Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Kingswear RC Seine Boat Regatta – from Chris Ryan and Amanda Dyer

Happy New Year to all of our members! With the permission of the KRC Committee, we have placed this post to seek the members’ views about the possibility of holding a KRC Spring Seine Boat Regatta on the Dart this year. Over the years many members have expressed the desire for more competitions – and how often have your heard people say “why can’t there be Seine Boat racing at Dartmouth Regatta?” We now have a chance to address this! The possible date - Bank Holiday Sunday 30th May or Monday 31st looks good to ensure there is no clash with other rowing and sailing events. It's not meant to compete with either Kingswear or Dartmouth Regattas, but complement them, as this is a very different event. What’s different about it?
  • It’s a Seine Boat Regatta open to all. There will be Men’s and Women’s 4’s. There are no pairs or singles, and no fete. KRC crews will be guaranteed half of the places in the event. It will span 4 to 5 hours over a Sunday and accommodate up to 15 races, 30+ crews and 120+ rowers. It will be simple and fun.
  • It’s in the river and not the creek - the Royal Dart Yacht Club have generously agreed we can use their pontoons as as base, subject to agreeing a suitable date - so we could have up to 4 seine boats racing in the river with some longer distance races in the river mouth out to the Checkstone Buoy and back.
  • It is a ‘no cost’ event - i.e. no cost for the club and, for a change, no cost to the rowers - other than the cost of any refreshments. Also, there will be no attempt to raise money. No Tee shirts, no prizes – just the fun of competing and the glory of winning!
  •  Although we still need to discuss the event will the appropriate authorities such as the DHNA, the planned time scale is the event would be about 6 weeks before Kingswear Regatta, which itself is 6 weeks before Dartmouth Regatta. It’s a perfect build up to our club rowing season
Please give Amanda and me your feedback as we want to know if you support this idea or are against it. We hope you will post your feedback on this Blog by clicking on the "comments" logo under this article.Please let us know who you are so we can be sure you are a club member. Alternatively, if the blog is too complicated or for private feedback (yes or no) email us at: kwr.rowingclub@btinternet.com