http://www.ssrc.org.uk/ 60 http://www.ssrc.org.uk/newsrelease.aspx?p=127 This weekend sees the start of Swanage Carnival, and as ever the Club will be very busy On Sunday , welsquoll be putting a boat in the main procession as in previous years The theme is The Row, and anyone wholsquos taking part should dress up as Zorro Kathy Hardy is co-ordinating, so for all the times, details and all you need to know speak to Kath Throughout the week, club members have been asked to help with various carnival tasks such as manning the bar, collecting money at firework nights and judging the Sandcastle competition! Joy Norman is co-ordinating this one, so contact Joy to see where she still has gaps on the rota and where and when you can best help The more support we give to the Carnival, the bigger the donation we are likely to receive as one of its 2008 Good Causes In the week following carnival Sun 3 - Sat 9 Aug , the Bands on the Sea front stage quotBands on the Beachquot will continue with the Club benefitting from the bar take and bucket collection each night The Club needs 4 volunteers per night to make this work, and the rotas are in the gig shed - please get along and add your name The week concludes with popular band lsquoSame Old Faceslsquoand a firework display so extracollectors will be required during the display The following two Saturdays 16th and 23rd there aremore firework displays with the Club being one of the benefitting charities along with the RNLI and the Lights Appeal - again we need to provide collectors for these, and on the 23rd there willbelive music, aswell,this time at the amphitheatre at Prince Albert Gardens Extra help will be needed for the bar and BBQ at this one, and again rotas are in the gig shed for you to sign up Some of these Saturdays clash with gig regattas, so if youlsquore taking part in one oftheseplease volunteer to help on a non-regatta weekend, and if youlsquore not going away racing please try to help out on a regatta evening when several of the Club will be away Nick Field is co-ordinating these, sosee Nick if you have any queries These events through late July and August promise to be major fundraisers for the Club at a time when we need to raise as much as we possibly can All Club members - and there areover 100 now - are asked to volunteer for at least one of the evenings and if every one does just one or even two evenings, we should do really well It is estimated that each firework night alone could produce up to pound2000 in each collection! If you have any queries, questions or concerns, please speak to any one of the trustees or to the people named above ssrc Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.ssrc.org.uk/newsrelease.aspx?p=128 This year the theme for the procession is lsquoa little bit of Latinrsquo We have had a lsquothink tankrsquo in operation for a least one-week now about what we are going to do as a club Ruth wanted to be an orange and Dee wanted to be a banana What a banana has to do with being tangorsquod who knows Dee wanted the boat to be a large fruit bowl, Belinda and me at the same time thought of a lsquobanana longboatrsquo Great minds and all that but what did lsquoLatinrsquo and lsquofruitrsquo have in common I hear you ask So we went onto thinking about musicals for inspiration and sang a lot The brain juices were drained of anything Latin apart from small bottoms in tight trousers We were beginning to think we would be left with Ruthrsquos idea of having orange faces or having to be that woman who wears a fruit bowl in her hat, Carmen Miranda To much seepage, and moisture came to mind when thinking about citrus fruits, but then a miracle happened With brain juices in full flow Karina came up with Zor-row and then, we ended up with calling the boat lsquothe mast of Zor-row Get the pun What to wear I may hear you ask Well Zor-row outfits of course I wanted to be Catharine Zita Jones but my so called friends said no because I looked more like Anthony Hopkins I havenrsquot yet recovered from this and hope to have cosmetic surgery in the next few days to realise my dream We want as many young, old and middle aged Zor-rowrsquos as possible for the day So find your capes, hats, moustaches and rapiers and join us at the gig shed on Sunday Morning to help get the boat ready Or in Rabling road around 2pm Please feel free to bring beer and wine we wont mind helping you drink it Karina and Belinda with the kind help from the children from school are as you read this notice painting the scenery for the boat which by magic will become Zor-rows cave where Anthony Hopkins showed Zor-row how to do fancy fencing You can get your hats and rapiers at Fionarsquos shop She also has moustaches Hope to see you all on Sunday Regards Kathy Hardy ssrc Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.ssrc.org.uk/newsrelease.aspx?p=126 This weekend, Swanage Sea Rowing Club competed in the #8216Tribute#8216 Mixed and Veterans Regatta, held at Saltash in Plymouth, home of the mighty Caradon Gig Club After a very early start, with a pool of boats from Cornwall on the water at 8 30 am, both the ladies and men#8216s veteransrsquo teams from Swanage spent a gruelling day on the river Tamar, competing against 24 other Clubs of the highest standard, including the world champions This year, the ladies went off first, having found themselves drawn in a heat of 5 of the top teams in the country Expectations werelow considering the competition even at these early stages, but a brilliant race was fought despite adodgyfalse start as teams were still lining up On the second start, Swanage ladies quickly settled into a strong solid stroke, gaining a good middle of the pack, position which they maintained all the way to the first buoy They were superbly coxed by Mark Blanchard who executed three fantastic buoy turns with precision timing from the ladies who have been pulling out of the buoy turns with terrific strength over the past weeks training sessions They pulled ahead to maintain a very close 3 rd position all the way to the finish, ensuring them a place in round 2 The men#8216s veteransrsquo first race was almost copy cat, with the coxswain, Karina Steeden guiding the superb men#8216s team in this very strong heat, through their best race of the day tocome home comfortably in 3 rd position which also took them into the second round The ladies second round race was their best of the day, again against the odds, with a Caradon coxswain as Mark was committed to his own race ,as they began with aflying racing start, pulling off over 40 3/4 strokes to put them right up in the top of the pack, before again lengthening out into a solidperformance all the way home, really putting on the power as the buoy turns were taken and storming out of them back into the last length to finish 2 nd , whichsecured them an unexpected butdeserved place in the final Again, in the second round the Men gave everything as they battled around the course against a very strong group of teams, this time alsoguided by a Caradon Coxswain The men executed a terrific row, with some superb individual performances, battling to the last, but they sadly missed out on the first two places needed to qualify for the final The Ladies then had an excruciatingly long wait for the draw to decide boats and berth positions for the final, and at almost 7pm, the ladies final took place, following the semi#8216s and finals of all the #8216plate#8216 competitions for those who had been knocked out earlier in the competition Swanage found themselves lined up against the top 5 clubs in the country, and put in a sterling performance, against the giants of Veteran rowers which kept them up with the pack right to the end ofan incredibly fast and strongrace, finally finishing justifiably in 6th position about two boat lengthsback Superb performances from both the Swanage teams Next weekend 5 th and 6 th July , SSRC compete at Weymouth, in long straight races, over the two days All racing can be viewed from Nothe Fort Belinda ssrc Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.ssrc.org.uk/newsrelease.aspx?p=125 The Anchor Inn will be holding a weekly pub quiz throughout the month of July, with all proceeds going to SSRC The evenings all mondays start with a curry supper for a fiver at then at 9 00pm the quiz starts As the organisation benefitting we need to show this venture plenty of support, so its time to think about getting together to form teams and getting down to the Anchor on a Monday Alternatively, if you can#8216t geta team together, head down to the Anchor anyway, grab a bargain curry and find a team to join up to - they#8216re bound to need soem extra help!! Dates for the Anchor Quiz inaid of SSRC are 14, 21 and 28 July ssrc Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.ssrc.org.uk/newsrelease.aspx?p=123 SSRC assisted Swanage Coastguard last night after an individual had fallen from the cliffs over by Ballard onto the rocks below Whilst the Coastguard crews prepared for the resuce, they contacted the crew of Old Harry which was nearby to confirm the position of the casualty Holly Phillips was put ashore to administer first aid until the coastguard and ILB crews arrived Rescue 106, the Coastguardlsquos new helicopter ws summoned to take the casualty away to Dorchester AE More details are on the BBC news at http://news bbc co uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7482982 stm ssrc Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.ssrc.org.uk/newsrelease.aspx?p=124 Amid much pomp and ceremony, Dorset#8216s newest pilot gig was launhed on Sunday in Lyme Regis quotRebelquot was built in the Boat Building Academy in Lyme and so becomess the first Cornish Pilot Gig to be built in the town Crews from Weymouth, Teignmouth and Swanage were on hand to escort Rebel out of the harbour and into open water for the very first time, and although the boat may well be sturdy enough, the inaugural crew chose to turn back when they saw the size of the Lyme Bay swell The remaining four boats had an impromptu race the first ever Dorset Gig championships which was duly won by SSRC The Lyme Club were full of praise for the visiting clubs and thanked them for supporting them on this memorable day ssrc Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.ssrc.org.uk/newsrelease.aspx?p=121 Dorsetlsquos newest gig club, Lyme Regis have invited us to attend their launch on Sunday 29 June Their first boat, built at the Lyme Regis Boat Building Academy will be named Rebel and a good day is in store The programme starts with a reception at 12 30pm followed by a procession of the boat from the Boat Building Academy to the slipway between 1 15 and 1 30pm Following a blessing, plus some words from the local mayor, the boat will be launched at 2 00pm and row out of the harbour for a row pass manned by a crew from the local school It would be great for any visiting gigs to be launched immediately after Rebel so that the boats could row out of the harbour in a procession and all together for the row pass alternatively you may want to be afloat already A local group have agreed to sing sea shanties during the launch and we are planning to have a trumpeter to play the boats out of the harbour! You might be interested to know that Spotlight will be filming the launch and that they have already filmed an interview with Gail the boat-builder with the boat nearing completion in the BBA There should be some good publicity for gig rowing in general, as well as helping tolaunch LRGC in Lyme Regis Later in the afternoon there will be a BBQ at the local Power Boat Club, and we hope to see you all there ssrc Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.ssrc.org.uk/newsrelease.aspx?p=122 Dear All, As I snapped the padlock on the Gig shed last night after the successful re-launch of the pontoon I felt, at last, it brought the regatta to a successful conclusion It is now time to say well done to every body and thank you for all the effort that went in to make the event such a success Nick Field has calculated we will come out with about £750 profit from all your efforts when all the bills are paid I think this is brilliant as every burger, sandwich, pint of beer or book sold helped in the final total The advice I was given about how the weather would develop over the week end was spot on, though I did have a twinge of panic at 4pm Saturday morning when it was flat calm with not a breath of air The chance for the row on the river Frome and Poole Harbour were certainly appreciated by our guests who were full of praise as to the arrangements and effort the club made on their behalf all over the weekend Saturday was a long hard day which went tremendously well, but not with out the odd hiccup Black Thunder girls going to Kimmeridge for example The bands were excellent and set the mood for the evening and along with the fancy dress keep the party atmosphere alive Helped by bacon rolls and tales of the night before the Sunday clean up was quick and efficient The money was counted, the Bar-B-Q cleaned, the kit put away and the pontoon moves towards the beach It took several hours and a big loader to salvage the pontoon from the waves on the Monday With the permission of The Town Council, lots of time, plywood, cement, a fishing boat powered by 300 horses the pontoon was all back together again a week later and 40minutes with the big loader saw her gently bobbing on the waves again All in all the events and the outcomes of the week are a credit to all members of the club, the lights committee and the carnival team Finally as I started I will say again a Big Thank You to All Involved George PS Now this is over we can tackle the racing, pub rowing and charity work arranged for the next few months ssrc Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.ssrc.org.uk/newsrelease.aspx?p=119 BBC Radio Solent journalist Jill Sainsbury came down to visit us recently and braved some horrible weather to interview some members of the Club and take some photographs of the junior crew training from the bow of Old Harry and some others on the Quay Jill is compiling a piece about the development of gig rowing and how it is rapidly gaining popularity here in Dorset She is also interested on our boat shed application The programme will go out on Radio Solent the night before our regatta 23 May on the H2O programme at 7 00pm, but for a sneak preview of the interviews, and a look at the photos, click the links below: INTERVIEWS WITH GEORGE WALLACE, LYNNE HARRIS AND RICHARDBURRIDGE PICTURES FROM THE EVENING Thank you to everyone who made Jill welcome and put up with being cold and wet for the cause ssrc Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.ssrc.org.uk/newsrelease.aspx?p=120 Herersquos the 2008 SSRC Regatta information yoursquove been waiting for!- Friday night arrivals: Please look for signs directing you to Swanage Middle School where you can park your gig overnight on the tarmac area in front of the school Please then drive to the campsite along Washpond Lane see directions If you require train tickets for the weekend, please purchase them from the campsite at a discounted price Saturday morning: Please retrieve your gig from the school and aim to get to the sea front by 10am Our members will be there to help and direct you Trailers can be left on Sandpit Field and vehicles can park along the beach road with the exception of vans/campers There is a large NCP along Victoria Avenue Gigs and trailers will have to be transported back to the school after the dayrsquos racing and before the evening entertainment begins Breakfast bacon butties will be served from 10am in the main marquee on Sandpit Field Timings: location- Sandpit Field Umpiresrsquo meeting 12 00 Coxnsrsquo meeting 12 15 Racing starts 13 00 Presentations 18 00 Entertainment 4 live bands, BBQ and bar 19 00 to 23 00 Race order: Mixed Sprint Ladies B Mens B Juniors including u 14s Ladies A Mens A Ladies Vets Mens Vets Mixed Please note that for crews coming without a gig, we no longerhave a spare boat for the Mens Aor Mens B Camping Please contact Mark Blanchard as soon as you can on 0788 7618498 to book your pitches ssrc Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT