At the end of June, our members participated in a long-distance ergathon to raise funds for the club. The event was a huge success, and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank friends, family, and the general public for their support. We also want to express our gratitude to every member who makes Tay RC the fantastic and welcoming club it is. 🚣‍♂️🙌

A few words from our Club Captain, Lucy;

What a day! Everyone really showed up to make the ergathon a massive success whether it was through putting miles into the ergs, collecting donations on the day, helping set up and set down, encouraging family and friends to donate online and generally being amazingly supportive of the whole event. We raised our full target amount and are now in the process of researching a suitable facility for extra storage and indoor training. The club is really fortunate to have 8 ergs and a small selection of other indoor equipment to complement our water training and continue to meet up in bad weather. It deserves a space of its own so that we can reclaim our welfare unit and disabled toilet. The money raised will therefore be invaluable for the continuing development of our members. It will also allow us to continue to grow and improve our annual Learn to Row course and Junior camp. Our Just Giving page is still open and will remain so for a few more weeks. Thank you to everyone who has donated so far, it means a lot and really will make a difference to the coaches and members of our club.

A few words from our Fundraising Officer, Thomas;

I’m so happy the Ergathon was such a success. The club came together brilliantly and really made sure the Ergathon was an effective fundraiser. It was brilliant to see the number of people who signed up across the club to do a stint, and I think our recent Learn To Row graduates impressed everyone with their effort and willingness to take part! Thanks to the efforts of everyone involved, we raised over £3000 for the club!
The day itself was perfect, the weather held, and it wasn’t too hot or too chilly! We had a brilliant location and were really very lucky to have had people finishing the park run and going on walks throughout the day as this really increased potential donations, and got more word out about our club!
I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who signed up to row, anyone who came along and supported, and everyone that helped organise and carry out the Ergathon to make it such a successful and fun day!

Get ready to cheer on our amazing Tay Rowing Club members as they take on a long-distance row at Bells Sports Centre, North Inch, Perth on Saturday, 29th June !
This Ergathon is not just a test of endurance and teamwork but also a fantastic opportunity to raise vital funds for our club. We need your support to keep our boats on the water and our community strong. 💪🌊
📅 **Date:** 29th June
🏟 **Venue:** Bells Sports Centre, North Inch, Perth
⏰ **Time:** All day event
Bring your family, friends, and plenty of enthusiasm to motivate our rowers as they power through the kilometres. Your presence and encouragement will mean the world to us!

Donations:  If you would like to donate, no matter how big or small, we’d be really grateful for your support.  Further details can be found on our Just Giving page at: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/tayergathon

Let’s make this event unforgettable. See you there! 🎉👊 #TayRowingClub #Ergathon #RowingForACause #CommunitySupport
P.S. We’ll be sharing our Just Giving link leading up to the event, and any donation, regardless of size, would be greatly appreciated!🙏
@tayrowingclub

The River Tay Community Sports Hub are inviting all residents of Perth & Kinross to join them on Sunday 5th May, 2024 at high tide from 1.30pm to our ‘Between the Bridges’ Event.

Visitors to the event, our second event of this kind for the Hub, can see everything that happens on the Tay, and learn more about how they can get involved.

The River Tay Community Sports HUB is a collective group of Perth and Kinross water based sports clubs along with Perth Harbour, Willowgate Activity Centre and Sea Cadets. The HUB is facilitated by dedicated Live Active Leisure Sports Development Officer, Stevie Baxter. The HUB’s aim is to bring together sports clubs and community organisations who want to develop and grow the sporting offer on and around the River Tay.  There will be paddling, kayaking, canoeing, sailing and wild water swimming all on the Tay together at high tide at 1:30pm, with an information point set up by the clubs and organisations involved, all on the High Street/Tay Street viewing platform. This year will also see the local fire brigade attend with a fire engine, the stations boat and trailer will also be in attendance where the staff from the station will be providing water safety information and some do’s and dont’s of the river.

Tay Rowing Club will also add some challenging fun to the event where there will be some indoor rowing machines on land where locals can try and row as fast as they can over a set distance, with the quickest individual on the day winning a prize.

Stevie Baxter, Sports Development Officer from Live Active Leisure, told us:

All of the clubs and people that are involved with the River Tay are so passionate about the water and we would like to share both the physical and mental benefits of being out on the water safely can do for any individual no matter if that is in the water as a swimmer or on a boat or canoe, we really do have something for everyone on the River Tay. The setting for the event is on a beautiful stretch of the river between the Queens & Smeatons bridges and want to showcase the sports and the camaraderie between clubs that share the river.

We would like to invite anyone interested in getting involved in any way with the river, to come along and spend time learning about the opportunities – for all ages and all abilities.”

In addition to learning about new club opportunities, there is also advice on using the river safely.

As the summer holidays get underway, the Hub are keen to share their invaluable website resource to inform and educate users on the dangers of using rivers as well as a signpost to clubs and organisations that use the river for their activities, with key safety information included for activities that have become popular since the pandemic, such as outdoor swimming, stand up paddle boarding and jet skiing.

CLUBS ATTENDING ARE:

Sea Cadets

Perth Sailing Club

Perth Sub Aqua

Jet-Ski Club

Tay Rowing Club

Perth Canoe Club

Carse Canoe Club

Wild Water Swimmers

Stand Up Paddleboarding

Willowgate Activity Centre

Perth Sub-Aqua Club

Fire Service

Contract: 28 hours (freelance) (29th July-1st August 2024)

Location: Tay Rowing Club, PH2 8QJ

Salary: £12.75/hr

Responsible to: Project Co-ordinator

Tay Rowing Club (SCIO) is a charity and local sports group which aims to positively impact the lives in the Tayside community through the promotion of a range of accessible, affordable, and sustainable opportunities for local young people (and on occasion the wider community) to participate, coach, or volunteer in rowing and physical activity related opportunities on the River Tay.

Tay Rowing Club junior programme is supported by Scottish Rowing, the governing body for the sport of Rowing in Scotland and is assisted by a range of local partners to deliver this activity. In this exciting role, the successful post holder will have responsibility for the co-ordination and delivery of rowing coaching for the duration of this 4-day junior rowing camp on the River Tay. The post will include working with children and young people from various communities in the Tayside region.

We are seeking a dedicated, driven, and motivated individual who will be inspired to work for a charity whose aim is to inspire local young people from the Tayside area to take part and sustain their participation in rowing. Our candidate will share the view that sport has the power to change lives.

Job Description

The Coach will report to the Project Co-ordinator of Tay Rowing Club and will be responsible for delivering rowing coaching both on and off the water (on rowing machines and in rowing boats) with support from sessional and volunteer coaches. A syllabus for the 4-day junior camp will be provided.

Key responsibilities will include:

• To support the Project Co-ordinator by leading the delivery of water sports activities for children and young people.

• To support the Project Co-ordinator to promote community leadership and active

participation of the Tay Rowing Club Junior Camp whilst being a positive role model.

• To support the Project Co-ordinator to complete and provide regular monitoring and

evaluation as and when required.

• The post will require working hours of 9am-4pm on the 29th of July- 1st of August. 28hours total.

Additional responsibilities

• To respect the rights of all participants and ensure that their well-being and safety are

always paramount.

• The ability to adapt sessions to cater for various levels of age & ability and ensure all

sessions are participant centred.

• To ensure that all activities are delivered in line with Scottish Governing Body policies and

procedures, particularly Child and Vulnerable Adult Protection Policy, Water Safety and

Coaches Code of Conduct.

• To inspect all sports and activity equipment prior to and after session to ensure safe to

use and report defective equipment to the relevant organisation for repair.

Tay Rowing Club is committed to selecting staff solely based on their ability to do the job for which they are being recruited and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.

This successful candidate MUST

• Hold a rowing coaching qualification

• Hold a qualification and/or have demonstrable experience in water safety (e.g., FSRT

and Cold Immersion/Capsize training etc).

• Have experience delivering safe water sports sessions

The successful candidate will be appointed subject to membership of the PVG Scheme.

Application Process:

Applicant to submit application form via: https://form.jotform.com/240915844289366

Applications for this position by Friday 26th April 2024

Interviews will be held from May 2024

For more information contact Heather McKenzie on safety@tayrowingclub.com

Well where do I start…I am actually going to say Wednesday 29th March 2023…despite this being about the Inverness Regatta on this weekend (11th and 12th  November 2023)… 

Wednesday 29th March was the start of the last Tay Rowing Club “Learn to Row” course and 5th April the first time 8 learners in that group, including myself, tentatively got into our first boat on the River Tay…..another group of 8 starting on the Saturday. 

The courses ran for 10 weeks ending officially on 31st May but with a “Graduation BBQ” on 24th June…. never at that point did I consider that in just over 4 months time I’d be attending my first Regatta as a competitor….but that is all credit to the committee and members of the club…. 

I think all learners on the course would agree that from Day 1 we were all made to feel extremely welcome and no question was too stupid or mistake too frustrating for the coaches (or at least they hid it well). 

Having never been in a rowing boat before and no, not knowing the difference between sculling, sweeping, front stops, back stops etc I genuinely felt I was learning a new language as well as a new sport…but all was explained well and still working my way through a few additional phrases that maybe don’t feature in the Scottish Rowing Dictionary… 

So as you can imagine being asked if I could help make up a ‘more senior ladies crew’ boat at the beginning of September the nerves really kicked in….still unsure that I could even row and keep myself afloat, I now had to consider I could potentially sink 3 experienced members of the club and more importantly Committe Members and those posts are difficult to fill at the best of times!!! 

Despite the setbacks with weather and scheduling personal lives we managed 3 trips out on the Tay before departing for Inverness having navigated a race licence, ordering team kit and many sleepless nights worrying about layers, timing, location and yes, still worrying about being responsible for all the possible catastrophes I had conjured up in my head associated with rowing! You’d never think I’d been trained in a previous life to deal with major incidents including firearms incidents, fatal collisions and terrorism situations….I was more terrified of ‘catching a crab’ in the Caledonian Canal…. 

The day however was amazing…. first things first our crew “TAYna Turners” did not drown…we looked the part in our team kit, started well, stayed afloat and finished….all of which I’m taking as big wins….and no we didn’t win but I genuinely had a great experience… 

The event was well organised and people so friendly and helpful….Molly from Dundee Uni Rowing Club jumped in to cox for the other crew racing that day – the “Racing Snakes” and Martin, another new member to the club but extremely experienced, helped out another team to allow them to race after one of their crew was injured…a great sense of rowing community. 

Despite our crew not putting up any strong competition (on this occasion – but watch this space!), I can seriously say on reflection it really was about the taking part….not a phrase I’ve ever used in relation to competitive sport but there is a first time for everything…we went out and took part and I certainly learned a lot… 

Paige from the club however did stick to her race plan of ‘Start hard. Go a bit harder in the middle. Finish hard’….coming away with 1st out of 12 in her first Scottish Head Race….well done! 

So the motto behind this is you think you would like to try rowing then just do it…. a great sport, a fantastic club and a welcoming rowing community!

On the 20th May Team Tay headed to their last regatta of the season- Castle Semple regatta.

There were two crews racing at the regatta in the following categories, women’s R2 double (Rogers & McKenzie) and the women’s R2 quad (Rogers, Allmand, Scott and McKenzie).

Both crews qualified for their respective finals and both finished fourth in their finals.

 It was a much more leisurely start than usual with the first race not till the women’s double at 14:05. Once arrived and boats rigged it was straight to the well stocked tea tent to fuel up before our afternoon of racing.

The first race of the day was the heat of the WR2x and with the top 2 progressing to the final the crew knew what position they needed to be. After a quick warm up to the start line Rogers and McKenzie lined up on the start excited to get the fist race of the day underway. They had an excellent start keeping up with the stand out crew from George Watson’s College and then began to lengthen out over the course. Rogers set the rating well and allowed the crew to keep the pressure on for the 1000m. GWC were pulling away by the half way point and Tay responded with a push of their own. Tay finished convincingly second in their heat, knowing they had a place in the final.

It was a quick turn around for the women’s double as the final was shortly after at 15:05.

Rogers and McKenzie lined up on the start line, one of 6 crews in the final. Feeling warmed up and ready after the last race Tay got the race underway and put in a good start. The SPRC/SUBC and GWC crews took off from the pack and left Tay battling with Dundee and SABC for the third spot. Tay maintained and even put a power 10 in to overtake the SABC crew but were ultimately just short over the line and took fourth place.

For Rogers and McKenzie it was a good race, building on their previous novice win this regatta season and their first time entering the R2 category. 

The next race for Team Tay was heat 1 of the women’s r2 coxless quads WR24x.

The crew had to finish in the top 3 to progress to the final. With that in mind they warmed up and did some last minute race starts to prepare.

The race started well with Tay RC keeping up with the pack and after some ‘long and strong’ calls from stroke finished second, safely securing their place in the final.

The final of the WR24x was the last race of the day for Tay. The crew were up against some strong competition from the universities and gave it everything they had for the  last 1000m. They finished in 4th place, beating SABC and finishing closely behind IRC/SPRC. 

Castle Semple was a very friendly and welcoming regatta, Team Tay really enjoyed their trip here and look forward to it becoming a regular feature in our regatta season.

A massive thank you to our support crew of friends, family, dogs and babies who helped rig boats, provided snacks and cheered us on from the bank!

Race 1: WNov2x

Despite leaving at the crack of dawn to allow enough time to get a trailer load of boats to Strathclyde Park before our 09:40 race, by the time we had navigated the parking, got our bow number and rigged the boat, it was a swift launch and row up to the start of the women’s novice double skulls qualifying heat.

The mild panic ensured our heart rates were up and the on-board flask of coffee was the only hydration we’d organised between us.

We had a fantastic start and a solid race, realising at the 500m mark that we had secured a top 3 placement and could ease off a little. To our left was a Strathclyde Park double that we knew we were going to have to watch out for in the final as they were not letting us get too far away.

We had a little bit of time to relax and prepare for the final and a better opportunity to realise just how choppy the lake was as we practiced some starts and pressure pieces up to the stake boats.

We tried to suss out our opposition with the Strathclyde park crew from our previous race still being the ones we had our eye on. A lovely double who had travelled all the way from Belfast were the winners of the other qualifying heat so they were next to us at the start.

Once again, our start was solid, and Heather fought the steering against the wind and kept us within our lane. As predicted, it was a race to first place between ourselves and the Strathclyde park crew and as the water got rougher, the steering got harder to manage and Heather and I made the final 200m hard work for ourselves to gain just 2 seconds on our opponents.

As we paddled on from the 1Km finish to the pontoons, chatting away to the Belfast ladies we heard cheers of encouragement from our club on the bank. We were a little confused when they told us we had come 2^nd and that we looked like we were ‘going slowly’. Turns out that they thought we were mid race as we casually paddled back to the pontoons, planning a visit to Belfast. Thank you Strathclyde Park Crabb and McGonagle for the close race. You won’t be Novice status for much longer!

Race 2: WNov4x+

The crew in Arun from Tay RC racing in the wnov4x+ category; Kilnkman (stroke), Scott, Adams and Malloch (Bow), headed by Murphy as a first time cox feeling confident after several successful sessions on the Tay were apprehensive to get the 900m time trial race started.

Some strong winds met us at the start line but after a sucesful rolling start the crew mannaged to hold strong.

Aware that the boat was quickly taking on water due to the choppy conditions the crew the crew focused on keeping together and pushing hard to get past the finish line and achevied a time which got us through to the B final.

The crew set off again but this time with McKenzie as cox. With the choppy conditions getting up to the launch point proved a challenge. After a strong push to start it quickly became aparent that the boat had lost steering so veered into the the lane to our right forcing us to have to make an abrupt stop and make the rest off the way down the course working as a crew to manovour Arun

Tay RC Arun crew thoroughly enjoyed its visit to Strathclyde Park and the members of this crew are looking forward to seeing what they can achieve at the upcoming sprint races

Race 3: W4x

The last race of the day for Tay RC was a straight final in the women’s coxless quad category. The crew consisted of Paige Klinkman at stroke, Lucy Rogers, Tara Scott and Heather McKenzie steering at bow.

The crew boated at the designated boating time but due to some capsizes in the junior single categories before them were delayed by quite some time. It was almost an hour later than planned Tay got attached to the stake boat and prepared to race the 2k course at Strathclyde Park.

The crew got off to a really quick start and were contending for first place for the first 250m. The power and skill of the AUBC university boat meant they had pulled away from the pack but Tay clung on to the 2nd place- keeping Edinburgh uni crew off for a good 800m.

The course opened up and some choppy conditions ensued in the middle section of the race but Tay kept it together and persevered. The final 500m was a chance to regain some metres on the EUBC boat and finish the race off strong. Tay pushed for the line and put it some excellent work to power the quad over the line into 3rd place.

An excellent result for the crew and club.