Captain's update - December 2011
Friday, 16th December 2011
By Club Captain Sara Nanayakkara
Our club is growing. We have many new members joining. Last weekend it was like Piccadilly Circus at the club as there was a traffic jam of FSC crews waiting to boat off the pontoon! The mens’s squad were out in full force as were the women’s squad and the scullers. All clubs experience the ebbs and flows of membership and it looks like we are on a flow and there is a great buzz about the place. So here’s another bumper newsletter...
In this update:
Scullers Heads results – St Andrew’s Day photos and videos – Reindeer & Mince Pie rowing and Cheese & Wine – Dr Steve’s boat fixing surgery – Boat plans purchases and facelifts – Stuff done at the club – Christmas at Furnivall – FSC van goes to van-heaven – FSC boys TRASH Sons – Race entries procedure – Welcome new members! – Furnivall photographer – iPhone App for ergs
Scullers Head [cases]
Congratulations to all FSC competitors who took part in the Scullers Head on 3 December. There were 9 competitors in total! See Furnivall Scullers Head results 2011 for individual photos and a write up of the event.
St Andrew’s Day dancing, drinking and thank goodness for fire alarms
We had a fantastic party at the club in honour of St Andrew’s Day. A brilliant turnout, fabulous food and some incredible whisky! All credit to Lorna who ordered the haggis and organised the food, Scot for the dancing calls (which were not that dissimilar to her coxing calls – though luckily she doesn’t say heel toe heel toe waltzy-waltzy as one of those calls…) and to Jane for the initial idea of a Scottish night and for helping with the prep. Our Scottish contingent should be proud as it was a very memorable night. Special thanks also to Ben (aka Mr Pimms) who enthralled and delighted participants with his fabulous whisky tasting session and to Liz and Mike for not setting fire to the club with the flaming whisky sauce! I don’t think there are any video or photographic evidence of the night’s shenanigans. No, we weren’t able to capture the throwing around the room of bodies and waltz-y waltz-y heel toe heel toe… Or did we?... Hmmm… Did we??... Oh wait… Click here (FSC Scottish night)… I wonder what will happen if you click here…!?!
Reindeer & Mince Pie rowing and Cheese & Wine – Sunday 18 December
You need to email scot if you are planning on taking part in the fun rowing - social@furnivall.org. It all starts at 10:30 so turn up just before, you have to wear a silly hat or a Christmas hat. It’s the law! You race, usually the length of the island, with as many of you as safely possible out on the water in biggest boats. Come down and join in, but please email Scot so we have an idea of numbers and can start to work out crews. You will be in mixed crews of mixed abilities so it is a great squad mixer! Please come!
Join us for lunch at 13:00 in the club room for our Annual Cheese & Wine event. Please bring items for the raffle!! A fiver per person for the raffle tickets will go towards the cost of the food. Santa is scheduled to appear, if anyone is bringing small children (under 6) please tell me so they don’t miss out. There will be a separate kiddies party in the erg room where they will be doing musical bumps and statues whilst the rest of us drink, mingle and eat a fabulous buffet lunch.
See Cheese & Wine / fun row invitation
Dr Steve’s Albrecht boat surgery
Picture the scene, Dr Steve and his merry men (and Tanya) all crowded round a boat deep in concentration “knife… scalpel… spanner…” as they peer deep into the guts of the boat and watch the master at work. Yes the Blaues wunder and the Ray Sullivan 2x’s have had the steering returned to the boat as it was. The steering in the 2x’s is the default FSC position. They can be used as pairs and the steering can be disconnected without taking all the wires out, but you need to tell me first and you are responsible for putting it back. Thank you to Tanya, Daniel, Ariel, Mike and Henry who helped Steve on 9th December. More boat fixing days like this to follow. Graeme Smith has offered to help us between Christmas and New Year so thank you Graeme for offering to help!
Boat plans, boat facelifts and equipment purchasing
The Julie Rooke 2x came back after a refurb and we are waiting for the numbers and the name to arrive before we re-rig her and fix her steering up and put her back in circulation.
EG came back and is now rigged and ready to go. Remember it is a 60kg boat – this means that if you are over 60 kg, you must not go in her! I saw a man out in her once!
We bought another beautiful lightweight 1x which is a racing shell. We are restricting its use to permission from the captain only.
Next year you will all notice a refocus on boat ‘grading’. If you look at the notice board by the sign-in sheet there is a table showing boat grading and av. kg weight. Some boats are restricted to racing only and can only be taken out with permission from the captain. You will see a yellow sticker on these top racing boats which are not for general use. More and more of you are taking out boats without knowing which boats you are allowed to take out and what boat will suit your weight best, so please refer to the table by the sign-in sheet. I saw two quads go out last weekend, the big boys were in the lightweight boats and the lighter crew were in the heavy boat. It is important that we use our equipment properly. The table will be reprinted and displayed in the New Year and communicated more clearly – with bells and whistles, so watch out!
Thank you to Rich, Athene and Julith who are always the three few who offer to help when I need people to be at the club for boat collections and deliveries during office hours.
The John Bunn Salani is due to go for a refurb in the New Year. We have also ear marked the WA Goff and the Mark Somers for a refurb after February.
We are buying a new 2x in the New Year to replace the Brian Sparey and I need help buying a second hand Viii to replace the Dereck Lowe. Please keep your eyes and ears peeled on The Rowing Service and put feelers out.
I am also going to buy two new Ergs so we will have 8 in the erg room by February.
It is all happening, slowly but surely! I am also planning a blade painting session in January. I will let you know when that will be.
Stuff we have done at the club recently
Door closes got fixed, door codes changed, all lights fixed in club room, the light on the landing now works, automatic light in the side alley works, the clicking disco light in the boat house bog has stopped and all the fluorescent bulbs in the boat house now work.
The balcony planks were replaced and are now safe (thanks for Nik for being at the club everyday to let builders in), damp patch sorted above the Captains’ board and repainted (Rod – thank you for keeping me company during the balcony building works) and the heating is now on a timer so it should be warm when you get in (thanks to Rod). Thanks Steve A for organising the electrician.
We have done a lot in the last month. A lot goes on behind the scenes that you don’t know about, and probably don’t realise. It is all volunteer time that makes these things happen so thank you to those who step up. Oh… and the bins don’t go out by themselves on a Tuesday night!...
Christmas at Furnivall
When I said no tinsel in the club room... I lied. Soloman from the men’s squad said “Sara’s you know it IS possible to over dress a Christmas tree". You’re right Soloman, but we love it! Tinsel is kitch and kitch is cool. Thanks to Liz for donating the beautiful Christmas tree to the club room and thanks to the men’s squad who decorated it! Special thanks to Harry who helped me find the fairy for the Christmas tree! ;-)
FSC van goes to heaven
Goodnight Drill Tech Van, it’s time to sleep. He is no longer emissions compliant. So if you want to be part of the buy-a-new-van-for-the-club-team, then get in touch please. We need you!
FSC men’s squad THRASH Sons of the Thames THREE times in ‘fun’ race
Ok, so when we organise fun racing, it’s not really fun is it? It’s REAL, and our boys rowed against Sons of the Thames in one of those ‘fun’ races. Well done to the guys who kept a cool steady pace throughout. They absolutely stonked them! Good show and an exciting marker to how we are doing. I overheard what has to be my favourite post race chats of the year:
Harry: “Yeah, well done guys, really good race, though I did notice that we lost focus half way through when the Sons crew crashed into the other Sons crew... So let’s try and keep our eyes in the boat at all times even when the boats are crashing behind us....”!!! Readers will be relieved to hear that no equipment or people were damaged during this crash. The only damage might have incurred was to the pride of the Sons crews! Go Furnivall!
Race entries procedure
Here’s a little heads up on what is happening about the future official racing procedure. We will be centralising all race entries for Furnivall. In order to give maximum support to all competitors we will have a Race Entries Secretary who will be responsible for forwarding your race fees and making online entries with British Rowing. We will let you know when that goes live. What that will mean for you is:
- All race entries must be paid into the (new) Furnivall entries bank account, well in advance of the official deadline (more info on this later, we are still waiting for the bank account details to come through)
- Our Race Entries Sec will check that your payment is showing in our account before transferring fees to the race organisers. No fees no race
- We have a new online club management system with limited access to Squad captains and Lorna our Hon Sec. So you need to tell either Dan, Fiona, Alfredo or Lorna if you want to race, well in advance and pay your race fees
We want to record race results on our website, offer support and tell other members where and when you will be racing and how you did. It will also mean during regatta season that we will be going to regattas as a club and supporting each other, and taking advantage of trailers and transport. It’s all go!
Welcome new members!
Lots of new faces around the club so please make a special effort to say hello and introduce yourself. There is a special opportunity to do some mingling and welcoming at the Cheese & Wine on Sunday. We will also be holding more socials at the club on a regular basis so watch this space. One of the new members was overheard saying “I love it here at Furnivall, it’s so friendly and everyone is so lovely, ... and there’s no crying in the changing rooms?!?...” Er... we’re definitely friendly… certainly competitive yes, remember you are doing this for fun... We won’t break you!
Furnivall Photographer
You will be seeing a chap called Enrico around the club from time to time taking pictures. He is a photographer and wants to cover us for a year capturing the sport of rowing and its human side – and he approached our club! He wants to show the real side of rowing in an attempt to take away the Eton, Oxbridge, white, middle class male image that rowing sometimes portrays. It is a sport accessible to all.
There are so many accents in our club, so many walks of life, real people who share the same passion but from different and undisclosed backgrounds. You all look the same in lycra, and that’s all that matters! Enrico will follow us for a year, he’s a portrait photographer but you won’t be asked to pose or perform, he’ll just capture you doing what you do. If this reportage is successful his pictures may feature in the Guardian... So a bit of a step up from Hammersmith and Fulham Gazette!
Enrico is coming to the Cheese & Wine so please welcome him. If you do not wish to be featured in any of the photos for fear that someone will spot you (?!?), please let me know! The club will have the rights to these photos.
News scoop for iPhone users
British Rowing were at the club this week using our ergs as they were testing… Wait for it... An iPhone app to help you train on the ergs!! It can help you with pyramids and race pieces! How exciting is that? You heard it first here!
Wishing all of you a really lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year. I have a feeling 2012 is going to be an incredible year for us all.
Stay warm and keep healthy!
Best wishes
Sara
