LARC Fundraising 24 hr Sponsored Row
Feb 2024
Lymington - Paris - Lymington (700km)
SPONSORED ROW PHOTO GALLERY:
The Official Opening of the NEW LARC Clubroom
May 2019
WORLD champion rower and double Olympic gold medallist Heather Stanning OBE was the special guest at the official opening of the Lymington Rowing Club’s new premises on Saturday.
Visitors and rowers gathered at the packed ribbon-cutting ceremony to get a first-hand look at the building, which was given to the club as part of a planning condition for the Redrow housing development at Lymington Shores.
The facility was offered on a lease of 125 years, which includes sole access to the site’s pontoon at a nominal cost under an agreement with the town harbour commissioner.
VALUABLE TO COMMUNITY
Talking at the opening ceremony, Stanning said:
“The community that the rowing club has here is really valuable for youngsters – and every age group in all honesty – because it enables them to see what sport can bring to their lives.
“The lists of people who have contributed to making the new club happen is very impressive and shows how it is not just about the rowers in the boat, but about the massive team behind it as well.
“It was fantastic to be in Lymington, and I had a great morning out on the water – it was a bit different for me because usually I have to deal with hazards on a river, looking out for canal barges mainly. On the Solent, though, you have to watch out for the Isle of Wight ferry!”
STATE OF THE ART
With grants from local authorities and in-house fundraising, the premises has been fitted with kitchen facilities, a small bar, state-of-the-art rowing machines and weight racks, and ground-level storage space for boats and equipment.
Chairman of LARC, Mark Viner, said: “I have been a member of the club for over 40 years and we have had various successes on and off the water, but the one constant factor has been the search for a new premises – this day has finally arrived.
“Redrow built the premises for us as part of the [planning] agreement and we had to raise some funds to get it kitted out.
“The bulk of the money for this came from three sources, the two main ones being Sport England and NFDC, who I would like to thank for their grants, and the other was our own fundraising.
“Over the years we have also had help from Hampshire County Council and Lymington and Pennington Town Council, and I would also like to thank the harbour master and the harbour commissioner for their work on the new pontoon.”
Kenny Chalk
World Masters Single Scull (D) Champion
2017
Lake Bled, Slovenia
In order to accommodate the 4,700 athletes and more than 900 races, the racing began on Wednesday, 6 September. Racing then took place from dawn until dusk for three days. The final day of the regatta was reserved for mixed event entries which allowed some crews to enter at the last minute. Competitors had until Friday evening at 18:00 to enter their mixed crews. More than 700 boats entered, which added another 105 races to the programme. These events provide an opportunity for friends from different clubs around the world to join together and race in one final event.
Other highlights from the week included a reception at the Bled Castle, at which the octogenarians (rowers who have actively competed over the age of 80) were awarded with a medal and a pin. “It is inspiring to see that this group continues to grow and that many of them add more and more pins each year,” says FISA Masters Commission member Sebastian Franke.
The small town of Bled managed the huge numbers of athletes and supporters seamlessly with the FISA masters commission acknowledging the work of the organising committee. This included the coordination of 200 boats that were supplied by Filippi and many more that were sourced from clubs throughout Europe. The number of entries meant that each boat made several trips on the water each day. Athletes were housed in the surrounding area in hotels, hostels and camp sites. Transport buses ran every 15 minutes for 14 hours per day to make sure that all competitors reached their races on time.
Bled has hosted many events included the World Rowing Championships in 1966, 1979, 1989 and 2011. More recently it hosted a World Rowing Cup in 2014.
Total Thames Challenge
2017
Guinness Book of Records & £4K+ fundraised
Lymington Rowing Club’s pair, Dave Mans and Rob Maltby are now the proud holders of the World Record for the fastest row along the 167 mile length of the River Thames. Congratulations and well done to you both for such a brilliant achievement!
They rowed the 167 mile length of the River Thames in just over 30 hours, breaking the previous Guinness World Record of 36 hours by a massive 6 hours!
Dave and Rob have over 30 years of coastal rowing experience between them. They have a growing number of rowing achievements to their names, including successfully completing the 500-mile ‘Old Pulteney’ row to the magnetic North Pole.
The purpose of the row is to raise funds for the veterans’ mental health charity Combat Stress and Lymington Rowing Club’s new club house. Lymington Rowing Club is a community sports association.
Combat Stress have helped former servicemen and women deal with issues like trauma, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder for almost a century. They provide support to veterans from every service and every conflict over the phone and online, in the community and at treatment centres. Their mission is to raise awareness that invisible injuries can be just as hard to cope with as physical ones. So when a veteran is having a tough time, there’s someone there to help tackle the past and to help them take on the future.
Both rowers serve in the army and Dave said the support Combat Stress give to ex-armed forces personnel is so important. “People are really aware of the more visible injuries people suffer from serving. The coverage and public knowledge of it is getting better, but a lot of the problem is the lack of visible symptoms with mental health. The charity do an incredible job helping veterans all over the country.”
Total Thames 2017: the challenge
During their journey, Dave and Rob burnt around 30,000 calories, travelled across nine counties, went through 45 locks and under 214 bridges. The team from Lymington really did maximise their technical, practical and physical experience of rowing in challenging coastal conditions in order to set this new world record.
Rob and Dave were assisted by an exceptional support team from Lymington Rowing Club, including experts in yacht racing, rowing boat construction and an RAF Doctor. The athletes used a specially developed boat that maximised speed in the calmer upper Thames but was also seaworthy enough to cope with rougher water in the Thames Estuary.
“We came up with the idea to try and break the record together really at the same time,” Dave said, before the event. “Normally crews who try this to do this row on the Thames are traditional river rowers from City clubs. We’re hoping our experience and specific skills developed in coastal rowing will help to give us some form of advantage over the course of the challenge. Sections of the River Thames are known to be quite rough, but we should be comfortable in that environment.”
To prepare for the physical challenge ahead of them the pair, who both row at Lymington Rowing Club, have combined long sessions on the rowing machines with distance runs to build up their stamina.
“We’ve had some fantastic support from local businesses so far and hopefully that will continue right up to and after the challenge so we can raise money for a key cause as well as the rowing club’s project.” said Dave before the event. The pair are particularly thankful to local department store Bradbeers who have given a donation of £1000 and also to Spencers New Forest and Burgashell Racing Boats.
Livvi Bull and Lucy Taylor
Ladies Junior Pair Championship
2016
Livvi Bull and Lucy Taylor raced together for years before that first win in 2013 and their close friendship was key to winning the 2016 championship as a unit.
Lymington Rowing Club’s Livvi Bull and Lucy Taylor won the club’s first major championship in three years back in 2016, after they secured the regional Ladies Junior Pair Championship. Lymington’s previous major championship was won by men’s senior sculler Chis Schreiber back in 2013. Bull and Taylor’s journey started before Schreiber won his title, with their maiden victory in the category at Poole in 2013. The category was turned into a championship in 2015 where the Lymington Pair were runners up to Westover. The duo went into the final at Swanage regatta knowing that the race win on that day would secure them an unassailable 7-0 lead in the championship. On that day Lymington ladies crossed the line with a few lengths of clear water between them and Southsea. Bull and Taylor had raced together since before that first win in 2013 and their close friendship was key to winning the championship as a unit.
The pair were officially crowned as Hants and Dorset Ladies Junior Pair Champions at the association’s presentation ceremony after the season had ended. Livvi and Lucy were unbeaten in 2016, winning all ten H&D races in an impressive season. They are pictured here in front of the old Lymington clubhouse with their fathers Tim Bull and Alan Taylor who coached and mentored them throughout their rowing career. It was thought that it would be the last championship won at the old site as the club was relocating across the river to the Lymington shores development.
“This is the club we know. I used to come down with Dad as a child and it’s really special to be able to do this in the club that we have grown up in.” - Livvi Bull
“It was a massive honour.”. - Lucy Taylor
With Lucy retired from racing, Livvi then joined forces with Katie Martin in the 2017 season and together they won the Ladies Senior Pairs Championship at a rain soaked BTS regatta in July 2017. Unlike the clear run that Bull and Taylor had experienced, they faced strong competition from both Coalporters and Shanklin but they held off their rivals.
It marked a fantastic achievement by the ladies and was Bull’s second title in a row whilst Martin claimed her first championship point for the club.
The Story behind the naming
of
‘Alan Goodall’ LARC Coxed Four
1984
-by Colin Fagan
Alan Goodall
At a ceremony on Lymington Town Quay on 12th December 1998, Lymington Amateur Rowing Club’s Vice President, Alan Goodall, a local well known farmer and Proprietor of Goodall’s Strawberry Farm personally performed the launching of the clubs new coastal four bearing his name. A significant boat, as it was the first in a long line of coastal fours built by Burgashell emanating from a mould built and supplied by Lymington Rowing Club members.
It was fitting that this initial craft should be named after Alan Goodall, a longstanding member and supporter of the rowing club who joined when Neil Williamson was captain shortly after his son Brian (now currently a Vice President) joined in 1968.
In 1969 Alan became a member of the committee and it was in that year at Southsea Regatta that he witnessed his son, Brian, sinking with his crew whilst coxing Lentuna 1 and subsequently bought him a life jacket. Alan then wrote to the ARA (now BR) encouraging the use of life jackets for coxes, which later became enshrined in legislation.
During the 1970s and 80s Alan fulfilled the role of club chairman for many years until handing over to Don Lane, who preceded Colin Fagan and later to date Mark Viner.
It is worth a mention here that prior to his Lymington Rowing Club days, Alan had given his time to organising youth activities in his neighbouring village of South Baddesly.
During many years as a loyal member of the club he lent his support in numerous ways participating in the everyday running of the rowing club, rarely missing a committee meeting, making available space around the Goodall’s farm yard facilities for the parking of the club’s minibus, trailer and any surplus boats which could not be racked at Lymington’s Quay Road boathouse. There were also generous donations during the strawberry growing season, for punnets of strawberries to be made available for sale at Lymington Regatta, fundraising and social events making a useful contribution to club funds.
All in all Lymington Amateur Rowing Club benefitted greatly from Alan Goodall’s membership and it is a tribute to Alan that there is still a Lymington coastal racing four to be seen on the Lymington River bearing his name.
By Colin Fagan
LARC President 2020
The Official Launch of the Al Kier
Report coming soon
