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Newsletter from the Dublin University Ladies Boat Club
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DULBC News, Volume 2 Issue 1, October 2011
1 DULBC News 2011 ©
Welcome to a new season at Dublin University Ladies Boat Club!
This issue will give you an insight into the successes of DULBC in the
2011/2012, and welcomes you to what promises to be another successful
year for the club. Inside are a calendar of important events, including the
2013 DULBC gathering, accounts of last years events, details on the new
blazers and much more! We hope you enjoy reading it and as ever we would
love to include your news and views in future editions so please do get in
contact at [email protected]
DULBC - Intermediate and Novice 8+
National Champions 2012
DULBC finished the 2011-2012 season on
a high by winning two National Champi-
onships at the Irish Rowing Champion-
ships in July. The Intermediate and Novice
eights each claimed first position in their
respective categories. Friday, day one of
the long weekend of racing saw the Inter-
mediate eight take to the water. The
same crew that had a good win at Cork
Regatta in June but had not spent much
time together on the water since. They
kept the bucket-rigged boat that was set
up for the Senior eight and with a few
spins together in the weeks running up
the race, felt confident they were up for
the challenge. A six boat strong field lined
up and we were off. Our crew didn’t get
off to the best of starts and by the 1000m
mark were lying in second place, a length
down to UCD. In what was the most excit-
ing race of the day and arguably the
whole weekend, we made a massive push
to get our bows back in touch. Cox Naomi
O’Sullivan kept her cool as the infamous
NRC commentator let the crowd know
that Trinity were charging for the line. We
soon realised we were gaining on the UCD
crew beside us but there was nothing be-
tween us as two beeps followed in quick
succession and we were left to wait for
2 DULBC News 2011 ©
the photo finish result. No-
body knew who won but a
shout from the bank sug-
gested it was Trinity’s victory
and the whole boat erupted
before the official result was
announced. The winning mar-
gin was just 0.2 seconds.
Heart-stopping excitement for
both sets of supporters on the
bank. The Intermediate eight
trophy returned to DULBC af-
ter just 2 years since the win
in 2010 and previous to that in 2007.
Intermediate eight crew: Cox Naomi
O’Sullivan, Stk Ruth Morris, 7 Claire
Cooney, 6 Keira Buttanshaw, 5 Suzanne
Daniels, 4 Sinead Dolan, 3 Alice Norwood,
2 Rebecca Dowling, Bow Hazel O’Neill.
Earlier on Friday morning the Novice four
were disappointed with their second
place finish in the final after comprehen-
sively winning their heat on the back of a
very good season in that category. How-
ever, they managed to lift their spirits by
Sunday afternoon when the crossed the
finish line first in the final of the Novice
eight. In a somewhat less nerve-wrecking
race for the supporters, our girls rowed
through the Queens crew at the halfway
mark and into the lead where they remained until
the finish. This is just the second time that the club
has won the women’s Novice eight, the first came
fifteen years ago in 1997. This year’s achievement
was particularly impressive given that cox and four
rowers were first year novices, completely new to
the sport last September and National Champions
by the end the summer.
Novice eight crew: Cox Grace Gannon, Stk Hazel
O’Neill, 7 Sinead Greenan, 6 Alice Norwood, 5 Ni-
cola Davis, 4 Lucy O’Donoghue, 3 Deirbhle Tuite, 2
Amy Nash, Bow Heather Crowley
Unfortunately the Senior eight
did not have the same joy on
the water. The Queens/
Skibbereen composite claimed
the spoils leaving UCD and Trin-
ity to fight for second place. Our
girls finished third in the end,
disappointed with the final re-
sult but knowing they had given
it their all. Sunday also saw
Sinead Dolan compete in the
Intermediate single scull where
she finished in third place. It was
a sad end for the departing seniors Caitlin, Sarah
and Naomi but with promising athletes coming up
the ranks there's still plenty of talent in the club to
look forward to this year. A huge thank you has to
go out to our four dedicated coaches Andrew,
Franky, Connla and Phil who all contributed hugely
to these Championship wins. Overall it was a very
successful season for DULBC, reclaiming the Novice
Colours trophy as well as taking several wins at do-
mestic and University regattas across all levels of
competition. Congratulations to all involved and
best of luck to Hazel this year as she will no doubt
lead the club to great success again.
Rebecca Dowling
Winners of the Novice 8+ with their coaches Connla Edwards (left)
and Phil Keane (right)
The Intermediate 8+ photo finish—
0.2 seconds!
DULBC News 2011 © 3
Captains Welcome
Hazel O’Neill
I would like to welcome you all to this season’s first newsletter. It has been quite a while since our last up-date but with our club going from strength to strength over the past few months it is with great pleasure that I can introduce myself as captain for the 2012-2013 season. My name is Hazel O’Neill, I am a 3rd year medi-cal student and I began my rowing career 2 years ago with DULBC- safe to say I have never looked back!
When I look at the club- our successes, the great club at-mosphere, the effort of the coaches and the generosity of those who support us; I realise how lucky we are. Rowing is a sport where determination and hard work go hand in hand- what I have seen from DULBC is that fun, team-work and cooperation are what make the members want to be part of a club. From learning to row in my first year to winning championships in my second; I have borne witness to the full spectrum of DULBC- the tireless effort of the coaches to teach the complete novice to be-come a rower, the hard work of the athletes in order to achieve their goals but also the values, standards and loyalty of the members to cre-ating what is a very special club- one that is gearing up to what should be a very interesting season!
With the kind donation of a set of ergometers last season the club has been able to move forward in train-ing allowing greater numbers to train at one time and more often. This, our newly purchased 8+ last June for inter/novice racing along with a number of other donations are investments that have put us in the right direction to succeed in the coming years and we are truly grate-ful for this support.
The past few months and weeks have been exciting ones as far as racing is concerned with crews competing at University Champs, National Champs, Colours, Women’s Henley, London Metropolitan Regatta and the Grand League Regattas to name a few. Along with international representa-tion we also had an incredible haul of pennants from the head season along with several regatta medals, trophies and of course our National Championship wins in the intermedi-ate and novice 8 categories- an un-forgettable achievement for the first
time in 15 years and something I was very lucky to be a part of. This suc-
cess has created a great atmosphere and a renewal of our determination to succeed both as individuals and as
a club.
The senior/ inter squad arrived back with great enthusiasm following last season’s success and have ap-proached the autumn/winter training with definite determination for suc-cess this season. To add to this we have been joined by a number of rowers with previous experience from the USA, the UK and of course from Islandbridge who have joined the ranks and are really adding to the squad. With our first race win of the year in the Dublin Sculling Ladder
junior category by new mem-ber Sally O’Brien safe to say these girls are assets to the club! The squad has already moved training out to Bless-ington to get in some more mileage and plenty of hard work at the weekends as we gear up to our first race of
the year with Neptune Head. Mean-while the 2nd year novice group have found their niche in islandbridge and their training is well underway in the
smaller boats as they look forward to challenging some wins in the novice category this year.
This year we signed up over 160 first year novice rowers- an unbelievable number which was no doubt helped by the fantastic coverage of women’s rowing during the last Olympics. Many of these girls have really em-braced the training in boats at the weekend and the fitness sessions during the week with the guidance of the coaches and the help of a num-ber of experienced members. This year we are hosting an intervarsity novice sprints regatta in Islandbridge in December-something our enthusi-astic newcomers can look forward to as their focus for training over the coming weeks. As a new event we look forward to it in the lead up to Christmas which should give the Uni-versity Clubs an opportunity to be-come acquainted and get an idea of what racing is about at an early stage.
Hazel navigating her way through the new
ergometers purchased thanks to a very
kind donation!
At the National Championships 2012 Ha-
zel stroked the Novice 8+ to victory, hav-
ing won the Inter 8+ two days previous!
4 DULBC News 2011 ©
Meet the 2012-2013 Coaching panel
DULBC are extremely fortunate to have four coaches on board again this year. The coaches are
instrumental is helping all of the club members to achieve the high standards they set for themselves and
we are very grateful for all the hard work they put in on a voluntary basis.
Phil Keane
IARU Level 2 Coaching Certificate
Rowed & coached at Neptune RC
Meet the coach - Doireann Ni
Lochlainn
We would like to welcome the newest
member of our coaching panel, Dorieann
Ni Lochalin. Doireann rowed for DULBC
from 2004-2007. She was Captain of the
club for the ’06/’07 season when she won
the Intermediate 8+ at the National
Championships.
No year would be complete without maintaining our links with our alumni and following last year’s suc-cessful alumni dinner in the boat-house we are pleased to announce that we will be building on it this year. In keeping with “The Gathering Ireland 2013” campaign we are or-ganising our very own DULBC Gath-ering for all past and current mem-bers. This will take place over a weekend in March and will certainly give all alumni a reminder of their time in DULBC, a chance to catch up with old crew mates and an oppor-tunity to find out about how we are
getting on now. See the advertise-ment on this newsletter for more info- this promises to be a brilliant weekend of reunions and something we are really looking forward to.
As we settle down to a Winter of training and look forward to the rac-ing season I am excited to lead the club into what promises to be a very interesting year for all involved. I hope to leave my mark on DULBC on what seems like such a short year. With vice captain Sinead Rodger along with an enthusiastic commit-tee working with me we certainly intend to make it one to remember!
For updates on the club have a look at our recently launched website www.dulbc.iewhere you can keep in touch, read the latest news of what the girls in pink and black have been doing and see photos of old and new faces alike in the gallery. I wish our members, alumni, supporters and friends the very best for the season and look forward to the coming months.
Here’s to a great year!
DULBC News 2011 © 5
Neptune Head Pennant winners: Senior 8+ Senior 4+ Inter 1x (Sinead Dolan) Novice 8+ Novice 4+
Muckross Head Senior 8+: 2nd Inter 8+: Pennant Winners Novice 1x: Rebecca Dowling –2nd Novice 4+: 2nd Senior 4+: Time only
St. Michael’s Head Senior 8+: 1st, 4th, 5th
Inter 1x: Pennant Winner—Sinead Dolan
Novice 4X+: 1st, 2nd
Novice 8+; 10th, 11th, 12th
Novice 1x: Hazel O’Neill—3rd
Lagan Head Senior 8+: Pennant Winners
Novice 8+: 3rd
Novice 4+: Pennant Winners, 3rd
Colours Races v
UCD
Corcoran Cup (Senior) LOST by 1 length
Sally Moorehead Trophy (Novice) WON by 1 1/2 lenghts
Dublin Head Inter 8+: Pennant Winners
Novice 8+: 2nd, 6th
Trinity Regatta Senior 1x: 2nd
Inter 4+: 1st, 2nd, 2nd round
Inter 1x: 1st, 2nd
Novice 8+: 1st round
Novice 4+: 1st, 1st round
University Champi-
onships
Senior 8+: 2nd
Senior 2x: University Champions, 3rd
Senior 1x: 2nd
Inter 8+: University Champions
Inter 2x: 2nd, 3rd, 5th
Novice 8+: University Champions
Novice 8+ (freshers race): 2nd
Novice 4+: 4th
Novice 2x: 2nd, 3rd,
Novice 1x: 2nd, 3rd, 5th
Skibereen Regatta U23 8+: 2nd
Senior 2-: 4th
Inter 4+: 3rd, 4th
Novice 8+: 1st, 5th
Novice 4+: 1st, 7th, 10th
Neptune Regatta Novice 8+: 1st
Novice 1x: 2nd
Henley Women’s Re-
gatta
Senior 8+: Round 1 BEAT Green Templeton, Round 2 LOST to
UCD
Cork Regatta U23 8+: 1st
Novice 8+: 1st
Novice 4+: 1st, 7th
Irish National Cham-
pionships
Senior 8+: 3rd
Inter 8+: WINNERS
Inter 1x: 3rd
Novice 8+: WINNERS
Novice 4+: 2nd, 4th in heat
Results from 2011-2012
6 DULBC News 2011 ©
Winter Training camps Senior Training Camp Suzanne Daniels
This year got off to a flying start, with a training camp
abroad in what we like to boast as ‘Sunny Spain’. While
all the locals were still fashioning their winter coats,
fourteen ladies were roaming around Banyoles in T-
shirts and lycra, a great change from the arctic condi-
tions of Blessington.
With the return of Rachel Nazarin, we hired two boats -
a 4+ and an 8. Training was tough but enjoyable, enjoy-
able because of the amaz-
ing view we had to take in
while rowing on a perfectly
flat calm lake. We had one
session in the morning and
a session in the afternoon
with questionable ‘lunch’ in
between, which usually
contained some sort of
mystery meat and lentils.
To be honest I don’t think
many of us enjoyed the local cuisine. In between ses-
sions we did the usual shower, nap and eat or shower,
nap, eat and study combination, for the unfortunates
who had essays to write :( .
Receiving the Olympic note was by far one of the high-
lights of the camp. We arrived down to training in the
morning to find a lovely note from the French double,
Cedric Berrest and Julien Bahain, who are going to the
2012 London Olympics. We had been watching their
‘technique’ during the week and the excitement that
they wanted to meet us all gave us something to talk
about... Of course there were suspicions to foul play
from most of us. We all thought it was a cunning joke
played by Rachel, Susannah and Andrew, therefore giv-
ing us all a bit of a shock when Cedric and Julien arrived
into the bar later that day!!!
We covered 200km in 5 days, rowing the extra 2km as a
round up to our impressive distance. Legs were tired
and weak, arms were aching, but we were all happy to
have been involved in such a suc-
cessful camp! We really did im-
prove our technique and stamina
throughout the week and the
camp created chances for im-
provements and progression as a
team. I think a training camp
abroad was a really good idea this
year, and hopefully it will be fol-
lowed up with more to come.
We ended the camp with a night in
Barcelona, where we had a lovely meal but unfortu-
nately there was no energy to go out and we spent an
entertaining night in our hostel instead.
All in all, from my point of view the camp was brilliant.
We arrived home tired and with aching muscles know-
ing we had all pushed another limit and improved in
our technique as a club.
Novice training camp
Nicola Davis
After weeks of circuits and hard win-
ter training in Islandbridge, the nov-
ice crew journeyed to the great un-
knowns of Lake Blessington for the
novice winter training camp. The
January weather brought us out in
multiple layers of unconventional
rowing kit – riding jackets, ski gloves
and bobble hats, ready to take on
the great outdoors. We hit the water
in an 8+ and a training quad at the
crack of dawn, ready to learn and up
skill. Battling with howling winds and
raging waves we came out on top,
and learned the beauty of tapping
and how to row all 8. A trip to the
Jacuzzi got us all back on our feet in
the evenings, before a team meeting
with Olympic motivational videos, all
before we headed
back to our houses for
communal dinner fea-
turing a Mexican
night and some seri-
ous pasta seshes. It
was tough, but we all
made it out of Bless-
ington alive with our
first real taste of row-
ing life. Major bond-
ing was had between
midmorning naps and intense carb-
loading, and massive improvements
were made to everyone’s rowing
technique. In the words of Mike
Spracklen “the body will adapt”.
DULBC News 2011 © 7
Meet the 2012-2013 Committee
Captain
Hazel O’Neill 3rd year Medicine.
Joined DULBC in 2010.
National Championships
with DULBC: Novice 8+ 2012, Intermediate 8+ 2012
Vice-Captain
Sinead Rodger 4th year Music Education.
Started rowing in Com-mercial RC 2006
Joined DULBC 2009
National Championships with DULBC: Intermediate 8+ 2010
Treasurer
Sinead Dolan
2nd year MSSIS
Started rowing in Commer-
cail RC 2006
Joined DULBC 2010
National Championships
with DULBC: Intermediate 8+ 2012
Secretary
Ruth Morris
2nd year MSSIS
Started rowing in
Commercial RC 2006
Joined DULBC 2011
National Championships
with DULBC: Intermediate 8+ 2012
Social Secretary
Suzanne Daniels
4th year Occupational
Therapy
Joined DULBC 2009
National Championships with DULBC: Intermediate 8+ 2012
Social Secretary
Grace Gannon
3rd year Irish and Film
Studies
Joined DULBC 2011
National Championships with DULBC: Novice 8+ 2012
Fundraising Officer
Heather Crowley
3rd year Engineering
Joined DULBC 2010
National Championships
with DULBC: Novice 8+ 2012
Fundraising Officer
Gill Crowe
3rd year Medicine
Joined DULBC 2010
8 DULBC News 2011 ©
Novice Co-
ordinator
Lucy O’Donoghue
2nd year Human Health and
Disease
Joined DULBC 2011
National Championships with DULBC: Novice 8+ 2012
PR Officer
Zahra Legris
2nd year Medicine
Started rowing in 2008
at school in Lady Elea-
nor Holles School,
Middlesex
Joined DULBC 2011
Alumni Officer
Susannah Cass
3rd year PhD Botany
Started rowing in Cam-
bridge, Magdalene
College in 2006
Joined DULBC 2009
National Champion-
ships with DULBC: Intermediate 8+ 2010
Alumni Officer
Rebecca Dowling
5th year Dental Science.
Joined DULBC 2008
Captain DULBC 2011-12
National Championships
with DUBLC: Intermediate
8+ 2012
General Member
Claire Cooney
2nd year BESS
Started rowing in Commer-
cial RC in 2008
Joined DULBC 2010
National Championships
with DULBC: Intermediate
8+ 2012
DULBC News 2011 © 9
Sat-urday the 28th of January saw the DULBC heading to Limerick for the annual St Michael’s Head. This was not only marked the start of the sea-son, but for the DULBC novices- my-self included- also marked the first test of what all the gruelling weight-circuits and 6AM training sessions had been for.
In a move we are fast learning is a common occurrence for rowers, the novices were told meet at a blister-ingly early 5:20 am on Nassau street to board a bus to take us down to the Head. Despite the early start, spirits were high and nerves seemed to have abated by the time our bus arrived and we set off for our very first race. Luckily, most of us man-aged to nap on the two and a half hour bus journey, due in no small part to the soothing tones of Elton John’s Greatest Hits- played on re-peat on the insistence of our bus
driver. “Tiny Dancer” was the unoffi-cial theme song of the day.
We had been told that St Michael’s Head takes place in what is, by in large, a field, and it was surprising to see the huge amounts of Boat Clubs and people involved in the event. We arrived at the slip just past 8 am, and already a huge amount of trailers were being unloaded and boats rigged. The seniors were already at the trailer-looking intimidatingly pro-fessional in perfectly matching gear- and it was nice to see our beloved boat the Michael Johnson- M.J.- and get to work rigging him up, albeit under the judgemental eye of the UCD boat club who just happened to park their trailer directly opposite ours.
The race itself was by far the most enjoyable aspect of the day. Despite preparing myself for an absolute gru-elling 15 minute run down the course, once our crew was in the boat and making our way toward the starting line it was remarkably easy to settle in. If it wasn’t for the dis-
tinct (and nauseating) country smells it would almost have been possible to imagine ourselves back at Island-bridge. The race was over in what seemed like a matter of seconds, un-fortunately not due to the incredible speeds we were going at but because the whole thing was actually really fun! (Who would’ve thought??) The novices were to race twice more that day, with some variation in the crews. Speaking as someone who is usually unbearably nervous when put under pressure, the whole day was really enjoyable and it left all of us with a definite sense of achievement.
St. Michael’s head is a great way for
novices to enter the sport of rowing,
without the nerves and pressure that
can come with a two-lane race with a
direct opponent. The day allowed us
to not only showcase how much
we’ve learnt in the brief time we’ve
been rowing, but also to prove to
ourselves that we are capable of
keeping our heads under pressure
and enjoying a competition.
The Corcoran Cup—The first time
experience Suzanne Daniels
As an intermediate rower this was my first race for colours, as I didn’t race colours as a novice. Colours, for us, marks the beginning of the regatta season, and when all the training starts to come together.
Last February I won my seat race into the senior colours crew slot-ting into the 4 seat. I knew that all the girls in the boat with me had trained very hard over the previ-ous months and we all sought the same goal – to win the Corcoran cup.
Training got tougher, the hours were longer but the gains in our fit-ness, technique and spirit grew with
every session on land and on the water. All training was done together been the 9 of us and our coaches so we spent many hours together but we enjoyed (most of) the hard work.
Of course sadly we didn’t win on the day, with the flow against us but I have to say it was one of the best races of my life. It all seems like a blur now and I wonder how we ever crossed the finish line but we did it in style, with many remarks on the day that we rowed better. Unfortunately one crew has to lose on the day, but we put all we had into that race. The power and emotion was evident from the words Attention, GO.
We definitely are coming back fighting this year as a squad to hopefully be holding the Corcoran cup once again!
The Colours Races
St. Michael’s HOR
Rebecca Sanfey
Naomi O’Sullivan (cox), Ruth Morris
(stk), Caitlin Condon, Rebecca Deasy,
Susannah Cass, Suzanne Daniels, Keira
Buttanshaw, Sinead Rodger, Rebecca
Dowling (bow)
10 DULBC News 2011 ©
The Sally Moorehead Trophy Rebecca Sanfey The annual colours races took place on Monday, the 19th of April, with the Sally Moorhead novice women’s race starting off the four events of the day. Disappoint-ingly, it was to be the only win for Trinity but proved to be one of the most exciting races of the day. Both crews took it in turns to hold the lead, before Trinity managed a huge push under the James Joyce bridge, to which UCD had no response.
The hours of work that went into training for the Novice Women’s race were something of a brutal awak-ening for me, never having partaken in a sport where getting up at 5:30am for training is the norm (my na-ivety is making me cringe as I write this) or where your coaches voice is so drilled into your mind that you can’t say “hands, body, slide” in anything other than an Aus-tralian accent. After the selection of the crew- Amy Nash (Str.), Nicola Davies (7), Tara Hamilton (6), Re-becca Sanfey (5), Lucy O'Donoghue (4), Deirbhile Tuite (3), Cathy Prendergast (2), Rachel Botha (Bow) and
Grace Gannon (Cox)- the work intensified and it seemed that suddenly the race we had always been working towards was getting very, very close. For the most part, I have to say I enjoyed the large amount of circuits, wa-ter-work and cross-training that became part of my life in the weeks drawing up the race. There was never any question but that every girl in that boat wanted to be there, and desperately wanted to win that race.
Despite the overwhelming build-up, the race it-self is somewhat of a blur. I vaguely remember our cox’s initial shout of “DRAWWWWW” and that nerve-wracking noise that all rowing races start with- water moving and riggers grinding and coxes screaming- but the bulk of the race seems to have lasted only a few seconds. One of the crew remarked afterwards that there was never any feeling in the boat that we would
actually lose the race, and despite UCD taking the lead for the majority it, the final push after the James Joyce bridge was where we marked our-selves out as the crew that wanted it
more.
The elation that followed crossing the line first is some-
thing that I will remember for a long time, especially
since despite UCD staging an early take-over of the
buses that followed the race, the few Trinity supporters
who had made it onto them were incredibly vocal about
their support.
Tips for Novices!
A very warm welcome to all our new novices! Hopefully you've all enjoyed your DULBC experiences so far! It was great seeing you guys at the novice night out and the massacre, hopefully you're all looking forward to the Boat Ball. You all seem to be improving well in training so keep up the good work. Blessington training camp will take place in the new year and huge improvements are made so hopefully you can all make it.... plus you can have pasta parties EVERY NIGHT (woo)!! As you can see it's starting to get pretty cold out there so start stocking up on the thermals ladies! Lots of thin lay-ers seems to work the best. Hopefully you're all getting to grips with the rowing language too; touch it, back it, stroke side, bow side, if not don't panic it will become second nature soon enough! Keep working hard and you will be rewarded. Remember if you have any problems/queries you can talk to the captain, Hazel, or Lucy, your novice co-ordinator.
Lucy O’Donoghue, Novice Co-ordinator
DULBC News 2011 © 11
Key Words:
The boats are steered by the
coxswain. Cox's use a rudder to
steer the boat, which they control
using cables that are connected
to it. To help keep the boat on
course, all boats
have a small fin
in the stern.
Each rower sits
on a seat that
rolls on wheels
along the slide.
Feet are tied into
shoes which are
bolted onto foot-
plates in the
boat. Each oar is held in place by
riggers, which extend from the
saxboard. The rigger holds the
gate in which the oar sits.
Bow Side - the right side of the
boat - when sitting in the cox's
seat, looking forward. Oars for
this side of the boat often have a
green marking.
Stroke Side - the left side of the
boat - when sitting in the cox's
seat, looking forward. Oars for
this side of the boat often have a
red marking.
Stern - the back end of the boat,
where the cox usually sits; also
the end of the boat with the
rudder and/or fin.
Bow - the front end of the shell,
covered by a bowball.
Bowball - small rubber ball that
covers the end of the bow;
intended to prevent/reduce
damage upon collision.
Fin - the fin under the stern of the
boat which helps to keep the boat
on course.
Rudder - a small, movable part,
usually metal, that sits under the
stern of the boat; allows the cox-swain
to steer the boat.
Saxboard - this is the top side of
the boat - the edges onto which
the riggers are bolted.
Gate - the small plastic part at the
end of the rigger that opens at the
top. The rower opens the gate,
places the oar into it, then shuts
the top metal bar, screwing it
tightly shut. The gate holds the
oar in place during the rowing
stroke.
Rigger - The metal support
attached to the saxboard that
holds the gate.
Slide - the tracks underneath
each seat which the wheels of the
seat slide on.
Cox Box - a device used by the
cox, consisting of a microphone
and speakers, that amplifies the
cox's voice throughout the boat.
Blade - another name for the oar,
particularly the paddle end know
as the spoon.
Square blades - keeping the
blade perpendicular to the water
on the recovery.
Feathered blades - keeping the
blade parallel to the water on the
recovery.
The recovery - the part of the
rowing stroke when the oar is out
of the water.
Crab - an unfortunate incident
when the blade gets caught in the
water and the handle of the oar
hits the rower. It is caused by the
blade not entering into the water
fully square, when pressure is
applied to the blade it will just go
deeper and deeper in the water.
12 DULBC News 2011 ©
Coxes calls
Full Crew, Rowing from backstops, Are you
Ready, Go! - This is a classic command, the cox
specifies who the command is to, what they are to
do, gives them time to prepare and when the cox
can tell the crew is ready they say Go.
Easy There - stop rowing, while maintaining the
arms away position and leaving the blade feathered
above the water, letting the boat glide over the
water.
Drop - after telling the crew to easy there the cox
will give the command to drop, the crew can then
drop their blades on the water, this is a bit like the
"at ease" command in the army.
Hold it up - put the blades into the water at an
angle, causing the boat to decelerate quickly.
Firm/Full Pressure - pull on the oar with 100% of
your power.
Three Quarter Pressure - rowing with 75% of your
power.
Half/Medium Pressure - rowing with 50% of your
power.
Light Pressure - stop rowing with pressure and just
lightly pull the blades through the water.
Back it down - push the oar backwards through the
water to move the boat toward the stern -
predominantly used to turn the boat around (back it
down on one side).
When I tell people I cox, the first response is usually “Oh
so you’re the little person who shouts”, and this is en-
tirely true! However coxing is so much more than shout-
ing. Your role is to steer the best line,
keep the crew in time, act as a second
coach in the boat, motivate your crew
when things are getting tough and make
tactical decisions during a race. It’s easy
to think when you are starting out that
coxing isn’t that important, surely if all
eight crew members are pushing as hard
as they can, there’s nothing else that can
make the boat go faster? A good cox can
unite a crew and get that extra two per-
cent out of them that makes the differ-
ence between first and second place.
I started coxing in January and, while during the coldest
part of the year sitting in the bow of a four getting
splashed isn’t the most pleasant way to start your morn-
ings, I was hooked immediately. My first race was Lagan
Head in Belfast which was a challenge due to the num-
ber of bridges I had to steer through! As the year went
on and the weather got warmer I got to race along the
Liffey in Dublin Head, to win the Novice 4+ at Trinity Re-
gatta, and to cox at both University and National Cham-
pionships. Not to mention travelling to London and
racing along the Olympic course at Lake Dorney! The
differences between long winding head races and
straight lane regattas mean that coxing is never monoto-
nous. While head races are a challenge due to the im-
portance of steering the best line, regattas
are very exciting as you get to play your
crew off other crews to get them to row
the best they can.
The best advice I can give to novice cox-
swains is to ask as many questions as pos-
sible. Ask the coaches to explain why they
are doing a particular exercise and what it
will achieve, ask the crew after an outing
what calls they liked and which ones did-
n’t work and ask other coxes what calls
they find work well. It is incredibly over-
whelming to begin with, as you’re trying to coach some-
thing that chances are you’ve never done before. It
seems like there is a whole new language to learn, but
before long it does fall into place. Just remember if
you’re ever cold, wet and miserable after a long training
session, the feeling of crossing that line in first place
makes every minute worthwhile. But buy good water-
proofs...
The Coxing Experience by Niamh Williams
DULBC News 2011 © 13
The Alumni Dinner
Rebecca Dowling
We were delighted to welcome current and past club members to the boat-
house last March for our annual Alumni Dinner. The event was held on the
evening of Dublin Head, giving alumni the opportunity to watch the Interme-
diate and Novice eights race
along the Liffey before joining us
for an evening of entertainment.
The Long Room was cleared out,
tables set and the walls decorated with our most recent winnings pen-
nants from the head season. The evening began with welcome drinks
in the bar followed by a club photo on the steps of the boathouse. We
were joined by current and past coaches, past President Jane Williams
as well as many other recent alumni and current squad members. The
three-course meal provided by Knight’s Catering was enjoyed by all.
Toasts were made to celebrate recent wins and a special presentation of a new club blazer was made to head coach
Andrew Coleman for his dedication to the club over the past 5 years. The night continued into town where we were
joined by the first year novices in D2 nightclub. We would like to thank everyone who attended and hope they en-
joyed their night reminiscing with old friends. A special thanks also goes to Neptune Rowing Club for kindly lending
us the dining chairs for the day. They all made it back in one piece, though one or two went for a quick dip while
crossing the river in the launch the next day!
We intend to plan a similar event for 2013, with the hope that more advance notice of the date should enable more
people to attend. A provisional date of March 30th has been set so please keep this date free in your diary and look
out for your e-mail invitation before Christmas.
The University Championships 2012, hosted by UCC in the national row-
ing centre in Inniscara, Cork were among the most suc-cessful in the history of DULBC. Not only did the club come away with the prestigious Bank Of Ireland Women's Cup for some of our biggest wins against other universities (Novice and Inter 8s) but also took the Overall University trophy with DUBC. Numerous small boats took to the water also, with wins for the senior
pair and some sterling performances in doubles and sin-gles.
Sunday featured an equally successful day with crews taking to the water once more to com-pete in Skibbereen Regatta. Invaluable racing experience, and wins in the Nov-ice 8+ and Novice 4+ concluded the week-end nicely.
With our rather inti-mate sleeping ar-rangements in Lee Valley, and a very well established pink and black base camp in the rowing centre, the weekend was a fantastic opportunity for the entire club to get to know each
other, as well as to race together, and most importantly, win copious amounts of pots!
University Championships
Gill Crowe
DULBC & DUBC—Overall University
Champions 2012!
14 DULBC News 2011 ©
London Metropolitan Regatta
Heather Crowley
At the beginning of June DULBC travelled to the UK to take part in the London Metropolitan Regatta. The re-gatta takes place at the Eton College rowing centre, Dor-ney Lake, which was the site of the rowing and kayak events for London 2012. It was incredible to see the preparations for the Olympic rowing taking place around us- crossing under the bridge to the start line we were reminded that the best row-ers in the world would be do-ing the same in less than two months time!
The regatta itself pro-vided invaluable racing ex-perience, with some crews racing up to eight times over the two days. This was par-ticularly beneficial to the Nov-ice crews who were racing at a higher standard and against
tougher competition that would have been possible at home. There was impressive racing from our more ex-perienced members too,
with the Inter1 8+ crew coming third on Satur-day.
Once again this year we owe a huge thank you to Elaine and Tom Coleman for pro-viding food, accommodation, and croquet in the garden!
And, as always, thank you to Andrew and the coaches for organising the trip down to the last detail.
From racing, to sipping Pimms, to piling twenty Nov-ices into Phil’s rented KUGA, the trip was definitely one of the highlights of the year. We all came home inspired and excited, determined to train harder than ever in the run up to National Championships!
Susannah Cass and Rebecca
Deasy—Inter 2x Winners of the Intermediate 8+
The Novice 8+ storming to victory at the University
Championships
Sarah Dolan and Ruth Morris claiming the Senior 2x title
Rebecca Dowling (Captain)
collecting the coveted Bank
of Ireland trophy
Winners of the Novice 4+ at
Skibbereen Regatta
DULBC News 2011 © 15
DULBC hit Henley 2012
Ruth Morris
Each June, the picturesque town of Henley holds host to
one of the most prestigious rowing events of the year -
Henley Women’s Regatta. This well distinguished re-
gatta attracts crews from both sides of the Atlantic and
this year was no exception, as the Regatta was celebrat-
ing its 25th anniversary.
This year DULBC sent a
senior 8 to compete in
‘The G P Jeffries Cup’,
which had over 14
crews entered. Michele
Grenier - an Erasmus
student who rowed
with DULBC for the year
- represented her own
college Holy Cross in
the Senior 8 category.
Crews such as Harvard,
Bucknell University,
Vesta (winners of Lon-
don Met) and of course
UCD were a few of the crews entered in the senior divi-
sion.
As the days before the regatta drew closer the extreme
weather conditions worsened, and the regatta was in
fear of being cancelled. Luckily, regatta organisers were
determined for this not to happen and only some races
were rescheduled over the 3 day weekend. Strong winds
and stream resulted in no course records however this
did not have any effect on the atmosphere let alone on
the quality of the races at the regatta.
DULBC’s Henley debut was against Green Templeton in
the first round. The crew from bow to stern of Sinead
Dolan, Sinead Rodger, Caitlin Condon, Rebecca Deasy,
Keira Buttanshaw, Susannah Cass, Claire Cooney, Ruth
Morris and cox Naomi O’Sullivan stormed through the
first round into the quarter finals to face their rivals
UCD. The crews had already met each other twice dur-
ing the year and DULBC were determined to be victori-
ous on this occasion.
A strong start from UCD
on the island side of the
course left DULBC a
length down coming out
of the enclosure. How-
ever, DULBC gained mo-
mentum and charged
through UCD at Barn Bar
extending the lead to
half a length with only
500m to go. Unfortu-
nately, severe gusts got
the better of DULBC to
lose to UCD by a length
in one of the tightest and most exciting races of the day.
UCD went on to lose in the final against Newcastle Uni-
versity. DULBC were extremely proud of the senior 8s
performances at Henley and are looking forward to
what is in store for the club next year. Lastly, the crew
thoroughly enjoyed everything that Henley had to offer
– great racing, big bands and last but not least a glass of
Pimms!
The Social side of Rowing
Just a taste of what has already happened and what is to come in the life of
a rower out of Lycra
Novice Mixer The first big one was our ‘Novice Mixer’ night. This was so very funny
to watch and a big step in getting the new novices from both clubs to
mix and create friendships - well have friendships forced upon them in
the form of cable tying two people together. The night was a big suc-
cess and only a little bit of awkwardness was had, with girls badly
needing the toilet by the time they were freed to get into D2 nightclub.
As you can see from the pictures the novices really got into it and a
great night was had by everyone that came.
So far this year we have had a few entertaining and successful nights out organised by DULBC.
16 DULBC News 2011 ©
Massacre No need for an introduction to this event…
Fancy dress was essential and everyone ad-hered this to very strictly! The DULBC girls themed up and went with a Harry Potter theme. We had our very own Harry right down to Winky the house elf. We got loads of support from the other boat clubs on the river and it turned out to be a great night, merry and messy. As ever this is one of DULBC’s biggest fundraising events and we
are very grateful of all the support we received!
The Boat Ball The Boat Ball was held in The Burlington Hotel on
upper Lesson Street on Saturday the 17 of November.
This event is run jointly with DUBC with a wine
reception, delicious three course meal, a
performance from the Trinitones and bar and DJ ‘til
late. More on this in the next issue!
We look forward to seeing you
all at our various events
throughout the year.
DULBC News 2011 © 17
Stay up to date with the latest News and Results
DULBC are delighted to announce the launch of our new website— www.dulbc.ie, and we
would like to thank Seth Smith for developing the website. We will be able to keep you up to date on up-
coming events and race results. You can also follow us on our other forms of social media:
18 DULBC News 2011 ©
DULBC Alumni Gathering
30th
& 31st
March 2013
Saturday 30th:
Dublin Head of the River
Anna Liffey Dinner
Sunday 31st:
Boat Naming Ceremony
Alumni & Exhibition Races
For more details visit:
www.thegatheringireland.com/DULBC1976
DULBC News 2011 © 19
Dates for your diary 2012-2013
December 8th 2012 Novice Sprints, Islanbridge
December 10th 2012 Christmas Commons, TCD
Janauary 2013 Winter Training Camps, TBC
February 2nd 2013 St. Michael’s HOR, O’Brien’s Bridge
February 16th 2013 Lagan HOR, Belfast
March 3rd 2013 Erne HOR, Enniskillen
March 30th 2013 Dublin HOR, River Liffey
March 30th-31st 2013 DULBC Gathering, Dublin
April 6th 2013 Neptune Regatta, Islandbridge
April 13th 2013 University Championships,
Inniscarra, Cork
April 20th 2013 Trinity Regatta, Islandbridge
May 25th 2013 Dublin Metropolitan Regatta,
Blessington
June 15th 2013 Athlone Regatta, Coosan point
June 29th 2013 Cork Regatta, Inniscarra
July 18th 2013 National Championships, Inniscara
Contact details
Postal address: DULBC, c/o DUCAC, Sports Centre, Trinity College, Dublin 2.
Boathouse: Trinity Boathouse, War Memorial Park, Islandbridge, Dublin 8.
Captain Hazel O’Neill [email protected]
Head Coach Andrew Coleman [email protected]
Alumni Officers Susannah Cass [email protected]
Rebecca Dowling [email protected]
Newsletter [email protected]
Blazers [email protected]
Website www.dulbc.ie
Twitter TrinityLadiesRowing (@DULBC1976)
Blog http://dulbc.blogspot.com
Facebook www.facebook.com/DULBC
20 DULBC News 2011 ©