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This
is Your Captain Speaking (?)
Good morning and welcome to the latest edition of your WARC newsletter. This is... not... your captain speaking, he's busy in the cockpit flying WARC towards the pointy end of the season and has just sent up a distress flare calling for assistance. Thus it's fallen to me to put fingers-to-keyboard for the latest news out of the Club and let you know where your nearest emergency exit is located. Please make sure your seatbelt is low and tight, your seat is in an upright position and your tray table is stowed before continuing.
We have a flying time of approximately nine weeks before we land at State Champs. This means we're two thirds through our journey since we launched season 2012 at the Guildford to Garratt road, although we can expect some turbulence prior to that third Saturday in September when we will race at States.
Prior to landing, we have planned a weekend away, two regattas to host, a road trip to Bunvegas, tacos to eat, some guilt-free couch time to watch the London Olympics, a couple of rounds of erg tests and rumour has it, some wood chopping which has just been added to the men's training program.
So please, sit back and enjoy the in-flight entertainment but be prepared to grab your life vest at any moment.
Cheers,
PBR
WARC Vice President
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This weekend
WARC is hosting this weekend's regatta. We need people in dinghies driving umpires, we need people in the kitchen selling baked goods, we need people to man the BBQ, we need a commentator and we need people to go around and sell raffle tickets.
Please let Sam know if you can help us out - or if your family/friends/lovers can be dobbed in, even if it's just for a few hours - contact Sam on shughes0@gmail.com
Competing members: Please bring something to sell for the kitchen (cakes, muffins, lolly bags, savoury stuff).
We also need more donations for the raffle - the collection basket is upstairs in the gym - go through your cupboards - it doesn't have to be a big donation, but the winning baskets need to make people want to buy tickets.
This is our regatta and we do get marks which contribute to WARC's overall pennant score at the end of the season. And, more importantly, it's our chance to raise some funds through the cafeteria.
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Boat and equipment purchases
We have recently purchased a number of new small boats to replace some of the older boats in our fleet - we have two new yet-to-be-named trainer sculls to replace the Portunus and Catostylus, and later this week will be taking delivery of a new double/pair to replace the Richard Lipscombe. You may also have noted some new sculling oars at WARC - these are new purchases after it was discovered a great many of our sculling blades had been damaged or were missing. Please take care if using new stuff.
Our next priority boat (after a mens 8+, which we're hoping to make an announcement about soon) is a ~75kg average 4- to assist predominantly the women's program.
A 2003 Empacher 4-/+ in the lightest weight mould the German company makes is for sale for $9000. This would match WARC's requirements and is considered a good buy. However, to purchase the boat we do need athletes to consider pledging a tax-deductible donation to this boat to make the purchase possible. WARC has taken a conservative fiscal approach to boat purchases and this has made our aggressive acquisition policy possible and we now have a fleet we could only dream about years ago.
Any amount will be greatly appreciated, as the more people that donate, the quicker the dollars will add up. Due to the weight limit of the boat, not all will be able to row her but it is very much needed and will grow the ability of the club to compete at a high level.
For novice and new members - of course we don't want to scare you off by asking for your money - but even the smallest of donations will help get us over the line and we've already had some significant pledges.
In the past, we have had a name competition with the highest bidders. As a boat bought by members, we do not traditionally have to name the boat after a well-deserved member.
We need to have an indication of whether $9000 is achievable, so please please email Janelle Austin - nellsmells@hotmail.com with the amount you can pledge if the time comes as soon as possible.
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Weekend off - 28-29 July
We've got a tentative booking at Fairbridge Village in Pinjarra for our annual weekend away.
Accommodation Cost is between $55-70 per person for the weekend (depending on numbers as we pay per cottage)
We have tentatively booked the Middlemore and Kitchener Cottages which are next to each other and sleep up to 48 people - beds and pillows are provided but everyone will need to bring their own towels, sheets, blankets and sleeping bags. At the moment, we have 17 RSVPs, with almost none from WARC's male contingent.
We will see what people are interested in we can also look at arranging some activities. They have quite a lot of activities on offer at pretty decent prices - if you want to take a look here's the link http://www.fairbridge.asn.au/index.php?page=21
If you are interested, please rsvp to nicholson.angela@gmail.com TODAY.
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Do Mexican on August 3
Westies is hosting a Mexican night to celebrate and raise money for Matt Cochran, WARC's Australian under 23 World Championship bronze medallist. Come to the club for a Mexican dinner and a night of cocktails, pinatas, sombreros and a chance to win.
Where: Upstairs at West Australian Rowing Club
When: 3rd of August
Time: 6.30pm onwards
Cost: $25 per person
RSVP: By the 30th of July to meg.downes@hotmail.com
Hope to see you all there!
.... also ponchos and moustaches are encouraged.
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The rest of season 2012 - Going for Gold
After the coming weekend, we will only have nine weeks until State Championships and the end of the season. Of those nine weekends, seven of them will have regattas (to put that in perspective, not counting the first attempt at the P2F, we've only had seven regattas so far this season). It's a very congested competition calendar, which you can see on the Season planner here: http://warowingclub.org/images/pdfs/2012seasonplanner.xls. We'll need all hands on deck and everyone pulling hard for each other.
Over the coming weeks we'll be going through a series of 2000m erg tests, 1500m on-water trials and potentially some seat racing as the coaches find the best racing combinations for the State Championships. Some of the crews will be relatively easy to pick, while others may not be decided until early September.
So what we need from each of our athletes is:
- Make sure you let your coaches know well ahead of time what your availability is, for both training and racing.
- Check the season planner, make sure you know when regattas are coming up, and clear your schedule if possible!
- Keep going! We've got under 10 weeks to go for the season, keep it up!
How we've done so far
WARC is currently sitting in second place on the state pennant table behind the Swan River Rowing Club. Winning the pennant is good fun, but it's not our only goal as a club. This result is one measure we can use to quantify WARC's successes relative to other clubs in the State. Given we've gone from regularly hanging on the bottom of the pennant table to now pushing for pole position, this is a reflection of the strong membership base and athlete commitment experienced at WARC in the past decade.
A bit about Masters racing
There are a few masters-only regattas coming up, so to head off some queries here's a quick rundown. Masters-only regattas are Sunday morning, half-day affairs with the last race being at 12.30pm. Unlike normal pennant regattas, masters regattas are handicapped on time, which makes for some pretty exciting racing.
Want to know if you get a handicap? Check out page 28 of the Rowing Australia rules of racing. Handicaps start at a crew average age of 36. Want to know how much your handicap would be? Check out appendix 6 (page 179). The link is here: http://www.rowingaustralia.com.au/docs/rowing_australia_rules_2008_edition.pdf. This is a frequently asked question and isn't easy to find, so we thought we'd post the link for you.
The second masters regatta falls on Fathers' Day - and we're also hosting it! So pencil it in now and schedule your Fathers' Day activities in the mid-late arvo if possible. The masters regattas are on:
Sunday 5th August - CLBC Masters Regatta
Sunday 2nd September - WARC Masters Regatta
Sunday 9th September - Masters State Championships
How we're going interstate and abroad
WARC exports have been contributing to WA and Australia's performance on a national and international scale in recent weeks.
Young gun Matthew Cochran won a bronze at U23 Worlds in the Australian men's 8 - the best result the Aussies have had in a long time, placing behind some serious speed in the American and German teams. The blog is a great read and gives a bit of perspective on the type of training and effort required http://thelesserpath.tumblr.com. For those savvy with the world of social networking, the support WARC gave to these guys was plain to see. And of course the proceeds of a trivia night won by Zak, Sam and Bam Bam's table (a hollow, narrow victory over Nick Wakeword's super team) contributed to the U23 team's travel costs.
Also overseas, WARCer Hannah Vermeersch and partner-in-crime Alex Hagan (SRRC) are in the throes of some seriously intense training ahead of their Olympic debut in the Australian women's 8. At just 19, Hannah is the baby of the Australian rowing team and is fast becoming a favourite of supporters around the nation. Again, the wonders of the internet mean we have the privilege of being able to follow the girls progress via their blog - here's a couple of lines: "We have been working on killer rhythm with the aim of rating 38 mid race and that build to the line which we have struggled with to date! As a crew we are making gains every row and starting to shape up our race plan and gain confidence in everything we are doing."
http://rowingwa.asn.au/news/hannah-a-alexs-blog
On the domestic front, Darci Miller was selected to represent WA at the Youth Cup and contributed to WA recording a solid equal 6th (tied with Victoria).
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Pennant
Table
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Next
regatta:
WARC Pennant Regatta,
July 21,
CHAMPION LAKES
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For
the Diary...
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