NOVEMBER 2020 NEWS Provided by your faithful correspondent Trident. Past News can be found via the links on the right of this page Above: Captain Meg Hester on the water rather than the bike- see below for that story News covered this month: • Mercantile's COVIDSafe plan changes • President's Christmas Luncheon moved to Sunday 6th December • Saturday mornings return to normal • Club rowing takes off • Congratulations to those members invited to the senior trials in December at Penrith • Mercs goes coastal • Profile of Andrew Evans • Profile of Robert Strang • Vale Andrew Evans and Robert Strang • 2020 Colgan Foundation Virtual Oceania Indoor Rowing Championships • Amanda Bateman, RA's athlete of the month • Changing room lockers are now available for rental • Bulletin I National Championships • Vale Bill Bailey • Big boats are back • 30 year reunion for Oarsome Foursome • Where else would you have an outdoor meeting during COVID? • Captain Meg Hester v Road. Road wins • Big boats are back • Patrick Boomer at the European Coastal Championships • Drink wine to help the Club, now that is an idea • More disruption from Peppercorn lawn • 2020-21 dates • New member profiles Mercantile's COVIDSafe plan changes Republished 26th November 2020 Congratulations, we have entered the final step of easing of restrictions as of Sunday 22nd 11.59pm. The updates to our operations include; • Rowing clubs and training facilities remain open. Outdoor sport limited to groups of 50. We will still be coordinating times with St Catherine’s to ensure we don’t breach this. • Toilets remain open. Changerooms are now open including showers (max capacity of 10). • Face masks are not mandatory while exercising outdoors. By law you must carry one with you at all times and wear it outdoors if you cannot maintain 1.5m social distancing. You must wear a mask when you are in the rowing club. • The gym remains open with a max capacity of 33. Equipment must be cleaned between users. The gym door and windows must remain open for ventilation. • Saturday brekky and Thursday Barrel nights are resumed with a max capacity of 70. You must be seated at a table when eating/drinking and put your mask on if you are not. Please continue to; 1. Sign in and out using the QR code system 2. Hand sanitise upon entry and exit 3. Practice social distancing and good hygiene 4. Clean equipment and disinfect oar handles and gym equipment Meg Hester Captain Go Mercs! President's Christmas Luncheon moved to 6th December Updated 25th November 2020 You are invited to celebrate Christmas as a club at our COVID-safe Lunch on Sunday 6th December at 12pm. We will be seeing off our active athletes before their December camp and reuniting after such a long, hard year! Bookings can be made through Trybooking. Click on the invitation above to go staright through to the booking site. Saturday mornings return to normal Published 28th November 2020 Saturday morning breakfasts return to normal after COVID. A cpouple of images from today. Great to be back to a normal Saturday morning Club rowing takes off Published 28th November 2020 Meghan Hester and her team are doing a great job getting club rowing working well. On Thursday night this week four eights, a four and a double hit the water in a superb display of club rowing. It comprised a women's and a men's club eight, a mixed masters eight, a masters men's eight, a club four and a master double. There was a great get together after the row with a sausage sizzle and the bar open. A great night was had by all. Carey legends Chris Drummond and Andrew Rees enjoy a well earned beer after their row on Thursday Congratulations to those members invited to the senior trials in December at Penrith Published 25th November 2020 A big congratulations to : Red Matthews Katrina Bateman Georgie Gleeson Ben Canham Alex Wolf Alex Viney Alex Vuillermin Fergus Hamilton Jack Robertson for their invitation to the NTC Time Trials in December at Penrith. It is a great reflection of the work they have done and progress made in really difficult times. We wish them well for the racing. They will join other Mercantilians already at the NTC's: James Rook Kat Weary Amanda Bateman Jess Morrisson Gus Widdecombe Liam Donald Great work and Go Mercs. Mercs goes coastal Published 20th November 2020 So what is coastal rowing? Coastal Rowing is the extreme version of rowing, and involves rowing on large lakes and the sea. It is one of the fastest growing communities of rowers with excellent opportunities given that flat water is not required. Coastal rowing in Europe The standard boats are singles (solo), doubles and coxed quadruple sculls. Coastal Rowing is comprised of two event formats, one is the endurance event which ranges between 4 –6km around a buoyed course, and the other is the sprint event known as “Beach Sprints”. As the name suggests, the race begins on the beach with a rower running out to the boat to its’ waiting crew and racing a distance of 500m, which can involve a buoyed slalom course, before returning to the beach and running to the finish line. The pinnacle events on the international Coastal Rowing racing calendar are the club-based endurance style World Rowing Coastal Championships and the nation-based sprint style World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals. Coastal Touring is the recreational or social aspect of the discipline. The IOC and World Rowing are promoting Coastal Rowing as a future Olympic discipline and exploring its’ potential following its inclusion in the Youth Olympic Games in Senegal, and recently held Europe’s first Coastal Rowing regatta; the European Coastal Rowing Challenge in Livorno, Italy. There is still consideration around whether a potential Olympic discipline will be the Beach (sprint) or Coastal (endurance) format. At the recent FISA Extraordinary Congress the Member Federations supported the proposal put forward by World Rowing to include Coastal Rowing in 2024 Olympic Games. Mercs goes coastal Mercantile has acquired a couple of coastal quad sculls to encourage the sport. The inaugural row took place on Thursday 19 November with a masters crew. Mercs enters the water at Port Melbourne Hugh McVicker testing out the equipment Anyone who wishes to take up the coastal rowing sport will be need to also join Port Melbourne Yacht Club as an associate member to get access to the boat. Vale Andrew Evans and Robert Strang Published 16th November 2020 It is with great regret that we advise of the loss of esteemed Vice-President Andrew Evans. Andrew had a deep love of the Club and was always there when the Club was ever in need. More information on the life and contribution of Andrew will follow shortly. It is also with great regret that we advse of the death of Robert Strang. Robert and his son Robert rowed at the Club. More details will also follow. Rowing Profile Andrew Evans Published 19th November 2020 As previously advised, we advise members of the loss of Vice-President Andrew Evans, A profile of him has now been added to the member profile section of the website. Rowing Profile of Robert Strang Published 20th November 2020 As previously advised, we were saddened to hear of the death of past member Robert Strang. A member profile of him has been added to the website. Amanda Bateman, RA athlete of the month Published 15t November 2020 Amanda on the right smiling to the Mercantile camera at World Cup 2 in 2019 Rowing Australia reports as follows. Victorian Amanda Bateman, is the younger sister of fellow ARTeam member, Katrina. The youngest Bateman sister, there are three, has represented Australia twice at Junior World Rowing Championships and once the U23 World Rowing Championships. In 2013, Bateman raced in the Junior Women’s Quad, finishing seventh overall, while in 2014 she raced in the Junior Women’s Single Scull in Hamburg. In 2017, she finished eighth overall in the U23 Women’s Four at the World Rowing U23 Championships held in Bulgaria. At the end of 2018 she joined the Hancock Prospecting Women’s NTC and was named in the Women’s Double Scull with Genevieve Horton for World Rowing Cups 2 and 3 in 2019. The duo went on to represent Australia at the 2019 World Rowing Championships, qualifying the Women’s Double Scull for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. In May 2020, Amanda was named an AIS Lifeline Custodian, working on the AIS and Lifeline Australia to tell her own personal story/journey by raising awareness of mental health issues, suicide prevention and encouraging people to seek help if needed. You can find out more about why Amanda is part of the program here. 2020 Colgan Foundation Virtual Oceania Indoor Rowing Championships Published 15th November 2020 The 2020 Colgan Foundation Virtual Oceania Indoor Rowing Championships will be hosted on Saturday 5 December (NZT) and is an open event for all who wish to participate, extending from U15 to 100+, and including masters, lightweight and para categories. 2020 will see the debut of the Colgan Cup – a Trans-Tasman challenge between New Zealand and Australia. The Colgan Foundation, proud supporters of the development of rowing in both nations, is a not-for-profit corporation founded by life member Sean Colgan to benefit athletic, scientific, environmental, and education communities. The Colgan Cup will be awarded to the country with the highest points tally between New Zealand & Australia, based on the following points system: Entry for an event 1 point First place 6 points Second place 4 points Third place 2 points Since retiring from rowing after the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Eric Murray has remained heavily involved in the sport, championing indoor rowing across New Zealand in his dual roles with the New Zealand Indoor Rowing Association and Concept2.