News

Posted: 4th October 2024

Author: Robert Gordon

Inverness Rowing Club accepted funding from the Highland Council Common Good Fund and in doing so pledged to put something back into the community. As the Hospice is a locally recognised charity, we thought to contact them about possible fundraising opportunities and so the Highland Hospice Regatta was born.

We decided to train crews of four to row in coxed quads with four weeks of training to be followed up on the fifth week with a fun set of races, enough to challenge but essentially keeping it fun. We successfully recruited 9 crews from across the Highland region. We held an induction morning to get participants familiar with the club, we gave some tips for rowing on an erg, sat them in boats to get a feel for what they were about to embark upon.

Training took place in the evenings with a cox and coach looking after each boat and a few extra club members to help with lifting the boats and blades and making sure the hot water was on for a cup of tea afterwards. The crew development was great to watch and by week two we had all four rowing together, almost in time with many wobbles and whoops of excitement along the way. The coxes put on a brave face, the crews quickly started to become competitive, wondering how their opposition were doing and who we thought would triumph on the day.

On regatta morning we had the club members arrive early to set out the 250 metre course, set up the tents and get the boats ready. The crews arrived for a short briefing and then racing began at 10:00. We had encouraged some local caterers to attend so coffee and pastries were in good supply for the 120-150 supporters that came along on the day. The races operated on a grouped stage before going to head-to-head knockout with all crews guaranteed at least 3 races. The winning crew is maybe less relevant - the true winners were the Hospice who raised over £15,000. The club members had great fun teaching 36 people how to row. We wanted to put something back into our community and raise awareness of rowing and that was most certainly achieved, moving forwards, the plan is to make this an annual event.

The winners were Totally Oarsome.

In addition, we have had 11 new club members as a result and a few of their children have signed up for our come and try this weekend.

We have a total of 24 new juniors attending this a come and try this Saturday and a further 6 new adults on Sunday.

All go in Inverness!