Notes

Pleasant weather during this year’s event – sunshine and warm but with a steady headwind making for rough water under the bridges.

2016 saw our first attempt at running the NER as a one-day event.  We also introduced a 3-session format with competitors not allowed to double-up within a session.  This made for an easy draw and allocation of race times.  We await feedback from competitors about their opinions on these innovations.

We had a disappointingly low entry across almost all events with many events running as two-boat straight-finals.  The only event with a significant entry was Res 1 Pairs which attracted 6 entrants.

 Deeside Scullers 50th

At least this allowed us plenty time to allocate two slots for demonstration races by members of the Deeside Scullers (DS) club which was celebrating its 50^th anniversary since foundation.  The first race between coxed fours was close with an early lead being taken by the City Station crew only for the Boathouse crew to claw this back by the rocks and then take a lead of clear water – the crews then had to perform a 360-degree spin below the QE2 Bridge before resuming their race to the usual finish line.  The City crew managed a faster spin to regain some ground (?water) but the Boathouse crew was a clear winner.

In the second DS race, a wooden 4+ took to the water to be followed by an eight – to make for a fairer race, the eight started facing upstream and had to do a 180-degree spin on the ‘go’.  A further minor handicap was that the eight only had 7 oars on-board!  Apparently the missing blade was shared around during the race – entertaining stuff indeed!  The 4+ went on to win!

Championship of the Dee

2 points per seat for winning finalists and 1 point for runners-up (excluding Junior or Masters events)

Aberdeen Boat Club                                                    89 points

Aberdeen Schools Rowing Association                           61 points

Aberdeen University Boat Club                                      18 points

Robert Gordon University Boat Club                               9 points