events alone, that’s nearly $9000 WARC club members have raised in recent months, not including the hugely successful Lord Mayor’s Cup. This will go a long way towards paying off the loans outstanding for the Somerset, Williams and Jolly which are some of our top-end fleet. For many of these events, Rita Campbell has been a driving force and lynchpin behind the concepts. Rita can no longer commit time and effort to WARC fundraisers as she’s off to help anther charity. On behalf of the WARC family, we’d like to very publicly embarrass Rita by saying: “Rita,
you’ve been an amazing contributor to the WARC family for many
years. You will always be welcome at the Club in whatever capacity
you can afford. Your experience and insight is always valued and
we are grateful for the effort you have put in.”
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Upcoming stuff – a few details and advice for WARC newbies For those who are looking at the calendar and are not sure, here’s a quick insight into upcoming regattas: Sunday, May 15 – Mettam headrace: A 5km or 8km headrace on the Canning River run in the morning. You’ll be home mid-afternoon after unloading. Small boats cover the shorter distance, big boats crank out the 8km. The Canning clubs have a home-course advantage. Saturday, May 21 – Bunvegas 1! Two words: BATTER UP. The first of the Bunvegas regattas is a one-day only affair. It’s old-school pennant rowing - the course is only 900m (although feels like 1500) has no buoys and is only five-lanes wide with a staggered start. All levels can compete, it’s great. You lose if you hit the jetty, and as the tide goes out, you run the risk of beaching the boat. Challenging? Yes. But lends itself to the WARC style of rowing and we generally clean-up. Please note: Bunvegas 2 is a weekend-long event... Saturday, June 18 – Something. We’ve got the function room at WARC booked for rowers on Saturday, June 18. Given the number of functions we’ve already had, this might be an at-cost steak night to get together, eat, drink, and talk rowing. The next LTR will have finished so there will be some new people to welcome. Put it in the diary. July
30-31 – Weekend away (note the change of date from the yearly
planner!). WARC tends to take a quick vacation during
July when half the club absconds on holidays. Those left behind
are not expected to train and we take the weekend off to hang
out in a non-rowing capacity. This year, we’re looking to create
a group booking at Rottnest Island. Details TBA, contact petabreerule@gmail.com
if you want to know more.
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New Boat Naming Finally, the WARC mens squad are proud to announce we have welcomed a new addition to our stable – some of the men have kindly donated funds to the club to purchase an ex-WAIS Heavyweight Empacher coxless four/quad!
To celebrate our ability to have our priorities in exactly the
right order, all are welcome to the boat naming ceremony, which
will be at around 9:15am on Saturday 14th May (that’s THIS Saturday),
at the front of the WARC boatshed.
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Pennant Table |
Next
regatta: |
Fundraising Cash at Bank $9,500.00 |
For the Diary...
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Mettam Headrace
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And that's the lot for this month - if you have any comments, queries or flames, please send them to the Captain Michael Jones at captain@warowingclub.org If you wish to unsubscribe to the WARC newsletter, you can do so by clicking here. |