Club captain Marianne writes: It’s been another busy period for the club and there’s lots of update you on. This is a flavour of things that have been going on.
Regatta roundup
Theme for regattas this year has been….weather. Lots of it.
North Berwick‘s regatta in August was no exception, with washing machine-like seas meaning an altered, although no less testing, course for much of the day, rather than racing in front of rather than around Craigleith. Skies were always sunny, and sea conditions calmed to give later crews the traditional lung and leg buster around the infamous rock. Notably, in a four way photo finish, our youth crew of Ondrej, Filip, Kirsty and NB young rower, Struan, racing for the first time, claimed a well-deserved silver medal. Well done! Cox Peter was suitably chuffed and relieved of a few quid by way of the now traditional round of 99s!
Again under glorious skies, crews took part in two long distance events on the first weekend of the month. Lesley J, Gareth, Barbara A, Andy, Gabe, Tacy, Anne, Richard, Ewan and Liz took part in the 21km Castle to Crane race, which took place for the first time since 2019. Meanwhile Val and Donna joined Lesley S, Sarah and Peter in a North Queensferry boat to take part in the Nith Raid in Dumfries. It sounds like everyone had a fantastic time!
Five Miles
The Five Miles from Home Challenge is back. This is a remote racing time trial challenge, in our home waters, between 27 Sept and 01 October. Tides are perhaps not in our favour for evening crews but I hope you’ll get involved.
AMCC
The Alan Meldrum Community Challenge is nearly here, after an absence of a number of years. Preparations from a range of crews from the Police to vets to the tennis club are out training. The event itself takes place on Sunday 24 September, and it would be great to have as many people as possible down to help, support and cheer the crews on!
Tweed Row
Sadly there’s not been enough sign up for us to send a boat to this event.
Freshwater Sprints
The SCRA Freshwater Sprints are the traditional end to the regatta season, where we trot up to the glorious waters of Loch Tummel and are hosted by the sailing club there. We race for the south-east region rather than our club at this event. A sign-up sheet will be up in the shed shortly. The sprints take place on Saturday, 28 October.
Oars
The team, led as ever by Douglas and Mark, have been getting on with the new ‘Frank’ oars and we all very grateful for the hard work being put in. I think everyone’s getting excited about the prospect of using them. We’re looking at ways of thinning out our surplus sets, but rest assured we’ll be keeping our much loved ‘new’ oars and the red-taped Clenshaws (which are due to receive some TLC shortly).
Our AGM
We’re holding our AGM in person at 19:30 on Wednesday 11 October at the Port Edgar Boat Station, the fantastic national Sea Cadet facility at the top of the slip. In Scottish coastal rowing style, please bring your own cup for refreshments, and any baked goodies you’d like to share with others. Although access is up the stairs to the balcony, there is a lift for anyone with mobility problems.
We all have a part to play in the effective running of the club, but the Committee have an important leadership role. I’d encourage you, yes you!, to think about standing.
Happy rowing everyone!
