This is Your Captain Speaking

Hi everyone, and welcome to another edition of the Captain's newsletter.

Wow - I disappear for three weeks and the number of people at the shed grows exponentially. I should go away more often! Things are going gangbusters, with the Summer Nationals Squad picking up steam only 6 weeks out from competition, Peta Rule's Casual Summer Rowing juggernaut attracting 20-24 athletes to every session, Squad X up and running under the watchful eye of Brad 'Nice Guys Finish First' Scott, and another TWO Learn2Row courses finishing last week.

To all the truant rowers and ex-rowers who haven't been down (you know who you are): the mornings have been sunny and warm, and the water's better than expected for this time of year, and there are heaps of people coming down (some of whom make pancake-cake - it was phenomenal) so why not join in?

I should also give a quick mention to the "Twin Towers of Pete" - our Vice Presidents Peta Rule and Peter Klemm. For the last month all three Captains have been sunning themselves in various parts of the northern hemisphere leaving the Petes in charge, and the club seems to have not burned down, which is always nice. Thanks Petes!

Happy rowing!

Mike Jones
WARC Captain 2011

State Team Selections

Congratulations to all of the following WARC athletes who have been selected in the WA State team to compete in the Interstate Regatta on the last day of Nationals, Sunday March 13. Good luck and do us proud - well, actually you already have!

Nick Wakeford - Kings Cup squad (10 shortlisted for a crew of 8)
Hannah Vermeersch - Queens Cup squad, Youth Womens 8+
TC Maguire - Shortlisted for Kings Cup Coxswain
Sarah Steger - Youth Womens 8+
Matt Cochran - Youth Mens 8+
Zak Campbell - Youth Mens 8+
Sam Hughes - Youth Mens 8+

Australia Day and the Shed

As it has been over the last few years, the Westies shed (including the gym) will be shut down from Sunday January 23, reopening on Monday January 31. As in previous years, we are hiring out our shed for the Australia Day skyshow. A big deck will be put on top of our boat deck, making it impossible to launch boats, and it takes a few days to put up then take down again. On the plus side, this brings in valuable regular income that we need to be able to pay our running costs and keep providing such fantastic facilities to our members!

The Summer Nationals Squad will be training out at Deep Water Point for the week, but for Squad X and the Casual Summer Rowing group - if you're interested in going on a couple of bike rides to replace the sessions we'll lose next week, a few people will be heading out on 30-45km rides on Tuesday and Friday morning. Please get in touch with me at captain@warowingclub.org if you're interested!

Gym Refurbishment and Wesley Gym Membership

The refurbishment of our gym has continued, with some new cupboards appearing and old weights gear being removed. There are another few stages of the refurbishment to go, which will be completed in the next few weeks. The huge new TV's are also powered up and ready to go!

As we have had to remove most of our weights gear to accommodate to renovation, we have arranged for all WARC financial members to have access to the gym at Wesley College! Sorry to L2R and Casual Summer members, this only applies to full 12-month members. There's only two months to go until the next annual membership rolls around again though!

Wesley normally charge $360 per year for gym membership (which is nearly as much as a full Westies membership), but thanks to our valiant President, Sten Campbell, we are getting "Dry" gym membership (no pool access) free of charge!

Where: Wesley Sports Club, entry off Angelo St, South Perth
What: Weights room, gym floor, aerobics, tennis (no pool access)
Cost: $0 !
Who: Full Financial WARC members only
What to do: Go to the front desk, say you're a WARC member, and provide Photo ID with your name and address
Gym Opening hours:
MON-THU
5:30am-8:00am
5:30pm-10:00pm
FRI
5:30am-8:00am
5:30pm-9:00pm
SAT
6:30am-9:30am
1:00pm-7:00pm
SUN
7:00am-8:00pm

Lord Mayor's Cup Entries

There are only a few weeks to go until entries for our annual corporate regatta, the Lord Mayor's Cup, close and we are well short of our target number of crews. We need help getting crews entered - else it could be a lean year for the club! So we're asking all club members to try to get crews of four people together (doesn't matter if they haven't rowed before - in fact, that's the point!), and get a crew entered.

If you need a registration pack, drop me a line at captain@warowingclub.org - entries close February 11 so you'll need to move quickly!

Pennant Table

UWABC - 160.7
WARC - 104.5
SRRC - 101.5
FRC - 94.5
ANARC - 83.7
CUBC - 42.6
BRC - 36.2
MURC - 10.5
CLBC - 7.9
PRC - 7.8

Next regatta:
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
March 7-13
West Lakes, Adelaide

Fundraising Cash at Bank

$3,022.86
(at 13 Jan 2011)

Fundraising

Our finance-savvy (and rather nerdy) Treasurer Kylie Sullivan has put together some figures to give us a report on the amount of cash we have sitting in the bank which has come directly from fundraising performed by club members. To give you an idea of how much we have to spend on those shiny new boats we all love so much, from here on you'll see the fundraising cash at bank figure reported in the top-right corner of all WARC newsletters.

That way, if you are ever hoping the club buys a shiny new boat, you know how much we all have to pitch in and raise - so let's get that figure higher!

For the Diary...

Wed February 16 - LMC Info Night
Mon February 21 - LMC Training Begins
Mon March 7 - Nationals Begins
Sun March 13 - Nationals Ends
Sat March 19 - Nationals Eat a Farm Night
Sat March 26 - LMC coaching ends
Sun March 27 - LMC regatta
Sat April 2 - Busy bee, Winter squad meeting
Mon April 4 - Winter season starts!