New Boat Naming

Christchurch Rowing Club held a boat naming ceremony on 30th August at which a new coastal four was named by President Peter Staddon in his honour and launched by the Senior four he coxed 50 years ago in 1963. The crew of Paddy Lanary(bow), Mike Green, George Chester, Peter Trist(stroke) had not been together in a boat since that season when they won the Open Senior Fours at the South Coast Championships held in Bideford. There was much reminiscing with the many past and present members who attended the evening.

The boat, a coastal four, is one of a growing number built in Christchurch by Rossiter Rowing Boats and utilises state-of-the-art construction and materials including Kevlar and carbon fibre to the original Marlin design by John Bailey of Southampton Rowing Club.

The second boat to be named and launched, a coxless river pair/double, was in honour of Mike Chester who stood down recently as Club Secretary after at least fifteen years of tireless effort dealing with the unseen iceberg of bureaucracy that all clubs have to confront. Although having only a brief rowing career, Mike has been a loyal supporter of Christchurch Rowing Club for almost 50 years and continues to be so.

The newly named coastal boat will have its first race at this year’s South Coast Championship thanks to a twist in the tail of the Hants and Dorset season. In a surprise announcement, the West of England ARA revealed that they would be unable to put forward any Senior crews to contest the Championship in Deal on 14th September. The governing council has therefore allocated the two vacant berths to the Hants and Dorset ARA and Coast ARA increasing their entries to three crews each. The Christchurch Senior crew H. Foley, D. Yeabsley, J. Cann, T. Joakim(str), L.Harding-Wade(cox) will make a challenge for the Bideford Bowl trophy over the straight 2000 meter course against Itchen Imperial and BTC crews from the Hants and Dorset association, Deal, Bexhill and a third crew yet to be announced from the Coast ARA.

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