Conditions at the Manawatu Grunt this year were much better than last year. The sun was out, there was not as much mud, and there seemed to be fewer cow pats!

 

The first of the crews to appear on the home straight were an hour after the official start time of 10am – indicating strong currents on the way up to the start. Other than the currents, the effluent and the occasional log – the water was fine.

 

The Star women’s quad of Blackmore, Boyle, Morgan and Gilbert-Milne was the fastest female crew of the event, and the only Star crew in the top 10 based on prognostic times. The junior men’s quad of Scott, Tong, Newton and Robinson was the fastest of the Star crews to come down the course.

 

Star Crew Results: (Full Results can be found on Rowit)

 

Place	Boat	Crew	Time	Prognostic
9	W4x	Sarah Blackmore, Ronnie Morgan, Nyra Boyle, Amelia Gilbert-Milne	00:26:48	85.13%
11	M4x	Ben Scott, Michael Tong, Zac Newton, David Robinson	00:24:49	83.87%
12	Mixed 2x	Rees Ward, Emily Wilson	00:27:53	82.53%
16	Junior 4x	Phoebe Christensen, Christina Neil, Alex Ware, Jackie Kiddle, Emily Barker	00:29:13	80.65%
18	M8+	Lewis Richards, Sebastian Pios, Max Butchers, Michael Abernethy, Angus Hancock, Tim Saunders, Cameron Forsyth, Brook Walker, Harry Fenwiche (cox)	00:25:50	74.90%

 

What better time to do a long distance race than right in the middle of winter! Petone Solstice - Star's first race of the season.

Notice is hereby given that the 2010 Annual General Meeting of the Star Boating Club (Incorporated) will be held at The Boatshed on Tuesday, 22 June 2010 at 7pm.

Last week Star sent the biggest squad of rowers to nationals for a number of years. However sadly it was not a very successful regatta for Star, with the exception of our RPC reps - Linda Mathews and Joe Trappit who won the prem 8 and U21 Quad respectively, and Michelle Campbell who made the final of the club single, in a large and competitive field.

Despite the performance on the water, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and, although no records were set on the water, one or two rowers managed to set a blistering pace on the Rowbox!

Congratulations to Linda and Joe.

Star competed in some pretty challenging conditions in the first of the 2k regattas this season - The Queen's Cup, at Korokoro.

Most established crews performed well as usual, although some failed to make the start, but this regatta was also the first chance for a lot of the club's new rowers to race. There were some impressive races in the novice category - the women's quad being a good.example.

On-shore entertainment in the form of street theatre was provided by Johnny Johnson and Alan Greer.

A depleted Star squad competed at the Goodwill regatta last weekend. With Wellington College away on training camp and the masters taking a break, the club only took part in women's events.

It was the first regatta for some of the novices, and more than one crew decided that they would go in the water rather than on it. Other than those misshaps, the club did well in the races that we were in.

Star and Wellington R.C. shared a trailer, the odd boat and even the odd rower to attend the masters rowing champs at Lake Karapiro last weekend.

The weather was a bit shocking, and as there has been a lot of rain, there was mud galore. The place is still a bit of a building site as well, due to the lake hosting the world champs next year.

Some races were very competitive – especially in the C/D grades, while other races only had a few entries. Star was even in one row-over in the B mixed quad, but the crew made an honest effort of it.

We made finals in pretty much all events we raced in, although we had to scratch a few due to clashes with other races.

The first medal of the weekend came from the men’s A quad, made up of Rob Adin, Ben Dunsheath, Nathan Wallace and substitute Chris Jones of Wellington R.C.

It all went right for Pete Tong, helping out the Wellington R.C. men’s D 8 to take gold.

Lis and Peer Neilsen had a memorable win in the mixed double.

Melissa Bray, Caroline Bedford, Tom Kerr and Paul Ward got bronze in the mixed B four.

The weather cleared a bit for Sunday, and although we threw away a sure gold in the men’s A double, due to confusion over daylight savings ending, the medal count continued.

Cox Catherine Galuszka had to go without a cox box for the mixed B eight, containing Melissa Bray, Di Tuiomanufili, Nathan Wallace, Terry McCarthy (of W.R.C),Tom Kerr, Paul Ward, Caroline Bedford and Lis Neilsen. The big boat was just edged out by a North Shore/West End composite to take bronze.

As mentioned earlier, the mixed B quad of Melissa Bray, Rob Adin, Nathan Wallace and Di Tuiomanufili had a row-over, which was a real shame as the boat ran beautifully.

The last race of the weekend was a chance for the crew of the mens A four to redeem themselves, after throwing some races earlier on in the day, due to some confusion over times. The crew of Rob Adin, Paul Ward, Nick Cozens and Ben Dunsheath muscled their way down the course for a convincing win.

Aside from the on-water activities, it was a good weekend. Logistically things went smooth, thanks to good collaboration with the Wellington R.C. masters squad.

Next year the champs will most likely be down south, and we hope to send a squad to that as well.