Building work begins, the last head races, and an Easter training camp

Over the last couple of weeks we have been moving our entire fleet of boats down to our new temporary home at Belfast Boat Club; and I am happy to announce that building work has officially begun at the Queen’s boathouse. The building work will include extending the ground floor of the boathouse out towards the river to increase our boat housing capacity. They are also adding a crew room and a new pontoon, as well the building being upgraded to meet accessibility regulations. The new boathouse is an exciting prospect and will hopefully allow rowing at Queen’s to continue to growth in stature. Below is a photo of the boathouse in process of being packed up ready for work to start. I will be posting progress photos on this blog throughout the building process.

Now a couple of race results to conclude the head season for QUBLBC. Rebecca Edwards (currently away on a placement year) and her crew competed in a composite 8+ at WeHORR on the weekend of the 14th March. They placed 9th overall, finishing in a time of 20:29.9. This is a hugely impressive result at a very prestigious race.

Meanwhile, the novice women’s 4X+ recorded a very good win at the Lagan Scullers HOR (21st March); it was an extremely close category with only a second between 1^st and 2^nd and place on the results sheet. Another good result for this fast improving squad.

Over the last week the men’s and ladies’ squads have been in County Leitrim doing a training camp on the new regatta course at Lough Rynn. The squads were training well and all crews made excellent progress. A big thanks to Carrick-on-Shannon Rowing Club for letting us use their boathouse for some erg sessions. With all eyes now firmly fixed on success this weekend at the Irish University Champions and Skibbereen Regatta, the camp provided an excellent place for all crews to get some race practice on a fully buoyed course.

For daily results updates over this weekend keep an eye on our Facebook page ‘Queen’s Rowing’, and once all racing is finished there will be a comprehensive report of all the action on this blog on Monday.

Queen’s Regatta in Castlewellan on the 9^th May is fast approaching. It promises to be a fantastic event that I would strongly encourage everyone to attend if they are available. Official invitations will be sent out with more details in the coming weeks so keep an eye out for that.

Here is a brief overview of events that Queen’s are currently planning on entering for the rest of the season. Obviously this is subject to changes as the season unfolds for the squads:

Irish University Championships – 10^th April, Cork

Skibbereen Regatta – 11^th-12^th April, Cork

Trinity Regatta – 18^th April, Dublin

BUCS Regatta – 2^nd-4^th May, Nottingham, England

Queen’s Regatta – 9^th May, Castlewellan

University Boat Race – 6^th June, Belfast

Irish Rowing Championships – 10^th-12^th July, Cork

Having Queen’s support at any event we are competing in is very special for all the rowers involved and you are always welcome to attend any of the regattas throughout the year. If any events are added or taken away from this list I will endeavour to keep you posted.