Category: Regatta Updates

Female rowers who are interested in competing in this year’s Head of the Yarra (“HOTY”) have until Sunday morning *29 August* after the time trial to let me know.
For those who don’t know much about HOTY should have a look at the event website
The race will be held on Saturday 27 November. It is only for 8s and is a time trial 8.5 km long, going upstream from the judges’ box to hawthorn rowing club. Our top women’s crew will be looking to beat the 35 minutes mark, and will be at a rating of about 26 – 28 at near full pressure for the distance. If you don’t understand what any of this means then talk to me or your coach.
This is very demanding and is likely to suit rowers who are fit and particularly good at rowing extended lengths of time. What becomes important is the ability to keep rowing with good technique when you are very fatigued. This is what a lot of the training is about, particularly our October training camp. It is one hard race no matter what your skill level or fitness.
Many of our current female rowers are at or near this level and I believe many could well be capable of building up to this.
For everyone who intends to say yes, I would like to know how your fitness on an ergo is at the moment. In conjunction with your current coach, you need to do two ergos which I will use as baselines for training and evaluation – a 1000m sprint and a 20 minute session with rating at max 24.
For the 1000m ergo, please record your time, watts and average rating.
For the 20 min ergo, please record your distance, watts and average split (i.e. 500m split time).
For either ergo you MUST warm up beforehand for 5 – 10 mins rowing lightly (rating max 18) and cool down for 5 mins afterwards, again doing about 18.
Please send me your results by email.
Selection for the final crews will be quite competitive, but there is another time trial event the week before HOTY, called Melbourne Head, which is downstream from Big Bend to Princes Bridge (about 4.5 km). Most people who don’t quite make it to the HOTY crew will get a row in this regatta and it’s a very good time trial event.
Finally, the upcoming club time trial, going from RRC round the island and back, will give you a practical idea of what you are capable of doing right now.
Derek Begg

What are our feelings on the races orders for the next season? I must admit I was unimpressed with the order of events last season as it prevented boating crews in more than one race as many classes of rower and boats were back to back.
EG c-grade quad backs onto C-grade 8 etc through most regatta programme.
You lose the opportunity to enter multiple events which is what makes travelling some of these distances worthwhile. I personally am not keen to drive 2-300km for only a couple of races.
I also would like to see C-grade coxless pairs on the program in both male and female. Especially at states. D to B grade is a big jump otherwise.
We need to formulate a reply to RV in writing before the 30th of August.
Happy to collate suggestions/feedback to RV.
Post your comments on the blog or email me at [email protected]
Barry Campbell
RRC Captain

Conditions improved for the third day of competition at the Masters Nationals regatta in Perth. Less wind and back to held starts but still a challenging crosswind. The only event for Richmond rowers was the interstate race, won by NSW the last 3 years. It was an intense race and again saw NSW victorious, with the Victorian quad featuring Richmond rowers Carolyn Manning and Geraldine Goss taking a close third behind WA.
The fourth and final day of competition brought better weather, sunny but still breezy. First up was the D quad with Carolyn, Geraldine, and Robyn and Jenny from CGRC. After a convincing win in the second of the four heats another intense battle saw a virtual repeat of the interstate race, this time with a WA victory and bronze for the Victorian girls.
The D mixed doubles racing saw Carolyn pick up another gold with an Richard from Essendon, while Geraldine picked up a bronze rowing with Murray Ross from MRC.
The final event for Richmond was a C Quad Scull composite, this time Geraldine and Carolyn combining with Tamara from Essendon and Louise from Footscray RC.
After a solid win in the heat a great row in the final saw the quad take the national title and finish the regatta on the highest note imaginable! Exhausted by now from four days of intense rowing the girls are off to wash out the zooties and put their feet up and enjoy a lovely cup of tea.
Nationals 2011-lake Barrington!
Geraldine Goss (from Perth)

Day one of the Masters National Championships in Perth was held in perfect conditions. The course is similar design to Penrith and the Richmond contingent of Carolyn Manning and Geraldine Goss revelled in the conditions.
Racing started in the afternoon and Carolyn and Gerry were in event 7, the C division female double scull. After a solid win in the first of 4 heats the final was an intense battle with the Richmond double missing the bronze by less than 1 sec in a photo finish.
Carolyn not to be denied her chance to make the dais on the first day of competition picked up a gold in the mixed quad with Essendon/MUBC composite crew.
Day two of competition and the regatta was treated to awful weather conditions with high winds creating havoc at the start line.
Gerry competed in the d double with Jenny Dewar from CGRC. The heats were early in the day and the girls sat behind the start line shivering as the regatta became 30 min behind time before 9am! Held starts were abandoned and boats started the races on a 45 degree angle in a running start.
After a close second in the heat the double rowed another intense final, this time winning the silver, with the margin between first and second less than 1 sec.
The c single followed and in truly awful conditions, Carolyn won her heat to go through to the final, while Gerry was third in hers in a photo finish just missing a place in the final. Another intense battle saw Carolyn take the silver by 7 100th of a second sec in front of third place!
Tomorrow Carolyn and Gerry compete in the interstate quad race and with any luck the weather conditions will favour the rowers and make for some great racing.
Geraldine Goss

Crews have been selected for the Richmond Rowing Club Challenge Races which will be held on the Yarra River this Sunday 6 June from 10:00 am.
Crews will race in mixed eights and quads over the 250 metre boat house drive course and the competition is expected to be tough with a number of the club’s top rowers putting in an appearance for what will be the final race of the 2009/10 season.
The day is being touted as a thank you to Head of Rowing Nicole Stupka who will be resigning as Head of Rowing at the end of the season to prepare for the arrival of her first child. Nicole has put in a tremendous effort over the past two seasons to grow the club’s active membership to a level not seen for a number of years.
Races will conclude with lunch at the club house. All members and their family’s are welcome to attend.
Look forward to seeing you all on Sunday for some fierce racing….
Crew’s for the races as follows:

Race Series	Start Time	Boat	Name
Series 1	10:00	Quad A	Edith Hamilton, Rochelle Stokes, Karen Doggett, Nick Schouten Cox: Derek Begg
		Quad B	Leonie Cluse, Susie Ballantyne, Anthea Amos, Kirk Archibald Cox: Amelia Hagger
		Quad C	Julia Avis, Kate Dyball, Emma Catford, Sam Morrison Cox: Louise Roberts
Series 2	10:45	Eight A	Dennis Beck, Olivia Vines, Karin Bouvin, Charlie Burke, Michael Calvert, Charlie Catford, Mike O’Neil, Gareth Brodie Cox: Derek Begg
		Eight B	Martin Foster, Emma Payne, Sally McArthur, Peter Schouten, Nigel Ainslie, Dave Micallef, Louise Roberts, Jonathan Downie Cox: Amelia Hagger

The 2010 Victorian Masters rowing season was short and intense, culminating in the state championships in Nagambie on Saturday May 15.

Only two members competed at this years masters state championships but there presence was well and truly felt, with Geraldine Goss and Carolyn Manning picking up a number of wins and state selection in the masters female quad with Caulfield Grammar duo Robyn Varney and Jenny Dewar.
The Richmond/CGRC composite crew won a very hard fought race in the quad scull, with a margin of 2 seconds over the Black Mountain crew from Canberra who looked exceedingly surprised and annoyed about being beaten. Carolyn and Gerry then had to fight hard to take out the double scull by 0.7 sec, again over the Canberra girls and Carolyn topped off a great regatta to take gold in the single, while Gerry took silver in the same event.
In other regattas held earlier in the season, the normally sedate Barwon regatta produced wild winds creating havoc with the journey to the start line (and perhaps a bit of assistance coming back again?). The small boats struggled, particularly in the transit lane, with the wind and the reeds and the grumpy officials!
It was great to see the Richmond women flying the flag competing in coxed fours, an eight and a quad scull, with a win in the quad scull crew of Susie Ballantyne, Rochelle Stokes, Anthea Amos and Rachel Button, coxed by Derek Begg.
The highs for the day were Carolyn and Gerry took first and second in the single respectively and had wins in the double scull and quad scull Richmond / CGRC composite crew and the lows were a distinct lack of atmosphere and a coffee cart. What the hell, even the school girls regatta at Barwon organise a coffee cart!
Next stop on the masters circuit was Carrum, and the rowers were greeted with superb rowing conditions but only Carolyn and Gerry attended for RRC, again taking first and second in the single and taking home bling for the double and composite quad.
Beautiful weather also blessed Albert Park, which again saw a big RRC contingent, even a couple of blokes this time! Sadly no other clubs dared to field a mixed eight against the might of Richmond and the event was cancelled.
Competition in other events was fierce however, especially in the novice categories but the coxed fours placed well in several races. Rachel Button took second in the AB single scull, while Gerry was third in the C-E. Gerry also collected some bling for the double scull with Jenny Dewar from CGRC, and in the mixed double scull with Murray Ross from MRC. At least there was some actual bling at this regatta, and even a bar, enabling tired Masters rowers to enjoy a quiet glass of bubbly or a beer. Now that’s more like it!
We all know that regattas don’t just happen, and club participation depends on people giving their time to submit entries, organise crews and boats as well as trailering, and performing BRO duties. Thanks to all those involved in all of these activities, we are lucky indeed to have the culture of volunteer effort that we enjoy at Richmond.
It was good to see a number of new crews competing for Richmond at Barwon and Albert Park and it will be exciting to see these crews develop in the seasons to come. It has certainly been the women’s squad who have carried the flag for Richmond in this Master’s season and congratulations to Geraldine and Carolyn for a great season and we look forward to June when they head to Perth for the Nationals.
Geraldine Goss (with Simon Crunden)

Here is a great video of the Richmond Girls at the recent NSW Club Championship regatta. They came third

losing second place in a photo finish to St George and Leichart Rowing Club. It was an awesome race. Thanks to St George for sharing the clip with us….we look forward to reversing the result next year.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcdplZcACv8&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&hd=1&border=1]

If you have been looking for some photo’s of Sydney then look no further:
Jenny Shouten’s Face book Album
Rowing NSW
Give’s you a good idea of how great a weekend it was.

Twenty five members of the Richmond Rowing Club travelled to Sydney last weekend to compete in the Edward Trickett (NSW Club Championships Regatta).
The regatta – named after Australia’s first World Champion (in any sport), Edward Trickett who won the World Single Scull Championship in June 1876, was being held for the fourth time attracted over 530 entries from  clubs throughout New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Queensland and Victoria (with Richmond being the sole Victorian club).
The weather on the first day (Saturday) was perfect for racing with sunshine and slight tail wind conditions producing fast times and amazingly competitive racing across all categories. The sunshine was out again on the Sunday but there was also a head wind that increased in intensity throughout the day pushing the times out and making it tough for all of the competitors.
Richmond crews performed extremely well over the weekend winning one gold, one silver and two bronze medals over the two day regatta.

The Women’s D grade eight stroked by Laura Schouten started the medal count by picking up the bronze medal in the first day of the regatta missing out on silver in a photo finish to Leichardt and St George. In an extraordinary close race, the girls were brilliant to hold their nerve in the first of many close finishes for the club over the weekend.
Sam Morrison produced a brilliant third 500 metres in his 2000 metre race to row from fourth to second to pick up a silver medal in the Men’s B grade single scull behind promising Mosman junior sculler Jay Ditmarsch.
The final medal on the first day, a bronze, was won by the Men’s D grade four rowing the James Butcher – the only wooden boat seen at the regatta. The crew stroked by Jonathon Downie were second until the final 100 metres of the 1000 metre race but were unable to hold out the fast finishing crew from Canberra.
The second day brought the club’s only gold medal of the regatta with Laura Schouten winning the Women’s C grade single scull in one of the best performances seen by a Richmond sculler in a number of seasons.
Laura showed great determination in the tough head wind conditions to over haul Hunter Valley sculler Rebecca Humphries in the third 250 metres of the 100 metre races to take the gold medal by just under three seconds.
There were many highlights for the weekend and some of the best rows by Richmond crews came from crews that didn’t feature on the podium.
The men’s eight were unlucky in the C grade eight to finish fourth in a race where the only 1.47 seconds separated the first five places. The men’s eight again showed their ability in the B grade eight against Sydney and Mosman. Sydney featuring a number of former representative rowers, blitzed the race to finish 22 seconds in front of the other two crews Mosman and Richmond.
The real race however was for second place between the Richmond and Mosman. Richmond lead Mosman for the first 900 meters of the race but were unable match the power of the highly fancied Mosman crew in the second half of the race finishing one and a half boat lengths behind in third to miss out on their chance to claim a medal for the weekend.
The Richmond women’s crews again showed their class in a number of races and had some unfortunate luck in the D grade four where equipment failure in the James Butcher pushed them from a good second to fourth in the final stages of their hotly contested final.
I have been privileged to be a part of a great weekend with the club. The regatta was superb and being able to row on the Sydney 2000 Olympic Rowing course was a great experience. The standard of racing was excellent, especially in the C & D grade sculling events and the Richmond crews that competed were extremely competitive which is a credit to the coaches who assisted in preparing the crews for weekend.
Huge thanks to the Schouten family who towed the trailer up from Melbourne (and back), and to all the Richmond rowers and supporters that attended the regatta and cheered on the Richmond crews over the weekend. Also a big thanks to the multiple cooks who kept us all well fed throughout the weekend, to the chiropractors who worked on our ITB’s and to Rowing NSW who put on a great regatta in an incredible venue. See you all again next year.
PS – Joe’s chocolate brownies are so good that single males who have tasted them will be lining up to propose.
Simon Crunden

Essendon, the watery turf of the Bombers was overwhelmed on the weekend. 350 meter sprint races here we come!
The sprints didn’t just start on the water. The sprint for most of the Richmond crews contesting the morning bracket commenced trying to get boats launched in time. The landing was over run by Kowora school girls, who must have had three trailers bringing their boats. Around ten quads in the first 5 events…ouch.
So now we know how it feels to miss a start. But we were ready to make a better impression on the starters for our B Grade race, arriving so early we were in the way of everyone.  We came a satisfactory 2nd to Melbourne in our heat.
The D4+ with Karen Doggett, Rochelle Stokes, Susie Ballantyne and stroke Sophie Robinson were out to kill. Nicole equipped us with a light-weight cox from Kowora and we blitz our heat. Nicole then equipped us with another light weight cox from Powerhouse and we fought hard to take out the sprint honors. Although we were described as ‘cruising’ the first half, our cox remembers the call sign ‘hammer’ and hammer we did, flying past Essendon and Hamilton to win the bling.
Making their sprint debut were our new rowing recruits and as you do…they received their first taste of being blasted by Vic rowing officals at the start line and held it together making a very credible first up appearance in the Richmond colours.
Well done to Helen Rayner, Meredith Walker, Melinda Brenker and stroked by the experienced Christine Kaissidis cox and coach Nick Kaissidis, who made it to the C Final for the D4+ after being unceremoniously cut off at the start and also Katie Kandelaars, Lynette May, Sue Powell and Kathryn Macrow (coached by Justin Thomas) who made the B Final in the D4+. How awesome to make the B Final…..must have been Nicole’s tips prior to their race. When we leaned in to see if we can steal some essential coaching tips from Nicole, we we’re given coaching wisdom which should be written into rowing scripture 1. Hammer 2.Spew 3. Win. Susie certainly didn’t let us down with the 2nd.
Martin – Hammered on in the first and final A grade scull. Close in the end but not close enough….second. Martin ticked all the boxes – fast, fast, fast – no vomiting witnessed. Martin also teamed up with Dennis Beck, Matt Lane and Mike O’Neil in the B Quad scull to finish….second.
The C grade four consisting of Dave Micallef, Barry Campbell, Jonathon Downie and Jim Cooper unleashed the animal in them after a bit of banter was thrown their way at the start line by rivals Powerhouse about the age of their wooden boat (and the stroke). The crew almost pulled off a big upset going down by a mere 6 inches or 15 centimeters for those who don’t remember wooden boats.
The men’s D4+ also did a sterling job. Barry just couldn’t get enough of the sweep rowing on the weekend as he jumped in with Riofrio, Charlie and Gareth to tear up the 350 course.
Where’s Barry ?– there he was again in the  D grade tub single – a respectable row being the only competitor not in a racing shell and kindly not making the final so we could pack up early, rig and be home by a very reasonable time that evening.
If I’ve missed anyone’s races I cannot be blamed…Yering station had wine tasting and many $$’s and sips later, the races seemed to blend.
Thanks to the awesome Charlie and Barry our trailer brothers, Martin and Nicole for being our Regatta Bro’s and coordinators, Simon for dropping in with kids hanging from his front and back to cheer us on and all the tigers who competed.
Rochelle Stokes