Amateur Rowing Association

The Port of London Authority (PLA) has released a video which is designed to help crews safely navigate the upper tidal Thames between Putney and Kew.

The film provides a simple guide to the unique Code of Conduct for safe rowing on the tidal Thames, useful for both newcomers to the Tideway and experienced rowers looking to refresh their knowledge.

British Rowing is pleased to announce an adaptive rowing classification opportunity at Crosby, Merseyside, allowing rowers with a disability or physical impairment to establish their racing classification.

The classification opportunity – which is free of charge – will take place on 10 March 2012, at Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre, Crosby Coastal Park, L22 1RR.

British Rowing’s flagship water safety advice, RowSafe, is being given a makeover, and we’d like your feedback on some of the ideas we’ve come up with so far.

We hope that the addition of RowSafe Plus sheets will be a welcome modernisation to our water safety guidance in our rapidly developing sport.

See below for a selection of sample RowSafe and RowSafe Plus pages, for feedback.

Six months into Sport England’s Sportivate Olympic and Paralympic legacy project, and 33,000 young people have taken up sport in their own time.

Sportivate aims to get hundreds of thousands of 14 to 25-year-olds taking part in sport over the next four years by offering them a pathway into sports clubs and venues across the country.

Figures published yesterday show that, of the 33,000 Sportivate participants who have received six to eight weeks of coaching in a sport of their choice, almost 26,000 took part in the last three months alone.

The 2012 Wycliffe Big Head and Peterborough Heads have been cancelled, due to adverse weather conditions.

With temperatures well below freezing, the Gloucester Berkeley Canal had this morning (Friday) frozen to the North and South of the Wycliffe Sculling Centre boathouse.

Organisers had posted a warning about the weather conditions on the official WBH website earlier this week, before making the decision today to call off Saturday’s event.

The deadline for online submission of the 2011 Club Water Safety Audit was Saturday 31 December 2011. The following clubs have not yet submitted the Audit, and are therefore suspended from racing. Clubs will be allowed to race as soon as they submit their Water Safety Audit and it is accepted by their Regional Water Safety Adviser.

Water Safety Audits are submitted online at: http://www.britishrowing.org/taking-part/staying-safe/club-safety-audit

Entries for the Women’s Eights Head of the River (WEHoRR) close next Friday (February 10), leaving one week left for crews to submit their entries via British Rowing Online Entry.

WEHoRR entries are set to close earlier than usual this year, with organisers are expecting a flurry of late entries this weekend.

The annual event for women’s eight crews has been held on the River Thames since 1927, and follows the 4.25 Championship Course between Mortlake and Putney – mirroring the men’s route.

The first of three drop-in sessions for residents to view and discuss traffic concerns ahead of this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic rowing events at Eton Dorney takes place this evening (Thursday 2 February), at Windsor Racecourse.

Up to 30,000 spectators will arrive at Dorney Lake each day between Saturday 28 July and Saturday 4 August for the Olympic rowing events, with a similar number anticipated for the Paralympic events from 1-3 September.

This evening’s drop-in session will run from 4pm-8pm, with similar sessions planned for Friday and Saturday.

Entries have opened for the 2012 Cornish Indoor Rowing Championships (CIRC), which will take place on Sunday 18 March in Newquay. 

The annual event - now in its 13th year - sees juniors and seniors battle it out on Concept 2 indoor rowing machines at the Newquay Sports Centre.

Seniors will cover 2km in male and female categories, while junior racing will follow the format of the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships - contestants rowing for a specific amount of time varying by age-group.

The newest rowing club in the East Midlands region, Devil’s Elbow, is offering free taster sessions in March and April.

Based at the confluence of the River Trent and Soar in Long Eaton, Derbyshire, Devil’s Elbow was founded this year and has already signed up for Explore Rowing accreditation.

The nomination process has begun for the 2012 Thomas Keller Medal, awarded ‘for an outstanding career in rowing.’

The Thomas Keller Medal is FISA’s most prestigious accolade, and can be awarded to anyone up to five years after their official retirement.

According to the official FISA website, the following five factors are taken into consideration when selecting the winner:

Rowing club representatives from across the North gathered at Durham Rowing Club on Sunday, for the Northern Region British Rowing Club Development Conference.

More than 50 regional and university rowing clubs sent representatives to the day-long conference, which included presentations and updates on the Umpires Commission, Tony Blair Sports Foundation (TBSF), and water safety.

Environment minister Richard Benyon has announced that more than £1 billion will be invested in the UK’s waterways over the next 15 years, securing the future of the new Canal & River Trust charity.

The Canal & River Trust – which will be officially launched later this year – is tasked with preserving waterways in England and Wales, and aims to garner the support of thousands of volunteers to this end.

Over 130 schoolchildren gathered at Newquay Tretherras School, Cornall, on Friday 27 January for the Cornish Indoor Rowing Championships (CIRC) – one of the first events in the 2012 Cornwall School Games.

Participants in school years 7-13 competed in the event, which was organised by the Cornwall Sports Partnership and British Rowing staff using the ‘Go Race Indoors’ framework.

On 21 January, Runcorn Rowing Club joined forces with Tesco, Helsby to complete a 9 Hour Indoor Rowing Marathon, much to the delight of Saturday shoppers.

 The event was held in aid of Tesco’s charity, Alzheimer’s Society and to raise funds for developing much-needed facilities for the rowing club.

GB Performance Director David Tanner has today spoken
with confidence of the GB Rowing Team's ability to
"do the nation proud" on home waters in July and August
this year.

The man who has overseen the preparations for every
squad going into the Games since 1996 was in buoyant
mood today.

"We have already qualified 47 from a possible 48
rowers for the Olympic Games thanks to strong
results, including 10 Olympic-class medals, at the
2011 World Championships. That's our best ever", he said.

Aberdeen University and Robert Gordon University will go head to head on Saturday 10 March, for the 17th annual Aberdeen Asset Management Universities’ Boat Race trophy.

The fierce varsity rivals are set to contest a challenging 3.5km course along the River Dee, in Scotland’s longest-running boat race.

Crews consist of four male and four female rowers along with a cox, and is the pinnacle of each club’s calendar.

The Environment Agency (EA) have recently announced a 6.4% increase in boat registration fees for 2012, which is also to be applied to the British Rowing/EA  block booking agreement from 1st April 2012. It has been agreed that the additional fees will be raised as follows –

EA based clubs:

• Adult boats - £20.50 each (increase of £1.50)
• Junior boats - £ 6.00 each (increase of £1)

Non EA based clubs (no increase on 2011 charges)

• Adult boats - £12.00 each
• Junior boats - £ 5.00 each

The Environment Agency have announced a 6.4% increase in boat registration fees for 2012, which will be applied to the British Rowing/EA block booking agreement from 1 April 2012.

It has been agreed that the additional fees will be raised as follows –

EA based clubs:

• Adult boats £20.50 each (increase of £1.50)
• Junior boats £6.00 each (increase of £1)

Non EA based clubs (no increase on 2011 charges):

• Adult boats £12.00 each
• Junior boats £5.00 each

Ocean rowing record-holder Roz Savage is set to embark on a new challenge this summer, and is hoping to gather 100,000 signatures on an e-petition to clean up British beaches and waterways along the way.

The X-year-old explorer recently announced her ‘TrashMobs’ campaign – an ‘anti-trash dash’ across the UK by bicycle and kayak, collecting litter and gather signatures as she goes.

In October, Roz became the first woman to row solo across the three biggest oceans in the world –Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian.