WRC October Newsletter  |
 |
Contents
Health and Safety: Safer Boating Week This week is Safer Boating Week and the traditional start of the summer boating season. The aim of the week is to highlight the behaviors recreational craft users need to do to ensure they come home safely. As rowers and coaches, we obviously spend a lot of time on the water, so we thought it was important to share the theme for this year: ‘Come Home Safe.’ The key messages are to wear a life jacket, take two forms of communication and check in and understand the weather forecast to ensure you have fun and come home safely. If you’re a rower, this means checking you have personal flotation devices when you head out on the water unaccompanied and ensuring your coxswain has a well-fitting life jacket too. If you have a coach boat with you, make sure they have eight PFDs in them, with additional rowers over that number carrying PFDs in their boats. All coaches in the coach boat and any passengers must wear a well-fitted life jacket under the club rules. Take a phone in a waterproof bag with you in the boat. Some of our coach boats are also fitted with VHF radios. And finally, check the forecast. Wellington (as you know) experiences a range of weather patterns in short timeframes. Even if it looks flat, you and your coach should check the forecast to determine if it’s the right idea to go- and to make sure it will stay nice while you’re out rowing. This is especially important if you are in small boats. Take care, and safe rowing!
Scholarship Applications Wellington Rowing Club has a specific scholarship/Hardship fund. This fund is available to rowers who may be struggling financially to cover their season costs, thereby impacting their ability to achieve their rowing aspirations. All rowers are eligible to apply to the fund, and we especially encourage school rowers to consider this. Applications will be considered taking into account the points below: Scholarship Fund sub-committee
Application dates and who to apply to:
|
|
|
Call For Volunteers The backbone of our WRC regattas is the team of volunteers that pull together to make these events successful. The WRC is seeking volunteers for upcoming regattas, Please note these dates in your diary and if you are not competing, please consider helping out. Volunteers will be needed for morning and afternoon shifts, or you can volunteer for the whole day. Below are of roles that you might be asked to do. This is not exhaustive, and subject to change. Some roles require people who are experienced (such as umpires) and others are great positions for friends or family to get involved.
On Shore
Please get in touch with Deidre Sheppard shepparddeidre@gmail.com for more information and to sign up to help out- thank you!
Naming our Coach/Safety Boats In the past few years, we have named some of our coach/safety boats as a recognition of special people associated with Wellington Rowing Club. The tradition commenced when at a reunion of the National winning crews in the Wellington Rowing Club golden era of 1967-72, the attendees decided to raise the funds for a new coach/safety boat and named it the ‘Tanks’ O’Leary after their much revered coach John O’Leary. Others to be recognised with names on coach/safety boats were;
WRC has 7 coach/safety boats and with 4 named, it was decided to name 2 others. A/ The Grace family has also had a long association with Wellington Rowing Club. Father Bill coached St Mary’s in the 90s and contributed to the club in many ways. Michael was a member of New Zealand champs winning Club Eights in the 2009/10 season but is major contribution to the club has to be the history “The Dolly Varden Legacy” a history of Wellington Rowing Club, produced for the 125th anniversary of WRC. They are truly humbled by the gesture and have asked that the coach/safety boat be named after their family motto “Coup de Grace”. B/ The Delaney family has had a long association with WRC. Peter (Tokyo Olympics 1964) was the leader but daughter Tania also rowed for New Zealand. Many members of the family rowed out of Wellington and perhaps Peter’s fondest memory was when he turned 70 and the Delaney family had a special T shirt made and the family boated an eight together. The pictures below attest to the occasion. The boat to be named “Delaneys” |
 |
Perhaps readers may have a suggestion for the naming of the 7th coach/safety boat?
Masters Nationals It started so well. Blue skies, flat water, pies in Fairlie, and a sense of optimism. As the racing started so did the wind. Racing was abandoned early on both days because strong gusts were making it unsafe for crews on and off the water. The wind also affected travel back to Wellington with flights cancelled and some scary moments for the ‘truckies’ driving back with the boats. Despite only doing about half the races we were scheduled for, the squad did themselves proud with the following results: Gold
Silver
Bronze
Off the water, well, we kept ourselves amused and you can see the results of that on our Facebook page or here https://www.facebook.com/reel/3614864515498247?fs=e&s=TIeQ9V&mibextid=tBtx8Q Turns out that coxing is not Angela Holgate’s only skill set, she is fabulous at getting everyone involved in creating tic tocks. There was a lot of laughter and some surprising talent on show. Petone also created a tic tock also and if you wanted to compare you can see it on NZ Masters facebook page, I might be a little bit biased, but I think ours is better. As always great teamwork on boat loading and unloading, feeding the crowd, transport organisation – you know who you are – a big thanks, we love your work.
|