March Quarterly Newsletter - Scottish Rowing

Posted: 1st March 2024

Hello and welcome to the third quarterly newsletter!

Happy New Year and Welcome to 2024! 

We had an amazing year in 2023 and are very excited to see what 2024 has in store for us. We are two months in and already so much has happened! 

Events So Far

After a much-needed recovery from the festive celebrations we kicked off the year with a bang in February with back-to-back race weekends.  

Our first event on the 3rd of February was the Strathclyde University Boat Club Head. Despite the bleak weather and tricky conditions, the crews battled their way down the Clyde across the two divisions.

We were excited to be back on the “Scottish Tideway” at the Aberdeen 8s and Small Boats Head Weekend on the 10th and 11th of February. It was great to see the all the crews back on the River Dee for a fun weekend of racing.

One week later and back on the Clyde for the Glasgow Rowing Club Fours Head on the 17th of February. With 18 events being raced, the two-division day was full of energy.

Whilst the bulk of our membership were in Aberdeen and Glasgow we had 15 athletes representing Scottish clubs at the three GB Trial Events. For the U19's and U23/Senior's they were in Boston, with the Para trials taking place at Caversham. To read more about how the athletes got on click here. 

The student rowers had their first British University and Colleges Sport competition with BUCS 4s and 8s Head taking place on the 24th and 25th of February. It was good to see University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, Heriot-Watt University, University of St Andrews and University of Strathclyde being represented on the Tyne.

Whilst the other universities were in Newcastle, University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University faced off in their 29th Annual Aberdeen Universities Boat Race. Congratulations to Aberdeen University Boat Club for winning two of the three events.

This weekend will see the Caley Cruisers Winter Head take place in Inverness. With the 3-division programme being put to the test we want to wish Good Luck to all those racing, we can’t wait to see you all there.

Thank you to all the clubs who have run events this quarter!

Upcoming Events

We have a very busy few months ahead of us as we transition from Head Races into Regatta Season!

Starting off we look forward to our first trips to the Tideway with Women’s Head of the River Race taking place on the 9th of March, followed by Head of the River Race on the 23rd of March, we will once again be sending Scottish Argonaut crews to both events and are excited to support all our Scottish Crews on the day. In between the two London trips, we will be back in Glasgow for the Clydesdale 4s & 8s Head on the 16th of March. This will be the final Scottish head of the season!

We will be back on the Clyde on the 13th of April for our first regatta of the season, with the Glasgow Rowing Club Regatta. Which will be followed the next day by our Regatta Ready Day on the 14th of April. 

One week later we hope you are ready for some high rate at the Clyde ARC Power Sprint event on the 20th of April. On the same day we will be sending our first ever team to the Junior Inter-Regional Regatta.

On the 27th and 28th of April we will be excited to welcome you all to the Scottish Rowing Spring Regatta, home to the famous Danny Special in the Tea Tent! 

Castle Semple Regatta will be taking place at Lochwinnoch on Saturday the 11th of May, always a fun filled event no matter the weather.

On the 18th of May we are proud to introduce you to the Scottish Rowing Beach Sprints Championships! This inaugural event will be set on East Sands, St Andrews, the site of Scotland’s GB Coastal Sculling Academy.

Our final event for this quarter will be the Clydesdale Regatta on the 25th of May. You will all be aces at navigating the Clyde by then.

See our full Events Calendar here!

Regatta Ready Day

Scottish Rowing is excited to welcome you into the Scottish Rowing Centre and Strathclyde Park for our FREE Regatta Ready Day on Sunday 14th April 2024!

This event is a great opportunity to get a feel for side-by-side rowing prior to the major multi-lane regattas of 2024. We will have stake boats available for attachment practice, a time trial for crews who may wish to see how they fair amongst their peers, and lanes on the regatta course open to clubs and coaches to provide squads with their own club training session.

Regatta Ready Day provides the chance for invaluable training and upskilling, along with general information about how our competition days will run and a chance to try new volunteer roles – so the day really will have something for everyone! If you have never volunteered at an event before this could be your chance to see what it’s all about!

Junior Inter-Regional Regatta

The Junior Inter-Regional Regatta is an annual event for Juniors aged J14-J16, that takes place at the National Water Sports Centre, Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham. There are 13 teams encompassing regions in England and Wales. Scotland will be sending a team to this event for the very first time this year!

The event will take place on Saturday the 20th of April, with Team Scotland hoping to send 24 crews with athletes from across as many of our Scottish Clubs as possible.

Pathways Manager, Ronan Welch, says: 
"Its exciting to have Scotland involved in this years Junior Inter Regional Regatta for the first time ever. This is a fantastic opportunity for Scottish juniors to race against their peers from all over the country and experience competitive racing across all boat classes at a national level. I can't wait to see Team Scotland in action and fingers crossed we bring home some great results!"

Selection Policy and Registration Here

Award Season 2023

The River Ayr Programme won Programme of the Year at the South Ayrshire Sports Awards on the 6th of December.  The initiative is aimed at those who might not have the ability to engage in physical activity outside of school due to personal or financial reasons. In 2023, we worked with the South Ayrshire Thriving Communities, South Ayrshire Social Care and South Ayrshire Champions Board to deliver a programme to young carers, care experienced young people and Ukrainian families. In total 95 individuals experienced rowing for the first time on the River Ayr.

Scottish Rowing sent eight representatives (comprised of staff and board members) to The Scottish Sports Awards 2023 on the 7th of December. It was great evening overall and we enjoyed the opportunity to support other sports and celebrate their achievements. It also gave us an insight into what other sports are doing and gave us some ideas of how to progress with the goal of getting some of our achievements nominated next year.

Scottish Rowing January Land Camp

2024 kicked off with a bang for some of our performance athletes as they took part in the Scottish Rowing Performance Land Camp from the 3rd – 12th of January.

The invitational camp brought together athletes from clubs across Scotland and from a range of our Performance Pathway programmes, including:

Scottish Rowing Performance Programme (inc. Flatwater, Beach Sprints, US Based & Para athletes)
Performance Development Academy
Junior Academy
Winning Students 100 Scholarship Athletes
U19 & U23 GB Trialists

Click Here to read more about what the athletes got up to!

Coastal Sculling Taster Days

Have you wanted to give Coastal Sculling a go? Now you can!

We are going to be running multiple Coastal Sculling Taster Days over the coming months. The events will be free for Scottish Rowing Members and will be run by our Beach Sprints Pathway Coach, Iain Docwra.

Our first event will take place at Portobello Beach, Edinburgh on the 16th of March, to sign-up email Iain Docwra today!

Keep an eye on our social medias for more Taster Days being announced throughout the year.

If there is interest in you club to try out Coastal Sculling, then please email Ian Docwra to organise a Taster Event near you!

We are limited in the number of spaces available at each event, therefore sign-ups will be done on a first come first serve basis.  

Iain Docwra, Beach Sprint Pathways Coach – iain.docwra@scottish-rowing.org.uk

Home International Rowing 2024 Selection Policy

The Scotland Rowing Team selection policy documents for the 2024 Home International Rowing Regatta (HIRR) and the Home International Rowing Beach Sprints (HIRBS) have been published.

The 2024 HIR Regatta will be hosted by Scotland at Strathclyde Park on Saturday the 27th of July, we look forward to creating our team and supporting them on home waters.

England will be hosting the HIR Beach Sprints in Bournemouth this year on the 28th of September. This year will see the addition of Under 23 mixed double scull (CU23Mix2x) to the event.

Click here to read the policy and register for the team
Registration closes on Monday the 3rd of June

Summer Rowing Camps

This summer will see the return of the Junior Technical Camps!

These camps were highly successful last year providing the juniors with a wealth of technical knowledge for them to build upon through the season. The camps run for 5 days each, focussing on small boats based at the Scottish Rowing Centre and getting full use of the water facilities on Strathclyde Loch.

 Junior Technical Camp J14 & J15 
29th of July – 2nd of August

Masters Camp Aged 27+  
To be confirmed

Junior Technical Camp J16+ 
5th – 9th of August

 This year we will be looking to offer camps to our Master Rowers too. After gathering feedback from our Masters community, we have taken their comments into consideration and are hoping to run a 2-day pilot camp at the Scottish Rowing Centre. More information on this to come.

Keep your eyes peeled for more information about our Summer Camps coming out soon!

Kit for All Initiative - Kit Swap

We are excited to offer a Kit for All - Kit Swap as part of the Regatta Ready Day!

Do you have kit you no longer use or need? Do you need some pieces of kit that you don’t yet have?

People will be able to donate kit to the table and pick up any pieces of kit they need. You do not need to donate to take a piece of kit home, if you need some more kit come along and have a look at what’s available.

Any kit left over at the end of the event will be split equally between our ambassador clubs, or if there is club specific kit this will be donated to the club in question to reuse.

Before donating clothes must:

Be washed before being donated.
Be in decent condition, no holes, or large stains.
Not feature inappropriate paraphernalia (drug references, sexual references etc.)
Have sizing labels attached.
Be appropriate sportswear only.
No underwear accepted (Bras, Socks, etc.)

Accessories such as Trainers, Slides, Hats and Sunglasses are also welcomed.

Join the Kit for All Clubs

Winning Students 100

Helping student athletes balance their studies with high performance training and competition, the newly branded Winning Students 100 provides athletes with grants of up to £3000 and works with respective colleges and universities to offer additional support such as academic flexibility.

With funding secured until 2028, it is expected 500 scholarships will be awarded over the period with the programme also introducing a hardship fund to offer additional support to eligible student athletes.  106 scholarships have been awarded for 2023/24 across 28 different sports and 21 universities and colleges – this includes 11 rowers from 3 universities who met the Winning Students 100 programme criteria.

Lee Boucher, Scottish Rowing’s Head of Performance and Pathways said: “Winning Students has been an integral support mechanism for talented student rowers since the first rowing scholarship was awarded back in 2012.  We are delighted to see the programme being relaunched as the Winning Students 100 and are extremely proud that rowing has been selected as one of two priority sports.  These scholarships will ensure that our leading rowers in Scotland can continue to balance their academic and sporting aspirations as part of their dual careers.”

Winning Students 100 is managed by University of Stirling, Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence, and supported by an advisory board and management group made up of professionals from across the tertiary education and sport sectors.

JustGo

As we approach the regatta season make sure that everything is up to date on your JustGo Account and that you have the correct racing license. 

On your JustGo account you will be able to see the points you have gained last year, add in any credentials you have earned and update any personal information that may be needed for us to help support.

If you have any issues with your account or notice that something is not correct, get in touch with our Membership Support team so that we can ensure everything is updated properly. 