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This is your Captain Speaking We are on top of the table, PBR made a most welcome surprise appearance at the Uni-hosted Champion Lakes regatta, our club is almost unrecognisable following an amazing busy bee, everyone is learning to love land training due to the cyclonic conditions that have ravaged Perth, the Vikings have proven how clever we are at knowing stuff and how good we are at eating chocolate, everyone hates the mud in Armadale and our club is awesome! Welcome to another instalment of the Captain’s Newsletter… |
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Champion Lakes Regatta 11 July and WARC Masters' Regatta on 12 July As you will by now be aware, Westies is hosting a Champion Lakes Regatta on Sunday, 12 July 2009 (that is the weekend following this weekend's regatta at Canning). The Club will need all members (including non-masters) to assist running the regatta on 12 July. The regatta will be the first Masters regatta and follows the regular pennant regatta on Saturday, 11 July, so it will be a big weekend. (Happily, it is followed by the annual Westies retreat, which this year is in Moore River.) As with all hosted regattas, it will be a significant opportunity to fundraise on the day by selling food and drinks in the function area, as well as running a raffle. There will be a variety of jobs that need to be carried out during the day and everyone will be needed to ensure that the regatta is run smoothly. |
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Canning regatta this weekend The entries are in (thanks again Tim Murdoch!) and the race draw will be out by Wednesday for this weekend. As I understand from Alex, there is only one women's event that WARC isn't entered in this Saturday! That is an amazing effort and it reflects the depth and spread of female athletes that we are so lucky to have. The men's squad is in a building phase. With Jacki's leadership and regime of punishment, we hope that the strength and numbers of the Westies women will be replicated in the Westies men in coming seasons. Whatever you are racing this weekend, good luck! |
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UWA Champion Lakes Regatta (mud, wind and rain) Thankyou to everyone that made it through the day at the last regatta at Champion Lakes. It was a tough, tough day. The fortitude of everyone who was there racing in very difficult conditions and putting up with regular downpours and constant driving winds was sensational. The way in which the whole club pulled together at the end of a long, hard day was a credit to each of you. Let's keep our fingers crossed for better weather next time we are out there! We had some damage on the day, mainly due to the strong winds. It is a reminder to everyone to ensure that everything is tied down securely and as much as possible, to keep gear out of harm's way. You will be pleased to learn that the club has ordered 10 new trestles and 30 new tie down straps, both of which have been in short supply as the WARC fleet has increased. Hopefully the trestles will be available for the regatta on 4 July, but if not, they should definitely be here for the July 11 and 12 double header. Thanks to Peter Klemm and Caine Holdsworth, we now have 6 more "pipe-racks" to rest sculls on at regattas. Thankyou guys. |
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Points As you will have seen from the email I forwarded recently, WARC remains on top of the pennant table on 512 points, 204 of which have been accumulated from the D and E divisions. Well done to everyone for the training and work you have put in. Well done to all the coaches also for your brilliant contribution to the competitive squad. Without your drive and encouragement, we wouldn't be anywhere near as successful. ANA remain second on 406 points, with UWA on 354 and Bunbury on 294. Keep up the hard work and maintain your focus on building technical excellence, fitness and strength with an eye on States (now less than 3 months away!). |
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Quiz Night Roundup A big thanks to everyone who attended the WARC Quiz Night on 12 June. You have probably already heard that the mighty Vikings have retained the crown as the smartest group of rowers Westies has ever seen. An enormous thanks to Lainie Gara, Alexis Babos and Caine Holdsworth for organising and running a fun and successful event. |
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Busy Bee Wow! What an effective and efficient morning of work! The club and the boats look fantastic. Special thanks to Lainie for suggesting a schedule of jobs, to Caine for producing the first draft and to the 3 team leaders, Alex Jolly, Clem Jolly and Carolyn Murdoch for ensuring everyone had a job! Thanks also to every member that turned up and pitched in; your hard work is greatly appreciated. Let's work on maintaining the club in the condition it is now in. |
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Abandoned clothing and other items A basket has been placed at the top of the stairs where any lost property will be placed. On the first of each month, the content of the basket will be disposed of without further notice. Any socks found in the gym or shed will be binned immediately. |
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RWA Raffle You have only until the end of July to sell your book of raffle tickets. At the moment, every time a regatta is held at Champion Lakes, the host club is required to supply up to five 15hp dinghies with cowlings on the propeller. This means towing them to and from the regatta. The purchase of Champion Lakes umpires boats will alleviate this problem and ease the burden on clubs considerably (meaning I am less likely to ask you to tow a speed boat to and from a regatta). Please do your best to sell all your raffle tickets by the end of July. At $2 they are cheap and the prizes are great. If you do not have a book of tickets, please contact Debbie Mason and she will give you as many as you want. |
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Funding requirements going forward You already know this is an expensive sport. Given the quality of the equipment we have and the need to maintain it, the fundraising requirements of the club are significant. In the last year the club has added to the equipment available to members: As this equipment comes into the club, the previous top boats and gear get rotated down to the less experienced crews, meaning everyone benefits from renewal. Repairs and replacement equipment over the past year has cost the club approximately $50,000 for equipment and upwards of $6,000 for repairs and materials. Our coaching team has also grown considerably this year, with the addition of 3 new coaches, who are contributing to the growing success of Westies. Every competitive rower at WARC has access to an experienced coach and one of the best fleets in WA. Going forward, we have an immediate need for: You can help raise the funds needed by the club by supporting the fundraising initiatives that the club has from time to time (such as the LMC, the quiz night, learn to row etc) and by grabbing a box of chocolates off Tenille Scott to sell at work. The best thing about selling chocolate at work is that there really is no work involved; they sell themselves and raise income for the club. It is likely that WARC will be running the highly successful Bunnings Barbeques again later this year to assist in the significant purchases that are coming up. Details will be sent when the plans are formalised.
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Pennant Table |
Next regatta: MURC Regatta at CANNING,
Saturday July 4 |
For the Diary...
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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 David Winch at captainwarc@iinet.net.au |