Club roundup

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! 

Readying the Maid at North Berwick. Photo by Elina

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! 

North and South Queensferry teamed up for the Nith Raid. Photo by Val
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. 

Loch Tummel makes a wonderful venue for the Freshwater Sprints
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! 

Winter is coming! Anne F took this photo in February this year

AGM calling notice

Club secretary Steph writes: I know you’re still enjoying summer warmth but in fact it’s almost time for our AGM and time to get on with the arrangements for it.

Please see the notice reproduced below, calling for our AGM on Wednesday 11th October 2023. This year will see a return to an ‘in-person’ format in the plush surroundings of the Sea-Cadet centre.

During the AGM, the 2023-2024 committee will be elected to steer club operations for the next year.

Sign up sheets have been posted on the club notice-board for nominations for ordinary committee and officer positions.

Committee positions are open to all members of the club new and established who can commit some time to the monthly meetings and assist with the functioning of the club. We would encourage all members to think about making this valuable contribution to our club; gather two proposers and pop your names on the sheets by the 26th September.

Queries should be directed to secretary@queensferryrowing.org.

Queensferry Rowing Club
Annual General Meeting, Wednesday 11th October 2023

Calling Notice
The Annual General Meeting of Queensferry Rowing Club will be held on Wednesday 11th October 2023, 7.30pm in the Sea Cadet Boat Station, Port Edgar.
A draft agenda and minutes of the previous AGM will be sent via email or letter to members at the end of September. They will also be posted on the Club website.
Any additions to the agenda should be made known to Stephanie Durning,
Secretary, via secretary@queensferryrowing.org by 3rd October 2023.
Nominations for any position in the Committee should be notified to the
Secretary by 5pm on Tuesday 26th September 2023 with Proposers and
Seconders (Please remember to propose or second next to the nominations). A Nomination Sheet has been posted in the Shed also, and will be available there until the same time.
In the event that there are more nominations than the required four Office Bearers and not more than seven members, a vote will be held at the AGM Any current Committee member who decides not to stand for re-election should inform the Secretary by the 3rd of October.


The current Committee are:
Marianne Sandison, Captain
Mike Breewood, Vice-Captain
Anne Purcell, Treasurer
Stephanie Durning, Secretary
Members:
John Howell, Beth Christie, Lesley Jones and Louise Innes.

Regatta round-up

Club captain Marianne writes: First…..Eskmuthe. What a wonderful day out for the club!  The regatta was a great mixture of club races, and mix-up races, over 1km with a buoy turn. The format gave everyone opportunities to race with skiffies from other clubs, and in other boats.  

Our partnership with our immediate neighbours, Newhaven and North Queensferry, continues with rowers Sean, John and Sarah welcome additions to our racing crews. Our wonderful friends at Alnmouth gave us race coxes for the day, and a different set of boat orders into the mix. It’s fair to say that our rudder – they launch off beaches so have one that can be raised – gave them something to think about too!

Rain didn’t dampen our spirits! Photo by Marianne

Virtually everyone came home with a medal, including Filip and Ondrej, two of our youth rowers. Well done lads! Eleni, in her first regatta, came home with a medal too.

The weather while it behaved most of the time, broke in an appropriately enough for a Sunday, biblical downpour during the Men’s Open and saw Richard and Sean completely drenched. The thunder was a bit triggering for those of us who were at Ullapool! 

Thanks to everyone who was involved in packing and unpacking in any way, to our tower Richard, and to the Monday crew who came in to the wet gazebo draped over every possible surface to try and dry it. 

Hot on the heels of the fantastic fun of Eskmuthe comes the test that is North Berwick’s regatta, on Saturday. With a course of over 3km (I’m sure it’s longer…) around Craigleith, it’s probably the toughest regatta racing test in Scottish coastal rowing. It’s also a lovely day out at the seaside! We have a youth crew racing, with the addition of a young NB rower.

The Maid racing at North Berwick last year. Photo by Barbara

Our regatta

Apologies for my tardiness in posting this! Time ran away from me…

Club captain Marianne writes: Our regatta.  What a day!  Sunday had it all: rain, wind, sun, challenging conditions, fierce but friendly racing, but above all joy, community and a lot of fun!  

That sinking feeling… fear not, everyone on board Kinghorn’s Yolanda was safe!

We’ve had some wonderful feedback from the other clubs, who loved the inclusive format of the regatta. We also had feedback from Ali Grant from our governing body the Scottish Coastal Rowing Association (SCRA) congratulating us on the inclusive, friendly nature of our regatta, which still allowed very competitive racing. Ali has fed this back to the SCRA directly, so we can be very pleased about that!  

North Queensferry added their boats to the racing fleet of five

Ali finished her message saying ‘Andy Jarvis would have been proud’. I know this accolade will mean such a lot to many members. Sadly I never met Andy, but he was famous for jumping into any boat in the true spirit of our sport. He gave rise to the phenomenon of the ‘Andy race’, a feature of regattas across the country, and the format we used for our entire regatta.  

It’s always dangerous to thank people individually for fear of leaving someone out, so on behalf of the Committee, I want to thank every single one of you who played a part, big or small, to make our regatta such a success.  As usual you all rose to the occasional and quietly rolled your sleeves up, got stuck in and made it a success.  We could not have done it without you!

Crews change over on the pontoon

There are still plenty of events to come, including those listed at the end of this message. Not a comprehensive list, so keep an eye on email and the Shed noticeboard.

More photos on the club’s Flickr.

Queensferry regatta

On Sunday July 30th, we will be welcoming rowers from North Queensferry, Kinghorn, Newhaven and Portobello for our fun regatta. The course will be approximately 750 meters from the old harbour to a finish line shortly after going under the Road Bridge. All the crews will comprise rowers from different clubs so no club rivalry, just crew against crew. There will be 5 boats, 2 from NQ, 1 from Kinghorn and our Lass and Maid. The NQ and Kinghorn boats will be rowed across from the north side on the morning. 

A mixed crew in action at a previous QRC regatta

This is a great opportunity for people who have never raced before to give it a try and for old hands to show others what’s involved. Even if you don’t want to race, do come along and watch the fun, help with making the day go smoothly and get to meet members of the other clubs.

9:00   Coxes briefing
9:45   Mens Open
10:30 Women’s Open
11:15 Mens 200+
12:00 Women’s 200+
13:00 Youth
13:45 Mixed Decades
14:30 Mixed Novice
15:15 Mixed Blindfold