Explore Rowing
18th British Rowing Tour 2011 - Lancaster Canal
Four members from Newark completed this year’s British rowing tour along the Lancaster Canal – Kate Thomas, Jane Hindmarch, Sally Wood and Wendy Carrington. Our fifth person in the boat was Joan from Lincoln Rowing Club.
Lancaster Canal is one of the most scenic canals in the country. This gentle waterway offers wonderful views of the Silverdale coast, Forest of Bowland and rolling countryside of Wyre. It was nicknamed ‘the Black and White Canal’ as it originally carried coal from the south and limestone from the north. The Canal stretches over 41 miles from Preston to Tewitfield on one level, England’s longest stretch of canal with no locks.
Well there weren’t any locks but there was certainly an abundance of bridges to manoeuvre – at least 100 actually! The canal was extrememely scenic and the route was very ‘bendy’. The combination of bends and bridges certainly taxed all of us in the cox’s seat of which we took turns. One of the highlights was rowing over the Lune aqueduct which is over 700 metres long.
There were about 80 rowers from all over the country, some there for the first time and others who use the tour to meet up with old friends as a kind of annual reunion. The atmosphere was one of endurance and friendship with great team work getting the boats on and off the water.
It was a great experience for us all and one that we would recommend to others especially those seeking new waters to explore.
German Explore Tour Itinerary - August 15th - 19th 2011
15th August- Newark Rowing Club to Nottingham Rowing Club. Warm up row with several stops along the way( Fiskerton and Gunthorpe). Boats to be left at Nottingham Rowing club overnight Tourers can do some sightseeing in Nottingham.
16th August- Row back to Newark with a breakfast stop at Stoke Bardolph and picnic at Hazleford Ferry then onto Newark and some sightseeing ( possible BBQ depending on numbers)
17th August- Row from Newark to Torksey Lock. Picnic along the way and Late lunch at the Lock. boats stored safely overnight at the Elms Retirement Home.
18th August- Row from Torksey to Lincoln. Short row to Lincoln Rowing club and more sightseeing
19th. August- Row from Lincoln to Boston (marathon row). Few stops along the way to
rotate crew and picnic. Transfer boat/s back to Newark in the late afternoon.
If anyone is interested in joing the tour please contact Pam on alansimmons@talktalk.net
Good Friday Row 2011 - Nottingham to Newark
Paddle to the Pub - Sunday September 26th 2010
17th British Rowing Tour 2010 - Nottingham to Lincoln
Having never taking part in any touring previously five rather nervous yet excited Newark Rowing Club members set off to Nottingham Rowing Club early on Friday morning along with 65 other rowers from across the country to take part in the 17th British Rowing Tour which takes place in different locations each year.
16 boats varying from singles to fours set off from Trent Bridge to the first lock near Home Pierrepont. Going through the locks with 16 other boats was quite an experience but by the end of day one we had ventured through four. Shortly after arriving at Newark Rowing Club on Friday afternoon the club provided a fish and chip supper which was greatly received having completed 36.5 km from Nottingham to Newark
A little tired from day one with a few sore hands in boat, day two was an real adventure for Newark members as were were able to row through town and past the Castle which had never been experienced before as our normal training sessions take us towards Farndon. We also rowed on the tidal stretch of the Trent en-route to Torksey our destination for day two after rowing 35.5km. A formal dinner was enjoyed by all at The Farndon Boathouse on Saturday night.
Day three was a shorter day from Torksey to Lincoln a mere 17.2km, the Newark crew had a new lease of life and endeavoured to reach the Brayford Pool first but lost out narrowly to another crew! This was a recreational event after all but both crews became competitive when the end was in sight!!
Eight members from Newark Rowing Club took part throughout the weekend Felicity Bound, Kate Thomas, Sally Wood, Jenny Walkley, Jane Macintosh, Zoe Cox, Juliette Smith and Jayne Millichamp . Juliette has only been rowing since May and hadn't rowed further than Farndon until she rowed the first leg from Nottingham to Newark. Jayne has been rowing for little over a year and completed all three days of the tour, which is a fantastic achievment for both of them.
I had never considered touring before but it was throughly enjoyable with many amusing moments - mainly around swaping the order of the crew around whilst afloat!!
We are now planning a day long tour to North Muskham for lunch and also plan to row from Nottingham to Newark at Easter next year.
Explore Rowing is British Rowing’s programme to encourage more adults into rowing by offering a route into the sport which is not the conventional competition route. By providing stable recreational and adaptive rowing boats to established boat clubs the programme aims to support the successful bidders in delivering adult learn to row courses and a follow-on network for regional and national recreational rowing.
3rd - 5th September 2010
Newark Rowing Club are pleased to be one of the first six clubs in the country to be part of this initiative. The funding package has allowed us to invest in seven new stable boats. These have come from the Swift Racing Freedom range. The Freedom boats are for adaptive, recreational and touring rowers and are great to learn to row in as they have flat bottoms making them stable.
This is the gig 4!!
We also have singles and doubles (which can also be changed into triples!). The singles also have adaptive riggers.
As part of Explore Rowing we will be making our boats available to other clubs so that their members can come and row on our river for a change and our members can do the same at other Explore Rowing clubs across the country.
We will be organising three fun events these will include 'splash and dash' races, touring, and BBQs!!
We are going to name the boats after the greatest explorers of the 20thCentury. Their commitment to their goals was unquestioned and their bravery incomprehensible, their stories incredible and gut wrenching, they all paid the ultimate price in pursuing their dreams. What we can now achieve in these respective fields is largely down to the paths they carved 90-100 years ago.
The first five boats will be named after the members of the 1912 Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole: Edward WILSON; Henry BOWERS; Edgar EVANS; Lawrence OATES and of course Robert Falcon SCOTT, in foul weather, failing health and with no rations left they all passed away returning from the Pole, having been beaten there, just, by Amundsen. As life began to slip through away from him and his trusted companions died around him Scott wrote in his ‘message to the public’
“We took risks, we knew we took them; things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause for complaint, but bow to the will of Providence, determined still to do our best to the last [...] Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale, but surely, surely, a great rich country like ours will see that those who are dependent on us are properly provided for”……
The tale cannot fail to tug at the hardiest of heart strings…
Of comparable bravery and spirit of adventure the remaining two boats will be named George MALLORY Andrew (Sandy) IRVINE. Somewhere between the 8th and 9th June 1924 these two men lost their lives to the highest mountain in the world. Both of them were fantastically talented mountaineers, climbing in an era when equipment was incredibly primitive and every climb could end in tragedy. Unlike the Antarctic explorers these men were still very much in their youth; Mallory was 37 and Irvine just 22. It is widely believed that these two fell to their deaths on the way down from the summit, and although Mallory’s body was discovered on the mountain in 1999 Irvine’s body has never been found…..Irvine carried the camera, which if ever found would prove, or not, whether they made it to the summit beating Hillary’s famous 1953 conquering with Sherpa Tensing Norgay.
In response to a reporter’s question “ why do you want to climb Everest? Mallory is famously quoted as replying “because it is there”