2016 South Coast Championships Regatta, Herne Bay, 3/9/16. Friday Evening Reception

Clubs and individuals should have started to receive invitations to the 2016 South Coast Championships Civic Reception and Championship draw - at the Herne Bay R. C. Clubhouse on Friday, 2nd September, 2016 the evening before the Regatta.

Your Executive Officers just wanted to make you all aware of who should be receiving invitations and why. Herne Bay Rowing Club who are hosting the Regatta on behalf of the Coast Amateur Rowing Association have limited the number of invitations to fifty per Association - and as a result your Executive Officers have been forced to make a decision on who would receive them. 

Our decision was that each affiliated club should receive two invitations, the Associations Executive Officers and their partners, the Hants & Dorset South Coast Council Delegates and their partners and the H&DARA Race Officials at the Championhips and their partners should receive an invitation - and in spite of duplications this still exceeded the fifty tickets we were allocated. Unfortunately this left no tickets for the other Association Life Vice Presidents or representatives from the H&D ARA Championship crews - which is very disappointing. No doubt some will argue that this distribution of tickets is unfair and should have been done differently - but it is in line with the recent practise.

Clubs can of course choose to allocate their two Club invitations to representatives of their Championship crews as can any individual who receives an invitation.

Presumably for most Championship crews representatives it will be the Championship draw they will be most interested in and so - subject to an appropriate signal/Internet connection we will attempt to post the Championship draws on to the H&D Web site - and to our Twitter feed and face book page as soon as we can.

It is disappointing that we are unable to invite the representatives of the Championships but we hope you will understand and accept the decision taken by your Executive Officers in the light of the invitation restrictions.

Itchen Imperial R. C. Regatta - Draft Program & Warning ref. Parking

The draft Program and instructions for Itchen Regatta on Saturday, 13tg August, 2016 - can now be downloaded, in pdf. format, from it's Calender entry on the H&D ARA Website - at hdara.co.uk

Note from the regatta - a huge inconvenience this year is that Southampton FC have scheduled a home game on the same day as our regatta ... if they had only asked.......  This means that there will be NO parking at the regatta venue for competitors, officials and spectators. The nearest public parking is at Ocean Village approx. quarter mile away. Itchen are able to provide parking for boat trailers and towing vehicles in the sea scout compound and if required on the public slipway spaces (not the usual parking arrangements) so please follow the marshalls directions and instructions. It is suggested that club members car share as much as possible.

Provisional Result Spreadsheet and Championship Table up to and including Woolston Regatta

The provisional Result Spreadsheet and Championship Table up to and including Woolston Regatta can now be downloaded from the H&D ARA Web site - at www.hdara.co.uk - go to the Results tab.

These are provisional results and are subject to confirmation and clarification. If you spot any errors - and there will be some - please E Mail the Association Secretary - Steve Bull - on stephencbull@gmail.com - so they can be checked out and corrected.

Availability of Defibrillators at H&D Clubs and Events.

Availability of Defibrillators. Following the incident at Southsea Regatta this year and at Poole last year an exercise to establish the availability of Defibrillators at H&D Clubs and Events. A survey of Clubs and Events has been undertaken asking - The Location, if known, of the nearest unit to your Clubhouse; The Location, if known, of the nearest units to the location of any events you stage; The First Aid Provider - at your events; Dose your First Aid Provider provide a Defibrillator an staff trained to use it. The results of this survey can be downloaded in pdf format from the Safety Section of the H&D ARA Web site at - www.hdara.co.uk  

The results of the survey will be considored by the H&D Safety Sub Committee at its annual meeting in January/February, 2017. 

If you are struggling to find your local defib unit then you can download an app from the following link.  

http://www.scas.nhs.uk/news/campaigns/savealife/

which may tell you where it is - although it does not seem to work for the IW and parts of Dorset.

2016 South Coast Championships. Herne Bay, Saturday, 3rd September, 2016. Entry Conditions.

By now all Clubs should have received the entry information for this years South Coast Championship Regatta at Herne Bay on Saturday, 3rd September. If not they can be downloaded from its calendar entry on the home page of the H&D ARA Web site at - www.hdara.co.uk - and can also be found on the under the SCC Regatta Tab - scroll down to the information on the 2016 Regatta.

The entries for the Open and Junior Events close on Saturday, 13th August - and please note that there are NO LATE ENTRIES allowed at a South Coast Championship Regatta - so you must get your entries in on time and in-full or you risk missing out and the Association will not be able to help you.

Please note that our Championship representative crews will not be confirmed until the H&D Council Meeting after BTC Regatta - therefore if you have any doubts about your crews selection for any of the Championship events - you should enter them in the Open event - and they will be switched after our Championship crews have been selected and the open entry fee will be refunded by the organisers.

Ryan Epps, of the organising committee, has also asked if, to help them plan the race schedule in advance, each club could indicate which events you are expecting to be entering and to advise him of this by E Mail to - repps1@btinternet.com - by the end of July.

Finally - there are a number of SCC Rules regarding entry conditions  which must be adhered to - 

SOUTH COAST CHAMPIONSHIP ROWING REGATTA COUNCIL.

RULES AND RECOMMENDATIONS. RULES. May 2016.   Entry conditions.

Entry conditions

23. (a) Oarspersons rowing in Championship events shall be barred from competing in the Open Regatta, but are allowed to compete in more than one Championship event if selected by their Association. No crew or oarsperson is allowed to enter for more than two Open events, and no late entries will be accepted. But crews can be switched if affected by Championship results after the closing date for entries. Any crew entered in the supporting events, before being selected to represent their Association in the Championship events, shall be entitled to a full refund of their supporting event entry fee.

(b) The Junior Regatta shall be regarded as a separate regatta in which competitors will be permitted to enter more than one event but will be subject to meeting the regatta timetable. Entrants in the Junior Regatta may also enter the Championship Regatta but will be subject to the conditions laid down in Rule 23(a).

24. The entrance fee for the Championship races shall be £2.50 per seat. For Open and Junior events the entrance fee shall be £4.00 per seat including a levy of £0.50 per seat. The levy shall be collected by the organising committee, and paid to the South Coast Rowing Championship Council by 31st October. A fine of £25 per week will be imposed for late payment. 

25. (a) Each Association has the right to nominate the crews that will represent them in the six Championship events, and are not bound to nominate their Champion crew or runner-up. Crews must come from Clubs affiliated to the Association that they are representing and must all be registered members of that Club. In the event of a crew in a Championship race becoming incomplete before the start of the Championships, the Association concerned shall have the right to nominate a substitute oarsperson from the same Club, or to replace the entire crew by another crew from another Club.

(b) If one of the Associations cannot fulfil their full representation, even if the Association can only submit one crew in any one status, then the other two Associations may enter an additional crew in that status without charge. The Association that cannot fulfil their representation must try to give the other two Associations as much notice as possible, being not later than the closing date of entries for the Championship of their failure to fulfil.

(c) That all competitors in the Championship events must have competed in at least three Championship Regattas within their Association, in the current season of the South Coast Rowing Championships, for the club that they are representing in order to qualify to compete in the South Coast Rowing Championships.

(d) That all competitors in the Open events must have competed in at least three Championship Regattas within their Association in the current season of the South Coast Championship Regatta, or have been a registered Association member for 12 months for the Club that they are representing to qualify for entry into the South Coast Rowing Championships.

(e) That all crews in the Junior Regatta must come from clubs affiliated to the Association that they are representing, and must all be registered members of that club.

(f) No oarsperson who transferred between two Clubs less than four weeks before the published date of the South Coast Rowing Championships will be allowed to compete in any Open or Invitation event at the Championships for their new Club.

(g) Any crew selected by their Association to represent them, but the crew refuses, that crew will not be accepted in any other race at that Championship.

26. All Clubs are responsible for putting in their own entries (together with entry fee) for all Open and Junior races before the closing date for entries set by the organising committee. The closing date for the Open and Junior entries must not be earlier than three weeks prior to the date of the Championships. The organising committee shall notify each Association Secretary of the closing date, so that each Association can submit its selected Championship crews before the closing date for entries. Clubs entering crews in supporting events before selection to represent their Association shall he entitled to a refund of the entry fee on having to withdraw from the supporting event on being selected and the Championship entry fee being paid by the Association.

27. Any oarsperson who has raced for Championship points for one Association during the season, shall not be permitted to represent another Association at the South Coast Rowing Championships unless he has transferred his membership from one Club to another in accordance with the Rules of the Associations. This shall not affect the right of crews from Clubs affiliated to two Associations to be selected by either Association to represent them at the South Coast Rowing Championships.

28. The Open Veteran coxed fours for The Sidney De Haan Cup and the Open Veteran Coxed Fours for the CARA Presidents Cup shall be open to male and/or female rowers over the age of forty and fifty years respectively on the day of the published date of the Championships. Entries from composite crews will be permitted but any composite crew must include at least three oarspersons registered with the same Club.

29. The Championship Veteran coxed fours shall be for male and/or female rowers over the age of forty on the day of the published date of the Championships. Entry shall be in accordance with Rule 25.

30. Any changes to crew personnel and crews scratched after the closing date for entries must be notified to the organising committee on the official form provided. Only two changes per crew are allowed and changes in crew personnel for Championship events must be notified before the draw for positions. Changes to crew personnel in the Open and Junior Regatta events must be submitted before the Captains' Briefing on regatta morning. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Council consider changes to crew personnel after these deadlines. Failure to notify these changes or scratching’s, or non-arrival at the start by the required time, will result in a fine of £25 and will be considered a disciplinary offence reportable to the South Coast Rowing Championships Council. Any fine imposed will be levied against the offending club and must be paid within 28 days to the Honorary Secretary/Treasurer of the South Coast Rowing Championships Council. The Council will preside over all disciplinary matters at their January meeting.

PLUS –

The spirit of the Rules.

 70. The Rules of all three Associations under which the supporting races are held prohibit composite crews, and therefore it automatically follows that composite crews cannot be accepted in these events, and members of a crew must belong and be entitled to race for the Club entering the crew, with the exception of Open Veteran (Rule 28) which permits composite crews. Also U/16 and U/14 Quad Sculls are permitted to race with composite crews, providing that the crew must include at least three oarspersons registered with the same club.

As agreed by the South Coast Rowing Council.