New members
We haven’t had any new members since the last newsletter although several have tried out but not committed yet. We need to recruit as many new members as possible so please speak to, coerce, or badger all your friends and work colleagues to try to get them interested. We need fit or unfit young men and women so that we can get more racing crews together for next season.
The Yare Summer Regatta and Party
This event was held on the 30th August and we all greatly enjoyed it. Regretfully, once again, it wasn’t well supported and we only managed to run a handicap event over a course from the footbridge to the horse drink plus one race for mixed doubles around the island. The handicap event was won by Steve McCoy and the round the island race was won by Verity Evans and yours truly. The race around the island was… different!
The two crews set off from the boathouse in opposite directions with the finishing line back at the boathouse. Richard Turner and Anita Eldridge went downriver and Verity and myself went the other way. I didn’t intend to race that day but was talked into it by Simon. Verity pulled me round the course with great alacrity at a rate that made me wonder whether I would survive. The finish was very close, in more ways than one, as we very nearly met head on in front of the clubhouse. We were the second youngest and the oldest of the competitors of the day with an aggregate age of 78 years with me being five times older than Verity…. All good fun but it hurt!
The Yare Cup.
The Yare Cup was once again organised by Guy Gibson and the event was a great success even though entries were down a bit on last year. Norwich RC took the cup. Andy Green, once again, put in a good time but it was disappointing that we didn’t have a quad in the running this year.
The Yare cup has been organised for the past two years by Guy Gibson who has to put a lot of time and effort into it to make it a success. Here is an
item from Guy to tell us just what has to be done to get the Yare Cup event up and running.
Yare Cup Revisited
It really starts shortly after the last one finishes.
At this stage of the year the ARA is hassling all clubs who hold regattas and head races for dates of next year’s events. Everyone is jockeying for their “best slot”. They are looking to maximise their impact in the schedule whilst minimising clashes with other clubs. Making sure that they increase interest, and so cash flow, whilst also trying to favour the “home” team.
Our main competition for slots is The Boston Marathon, Cambridge Autumn Regatta and Cambridge Small Boats Head. After much tooing and froing, the regional events co-ordinator has been able to let me know that The Boston Marathon is going to be on Sunday 20th September, Cambridge Autumn Regatta the previous weekend and Cambridge Small Boats Head on 3rd October.
The only competition we have for Saturday 26th September is Milton Keynes who is trying to create a new regatta date in the racing calendar.
In the meantime the club has had to file a whole bunch of returns with the ARA for this year’s event; summary of crews, race results, etc. On top of this we have to pay insurance for the race and other suppliers (although the trophy supplier hasn’t invoiced us yet!). The use of the OARA on-line system has further complicated issues as some people paid on-line. This week I received a cheque from the ARA for £30ish which represented the amount more that they owed against what we owed them.
Still with me? I know there are times when I lose the will to live.
However, once this rash of activity is over the next time things need to happen is May/June when posters go out to clubs reminding them of the Yare Cup. Then we are into ordering tankards, telling the Broads Authority other river users and the press, ordering food, getting work parties together to put up the marquee, testing the rescue launch, borrowing launches from other clubs, training race marshals and dusting off the health and safety plan, etc.
By the time you are reading this you won’t be that far off your new year’s resolution. Can I suggest that you save a little of your resolution for the next Yare Cup?

The Boston Marathon.
Anthony Meynell and Victoria Holliday competed as a mixed double:
Anthony tells us of his and Victoria’s Marathon ordeal.
Sculling backwards up a Marathon course? Sounds like fun? It wasn’t. We did it, seven times. Why? We were the weedy boat, the one with the big fat racing fin, which embraced River Witham weed more frequently that we knew. And I had sharpened its leading edge, but no, River Witham weed was not for cutting.
I suppose I should have expected something. 2008 was after all my thirteenth Boston Marathon. Victoria Holliday (of Eastern Daily Press “ ageing ‘Baby Boomers’ guide to immortality” fame) and I had trained hard in Sandpiper, including a non-stop trip to Cantley and back. We had perfected the art of one drinking while the other rowed, so the boat never stops, and Debbie, our support crew, was in fine form.
Other boats stopped, but I didn’t see any others going backwards! However, it was a glorious day, sunny with only a light breeze. We had set off with the aim of beating the Course Record time for Vet ‘D’ (50-54) mixed double Sculls of 4 hours 23 minutes.
Over the first thirty miles, despite the emergency stops and applications of reverse thrust for weed removal we must have overtaken fifty or sixty crews, and hadn’t been overtaken by anybody. But in the Final Mile the ominous sight of yellow blades and dark green tops over a wooden hull crept steadily up behind us, and sure enough it was Yvonne Wilson and John West of Norwich Rowing Club, one of the best (the best?) Vet ‘D’ Mixed Doubles crews in the UK.
We did beat the old Course Record, by nine minutes, but they beat it by a lot more than we did, and still would have done, weed or no weed. We were weedier than them!
Anthony Meynell
Victoria has also competed this year in the Head of the Charles event in New York.

The British Indoor Rowing Championship.
The BIRC competition took place recently and Ian and Callum Postlethwaite competed together with Isobel Gibson and a group from Norwich Rowing Club.
I can’t think why anyone would want to do this because my view is that an Ergo is comparable to the rack as a form of torture. Well done to all of our members who competed, they are made of stronger stuff than me!
Ian reports on the event.

BIRC 2008
26th October 2008 saw the annual torture event that is the national indoor rowing championship. Affectionately know as BIRC08. Nigel at Norwich RC had arranged to take some juniors and as Callum was going I asked if they had room for one more.
As the first race was at 11:10am (mine), so we had to be there by 10:10am, we decided to stay in Jeni’s Mum’s house in Leicester. This proved quite an experience but Nigel briefed all the kids that evening and myself and Callum, being veterans, filled in the blanks.
We arrived at the NIA in Birmingham soon after 9am and set up camp in the arena. I think the youngsters got a bit of a shock by the size of the event. Basically you have about 1800 nutters racing over 28 events. The arena floor has 100 C2 ergos laid out in 6 rows of 20. For J16 and above it’s the standard 2K ‘trial by ordeal’. The younger juniors (J11 to J15) race over times from 2 to 5 mins.
You are allocated your seat of pain by your predicted performance. The rows are seeded from the centre outwards. So top seeds are machine 9, 10 and 11 of the front row. Behind the competitors is a large screen that shows a graphic of the race for the spectators.
At the appointed time I went off to warm up on one of the 50 or so spare ergos. These are of varying condition and I had to have mine on setting 10 to get my required drag of 130. Having warmed up for about 20mins you are then held in a holding area before you are led out into the arena. It’s quite daunting as you walk out and you feel like a Christian being led out to meet your fate in the Gladiator’s arena.
Having found my instrument of pain I set the drag and did a few strokes to settle in. Each pair of ergos has a ‘cox’ who basically helps out with problems. If they are good they help you with
pacing as well. I was lucky as the guy next to me was a ‘no show’ so I had my cox all to myself. She was a real cox as well so she knew exactly what to do. She asked what I was aiming for and what splits I wanted and she kept me on track, especially when I was holding my start pace too long and she got me to slow and later in the dreaded 3rd 500m she kept me on target.
Well I eventually finished in 6:54.3mins. This was inside my target of 7:00mins and the fastest I have done for about 2 years.
Callum’s race was a 4min time trial. His previous best was 996m but he knew he could do a sub 2:00min split and that meant 1000m. He actually got 1031m, which is a 1:56.4min split, a PB by miles.
The highlights for me were Ed Rippon in the J16 (so a 15 year old) doing a 2K in 6:22mins. That’s a split of 1:35.5 (try it). He is 6ft 5in and 16 stone though. And also the men’s open won again by Graham Benton in 5:46. That’s a split of about 1:26 for nearly 6 mins.
Izzie Gibson was racing in the J13 3minute race. She came 2nd and missed the top spot by only 2 metres. She had a remarkable finish and if the race had been 5seconds longer or she had started her run in a couple of strokes earlier she would have caught her flagging opponent and won.
All in all a great day and I look forward to a TEAM from Yare going next year.
Cheers, Pos
If you want to join Pos in this particular branch of our sport get in contact with him and form a crew.
The Web Site.
Phil Smith is the web master for the club site and he puts in a lot of work on it to keep it up to date. However, it helps if we can supply him with updates as they occur. They can be sent to him at web@yareboatclub.org.uk. Do have a look at the site at regular intervals there’s a lot of interesting stuff on it. www.yareboatclub.org.uk
Norwich Union Rowing Club.
Norwich Union RC has managed to find a benevolent landlord to allow them to stay on their site but incorporating a canoe club. They have reformed as the Broadland Boat Club and we will now not be joining forces with them.

Boat and equipment news.
The committee has been looking at the state of some of our older boats and we have identified a need for a heavyweight single as Heron is getting a bit past it. Prices and availability are being looked at to see if we can order a new boat to fill that need.

Rowing
In order to broaden our appeal to new members, it has been decided that we might offer sweep oar rowing to those who want it. We have about a dozen current members who row and we are hoping to be able to get a crew together for the Carrow Cup. The club used to offer rowing before the fire and did enter a coxed four and a coxless pair in the long distance races a couple of years ago. We have an old but usable boat (AVOCET) and a new set of blades so we can get started straight away. Obviously rowing will provide some variety so if you are interested in trying rowing please let me know (Phil Rolph).

Club Sessions.
Club sessions are now on Saturdays at 8.30am. for the competitive types and
Sundays at 10.00am for a more general-purpose session. There is also a recreational session on Tuesday mornings at 9.30am. Once again due to a shortage of trainers, it is requested that novices only attend the Sunday session unless they have arranged a ‘buddy’ for the session.

Forthcoming Capsize drill.
We shall be holding another capsize drill event at the Town Close School swimming pool on Sunday 23rd November at 2.00 pm. There will be a small charge of £3.00 per adult and member’s children may join in provided that their parents accompany them. However it is a small pool so there may be some time out of the water if the turn out is large
The drill will cover falling out, getting back in again and safety aspects. It will also cover other things such as finding out how a boat behaves when you get it wrong (essentially finding out what mistakes you can make and get away with without getting a soaking). If time permits it may be possible to do other fun things like standing up in the boat. This is good fun event and very necessary one so do come along if you can.
Dress for the occasion is swimwear with normal rowing clothing over the top. (including track bottoms or leggings.
Book your place with either Sue Fletcher or Phil Rolph
Safety.
I know you have heard it all before but as winter draws in and the water is getting colder, please do not take any chances and use your common sense to keep yourself safe. The club strongly recommends that you do not go out on your own during the winter months as there will be nobody around to help you if you get into difficulties, fall in or get stuffed into a tree.
The capsize drill will go over all the detail but you should familiarise yourself with both the club and ARA safety documents.
Alan Boswell Insurance Brokers Ltd.
Telephone No. 01603 618000
Just a reminder that there is a considerable benefit available to the club if you take out insurance through the Alan Boswell organisation. Please give them the opportunity to quote on your insurance needs and don’t forget to mention the Reference Yare 001 when placing business. This includes renewals for members who already insure through the firm.

Christmas Party
If there’s only one party you go to this Christmas make it the Yare Boat Club Christmas Party!
Following on from what I hope you will all agree was a very jolly Christmas Party last year we have booked to go back to The Belgian Monk for our party on December 4th. I think the menu sounds even more exciting and in fact I am spoilt for choice, in case you have mislaid yours another one is enclosed with this newsletter. We have booked the restaurant for 50 people as that ensures that we get the whole of the upstairs and this year I hope to have a different format for the tables to give us all more space. We have the restaurant booked from 7.30pm so we can all have a little bit of time beforehand for a drink and chat before sitting down for dinner at 8pm. I know financially this is a difficult year but this Christmas Party is the best time for all members of the Yare Boat Club to relax, it’s non-competitive and good fun, lets let our hair down!
I hope you will already have the date in your diary and that you will let me know as soon as possible, latest November 17th what you would like to order.
Debbie Meynell

Committee members for 2009
The AGM will be held in early February. (Date not yet fixed). This is the time for either getting involved with the running of the club or making known how you would like the club to be run, what you want from it and what you would like to be done differently.
After 2 valuable years Anthony has decided to stand down as Chairman as his business becomes more demanding of his time. We have two nominations for the position. Sue has given us the benefit of her time and experience in the post of Treasurer and all committee members posts are up for re-election. If you would like to come on to the committee either in one of the club officer posts or as a committee member, please let a member of the current committee know as soon as possible. We would particularly like to have a Ladie’s Captain and Sue would like a rest from treasuring.
It’s your Club so let’s be having you!

Newsletter contributions
If you have anything that you would like to go into the newsletter please send the piece or suggestions for an article to me at: philrolph@btinternet.com (new Email address) and I’ll do my best to include it in the next newsletter. I would appreciate it if contributions are in the form of a Microsoft Word file or RTF format. If it comes as anything else, I have to re-type it all.
That’s all for now.
Phil R – Editor