Captain's update, 1st November

Morning all,
Hope you’ve all had a good week. Hopefully nothing scary in this post Halloween update:

Upcoming races. You’ll have seen that I sent around the provisional crews for Vet 4’s and 4’s Head later this month. These were based on the recent training records – well done to those selected. They are provisional still on confirmation from the organisers (these races are over subscribed so they do have to cut a few – the tideway ticketmaster!), but I also want to make clear that they can change – we need people signing up and coming down so that they are not scratch crews on the day. Lots of people are working hard and want your seat! 

Upcoming erg test. On this note, we will do our November progress test – a 5k free rate – to see how the training has paid off in the past month. It also gives some of our new LTR graduates a great chance to benchmark themselves in the squad. I’ve been really impressed with some of erg scores recently- so make sure you are there at 7pm on Wednesday. Please sign up on fitclub so that if necessary, we can stagger the use of the ergs. 

Safety. I’ve previously written about the safety. Unfortunately I saw multiple instances last weekend of bad practice- all related to getting in and out of boats. First, speed is vital during the winter – so please do not hang around – from putting the boat on the water, you should be kicking off in less than a minute. Second, there was an instance of stepping on the bottom of the boat which could have put a hole in the boat and left those still in there in trouble. Despite being told by multiple senior members of the squad, the individual persisted. If I see this again, water sessions will have to be limited. If you are not sure, please do just ask me or other experienced oarsmen. 

Social. Thanks to Charles, we will be doing a club fireworks on the 9th Nov – please do come along to celebrate the time when some bloke from Yorkshire tried to cause havoc in Westminster (how I got a job in the civil service is beyond me). 

Charity. Finally, we have had contact through the website from a former member asking for a bit of help with some fund raising. All information is on the website- do please consider it as looks like it will help your erg scores and also, more importantly, raise some much needed funds for MND research. https://www.cygnet-rc.org.uk/article-all_in_a_good_cause8.html

Onwards,
Dom