WITH the OARSMEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 28, 26 April 1927, Page 14

WITH the OARSMEN

BY

“RIGGER”

EIGHT-OAR EVENTS Though the rowing season in Auckland is nearing its close, there are important eight-oar events to be despatched before the curtain is finally run down on what has been an interesting summer for Auckland oarsmen. “Rigger” has been authoritatively informed that eight-oar races are to take place before the sheds close for the winter. These races will be for the Somerville Shield, now held by the Waitemata Club, to whom North Shore and St. George’s have submitted challenges. Out of Date Conditions Unfortunately the conditions laid down when the Somerville Shield was presented stipulated that the races must be rowed in clinker eights. These provisos hardly comply with existing facilities in Auckland, where there are now two fine best and best eights which are the only craft in which any race should logically be rowed. Rowing in Auckland has gone past the stage when only a minor percentage of the oarsmen could be trusted in a racing shell. Few men, stepping into a best and best boat, are unaware of the responsibilities they incur. Thus there is no reason, except for the conditions governing the shield, why future Somerville Shield races should not be rowed in the newly-acquired boats and the New Zealand Racing Rowing Association has been asked to alter the rules so that this may be done.

Clinker Eights Unless the rules are altered the Somerville Shield is unlikely ever to gro beyond the Waitemata. Certainly there is nowhere else, except Wanganui, the home of the shield for many years, where there are two clinker built eight-oar boats. The eights in Wanganui are both the property of the old-established ■ Wanganui Rowing Club, from which Waitemata won the shield, and the clinker eights in Auckland are both the property of the Auckland Rowing Club, an even older institution, established away back in 1869. As these clubs were hitherto the only ones possessing good eights, the responsibility of all the eight-oar racing conducted in New Zealand fell upon them. Very wisely the Auckland Rowing Club stipulates before its eights are used that certain conditions, insurance among them, be observed. Necessary though they, are,

these involve devious processes which have not stimulated eight-oar racing. Shipping the Eights Shipping any eights from the Auckland sheds is a problem and the difficulty is accentuated by the frailty of the new best and best boats, which are so delicately constructed that they must be very carefully handled. Both from the Waitemata and Auckland sheds the eights can only be deposited on the water on a full tide. On the low tides the water is too shallow to permit the boats to be run straight in. At West End the problem of shallow water at low tides is again acute, while the shed, moreover, is not big enough to take an eight unless the boat is stowed in sections. The same apnlies to St. George’s and at the Waitemata shed the eight now housed there was only found space by means of an extension built out from the harbour end of the shed. The suggestion that a temporary shed be built to shelter the two eights may be worth considering if no rebuilding or extension plans are contemplated by the clubs in the meantime. Through the Gap The peculiar problAns which face Auckland rowing clubs on account of the development works in progress are illustrated at Judge’s Bay, where the St. George’s Club cannot get its boats into open water without swinging the oars in-board to allow the skiffs to pass through the narrow opening in the newly-constructed railway embankment. There is only limited space inside the wall, so that to get decent water the club has to risk a certain amount of damage to its boats every time the crews seek the freedom of the open harbour. It cannot be suggested, of course, that sport should be considered before the inexorable demands of national and civic progress, but there are grounds for the suspicion that at times Auckland oarsmen have been treated with scant courtesy. These strictures cannot, in the case of the Harbour Board, be applied to the Auckland and Waitemata clubs, which remain where they are only because the board stayed the completion of the Mechanics’ Bay reclamation. When the demands for waterfront land and new wharves decree the completion of the project then the harried clubs will have to make another move. Out for a Flutter In the striking array of craft on the water for the official closing of the

yachting season last Saturday it nas encouraging to see several rowing skiffs in evidence. Sometimes the yachtsman, bowling along before a brisk breeze, scoffs at the hard-working oarsman and ponders on the wondrous energy which induces a free and responsible individual to tori like a galley slave. But the vachtsman, in his comparative Inertia, cannot appreciate the satisfaction that comes to the oarsman. Nor can he. nor any other who has not been a rowing roan, realise the good cheer, friendliness and conviviality that exist in the brotherhood of oarsmen. Rowing is as old as civilisation it♦l; J any^oarsman , struggling in the blind exhaustion that comes in the closing stages of a punishing race, asks his soul why he invites this torture he may find in reflection the consolation that heredity and tradition play a part. Hairy Britons, daubed with woad probably paddled their coracles in the first regattas.