March has been a big month with the Learn To Row Regatta, commencement of the Masters racing season and the Australian Rowing Championships. 

In this month’s issue:

• New members
• Updates from the Committee
• Masters regatta season
• Juniors news
• Mobile scull racks
• Learn to Row Regatta
• Upcoming events
  

New members
Welcome to our 4 new members!
Non- racing

• Joanna
• Eden

Racing

• Peter

Juniors

• Lucas

Updates from the Committee
Key decisions from the February committee meeting held on 17 March 2025 are:

• Still looking to fill the vacancy for safety officer - Please contact Alec if you are able to assist
• Shed hygiene is an ongoing and important issue for the operations of the club. Please assist by:
  • Putting all equipment back where you got it
  • Placing all rubbish in bins (back of Bay 2).
  •  Washing speedboat tyres on grass before entering the shed – remove all sand from wheels
  • If you see something in the wrong place – fix it!
  • Feel free to give the floors a quick sweep if the urge arises
  • If you see any sign of mice/rats – please let Glen know

Masters’ regatta season
The Masters racing season commenced on 23 March 2025 at Champion Lakes with ANA taking second place over all on the medal tally behind Curtin (based on gold medals) but on an overall basis we blew the other clubs away by 9 medals overall – this really shows our depth so well done all.

Honourable mention to Cathy, Isabelle, Jindalae, Lucy and Max on their racing debut.

Wins to:

• Maz & Elissa – women’s A-D pair
• Dale – men’s A-D single
• Nancy & Richard – mixed E-M double
• Adam, Dale, John & Ian – men’s coxless quad
• Lucy (in Swans composite novice quad)
• Hilary, Sandy, Vinny, Alec, Rob, Adam, Maz, Elissa & Kay – mixed 8

Special thanks to our amazing volunteers for filling in the roles required for us to host the regatta. It was a hot day for BBQ’ing and boat driving so your efforts were much appreciated. Also special mention to Claire and Elise for doing a fantastic job commentating – it’s a hard gig for a tough audience.

Masters regatta 2 was meant to be held today, sadly 40kmh winds saw the event cancelled, providing ANA members with time have a leisurely coffee at Deep Water Point before returning to practice unloading boats. Better conditions have been ordered for Regatta 3 in a couple of weeks time.

Juniors news

In case you haven’t been fixed on the Rowing Australia livestream or monitoring the WhatsApp Social chat – Banjo, Graham and Alysia have spent the week in balmy Lake Barrington, Tasmania for the Australian Rowing Championships.

Catching his breath quickly after racing for Trinity at the Head of the River last week, Banjo ripped up the Lake with the following results:

• 9^th in U17 single scull
• 4^th in U17 double, pairing up with Jeremy from Swan River, just pipped out of bronze
• Bronze in U17 quad, again with Jeremy and 2 boys from Tasmania

Its been a while since the ANA zootie was on the podium at ARC - beautiful to see!!

Just making it to the final typically requires progression through heats, repechage (unless direct progression), quarter final and semi-final, each race being 2km. On some days Banjo had 4 races, so massive congratulations to him, his family and his coaches at ANA – Graham, Alysia. Rest up Banjo before it all starts again as he has been selected as part of the WA Pathways team to compete in Sydney from 13-17 April. More congrats and best wishes to you.

Back in WA our junior squad continues to grow with Graham, Alysia, Liam and Ingrid managing to keep track of 28 rowers across the Racing and Non-Racing groups. Most of the racing group will be heading down to Bunbury next weekend for the South West Schools Head of the River – this is the first time ANA has entered this event – row well, have fun and stay safe.

Mobile scull racks

There have been a couple of unfortunate incidents where private singles in Bay 3 have been damaged and not reported through the Incident Form. As club members we need to be more mindful of other people’s property and report any damage – reporting damage is not a punishment, rather to identify if changes need to be made.

One of these changes has been for Glen to install black and yellow tape on the floor near the mobile racks. This marks the edge of where the mobile racks should be moved to, to prevent riggers being put through nearby hulls. Please do not move the wheels of the rack past the edge of the tape markers.

Learn to Row Regatta

2025’s LTRR was awesome – perfect conditions and amazing costumes.

Dave K and Laurie delivered with the costumes, however Jay’s crew of ‘Wicked’ ladies took the prize.

A really big thank to those who volunteered to coach a crew, it is a big commitment, and the performance of the rowers is testament to your efforts. A number of these rowers are taking part in the Post-LTRR to get a further taste of rowing, hopefully they will get bitten by the rowing bug and join up. Thanks to our LTRR coaches:

• Jay
• Neave
• Jane
• Laurie
• Alec
• Steve R/ Dave K
• Debbie/ Indra
• Nadja
• Matt
• Tony B
• Catherine

Upcoming events

• Saturday 5 April - South West Schools Head of the River
• Thursday 10 April to Sunday 13 April – Australian Canoe and SUP Marathon Champs – be mindful of these river users.
• Saturday 12 April – Masters Regatta 3, Champion Lakes
• Monday 21 April – April committee meeting
• Bunbury Big Boat weekend – Non-racing members can enter the Eaton Head Race on 27 April. This is a 5km km row down the Collie River. If you would like to enter this race please email Cassandra 

If you have any suggestions for future content, please email Elissa

Thanks it for February's news!

Happy Rowing

ANA Committee