It has been six weeks since lockdown was eased. The club is nowhere near normality, but we have come a long way.
General News
Sadly, the willow by the pontoon fell down, only just missing our launch and the pontoon. Thanks to Richard Berkley and John Hyde who cut it to size without injury. The good news is that our frontage is now a bit more open and it will be easier to launch from the pontoon.
Despite lockdown we have had a surprisingly healthy influx of new members. Please make them feel welcome!
Picnics are now allowed, but only for members’ families.
Rowing
Richard has organised single sculling coaching on Saturdays and Sundays within British Rowing’s COVID-19 restrictions and we now have 40 scullers assigned to club singles. A silver lining of lockdown is that many people have dared to try sculling that otherwise would not, so I think this will have a long lasting positive effect. If you would like to get involved then please contact Richard.
For those of you who don’t want to go out in our fine sculls we have a number of other options. These include our punts, Snuffy for stable sliding seat sculling in family groups, Canadian canoes, stable single sculls with floats and a new fixed seat boat for family groups or picnics.
If you want some guidance on using these boats contact Andy McKenzie.
Boathouse
Boathouse volunteering has restarted within government COVID-19 guidelines and steady progress is being made.
Our water-flushing toilets are almost ready.
Brian Barnes has an ambitious plan of work, so please contact him if you would like to help.
Volunteering
We got an excellent response from the call for help with mowing. Big thanks to Matthew Crowder, Belinda Drew and Andy Hyde for offering to do the job.
Stuart Hunt and Chris Gardner both mended a push mower each and we have a sit-on lawn tractor from Anthony Jordan.
I am really pleased we got this help as David Key and Nick Digby were overworked. Despite this they have kept the site looking great and complying with the strict constraints of the council’s ecological plan.
If you would like to discuss anything, please get in touch with anyone on the committee.