Captains Blog
We are now well into the business end of the season at Drummoyne Rowers.
We ran our first regatta for the competition season last weekend and managed to get through all the races despite the interesting conditions.
A big thankyou to Ric and all our club members who helped make the day a success.
Just a reminder that we do it all again this coming Sunday for the Drummoyne Masters Regatta and once again seek your support as volunteers. If you are able to help and have not already let Ric know, please email drummoynerowers@gmail.com and cc Ric advising what you can do.
I would also ask that even if you are competing, please stick around and help out in between or before and after your races.
Regatta Entries
Please be sure to let Amanda via email and cc drummoynerowers@gmail.com to be sure your entry doesn’t get missed. Prior planning is appreciated and the cut off is ideally Sunday evening, however if it has to be Monday, please text Amanda to make sure she can do the entry.
If you do want to race at a regatta, you should also check the boats you require are allocated to you for the race so this means letting John know early of your boat requests.
If you have missed the entry cut-off, you can place a late entry and incur a late entry fee. These late entries will only be accepted by RNSW if they can fit you in an existing race.
Boat Maintenance
I mentioned in my last post that we seem to be incurring a lot of damage to boats, particularly small holes and damage to the bows of the boat. A reminder to all; please report any damage to John or myself so we can attend to it promptly.
On the weekend we went over a couple of boats checking the general state of the boat. As a result we replaced 10 wheels in the Torchbearer and a couple of slides as well as tightened all the shoes onto the footplates. We then had a wonderful time extracting badly corroded slides and slide bolts as well as a number of wheels in the Lanning and a number of wheels in Thanks Dad.
The state of a lot of these wheels was such that many no longer turned, they were extremely worn down or just wobbly. In all cases the wheels made a lot of noise and the travel of the seat was rough. The problem with leaving these as they are is that they destroy the slides meaning they also need replacing.
Please look, listen and feel what is happening with the moving parts of the boat. In particular, experienced rowers should have picked these up.
School Rowing
With the Schoolgirl Head of the River on this weekend, the school rowing season is slowing down. There will be still a number of crews training after this weekend for upcoming events such as the Australian Rowing Champs. We wish bot PLC and Tara all the best for next weekends racing and hope you bring home the bling!
In late April and through May, corporate crews for the Great Autumn regatta will start training in the mornings in eights. Please be mindful that their first few sessions might be their first ever in a rowing boat so it takes them a bit more time to get organised.
Masters
Over the next few months, many of our masters contingent will be making their way to the World Masters Games in Cambridge New Zealand, NSW State Championships at home before heading south to the Nationals at Nagambie.
We wish you all the successes and fair racing. Once again, with the extra load on equipment, make sure you have a booking for boats.
We will schedule another working bee in the next month or so and will focus on cleaning up around the shed and boat maintenance.
Happy Rowing
Rob Glendenning
Captain
