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Masters welcomes the Apprentice
The weekend’s racing was extra special for one of the more than 400 athletes.
The official arrival was 11.33pm last Tuesday.
The announcement came with the appearance of the name on rowIT.nz
Rowing NZ ratified all the T&Cs at the same time.
Inception began seven months ago with a bunch of ex-rowers who live out on the island.
But this week, it was Lucy Frater doing a lot of the hard labour to get things across the line.
“February was our inaugural meeting,” says Lucy. “The boys were like, ‘We've sent all the constitution, everything to the treasurer. It's all set up’. And I was like, ‘Oh yeah’. Midnight Tuesday I’m looking at all of the minutes and the actions for the meetings. I couldn't even read the minutes and I was at the bloody meeting, so I had to rewrite all of that...order a onesie in a week, we've done a whole logo branding, got a constitution set up, a WhatsApp group.”
They’ve even got a facility to nurture the new entity.
“We’re parked up at some auntie's friend's property on the side of the island,” says Lucy.
There’s a “90-page” Power Point dedicated to aims, ambitions, logo and uniform. The island’s famous palm trees have been cleverly worked into a rowing motif.
All this led to Lucy debuting the newest member of the Rowing New Zealand family in the Masters B Single. The Waiheke Island Rowing Club is up and running.
Lucy Frater with the her brand new Waiheke onesie, with the palm fronds incorporated into a rowing motif.
Blublokes in Waikato boats
Tim Beere got a chilling diagnosis at the age of 42. That was in 2015. He rowed one season for Cambridge in his youth but hadn’t picked up an oar since.
But he’d always been active, fit and looked after himself. So finding out he had prostate cancer came as a huge shock.
In 2018, Tim raced the gruelling Pioneer mountain bike event with a good mate to raise 22K for the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
That same year, Tim and a bunch of mates decided to give rowing a go out of the Waikato Club in Hamilton. Out of it all came Blublokes, Tim’s charitable trust aimed at advancing the health and wellbeing of men through early detection of prostate cancer.
His Blublokes crewmates are a bunch of absolute rascals.
You can tell they have a lot of laughs.
But they’ve all embraced the serious message of the charity and Tim wants to spread the word about early detection even wider.
“It would be wonderful to go to all the Masters and ask if they’d like to co-brand Blublokes rowing with your club, as we’ve done at Waikato Rowing, where the logo could be stylised to put your spoon colour into it.”
Tim’s been on what's called active surveillance for the last nine years. After 49 biopsies, he’s got a prostate that looks “like an industrial flour sifter”. But for now, things are good.
“I've still got no symptoms, but what I do know is it's not a matter of if, but it's a matter of when I'm going to have to be treated.”
The BluBlokes with Tim Beere fourth from left. Photo: Andy Hay
The BluBlokes logo. Tim hopes other clubs will come on board by adopting the logo and using their own club colours.
Melbourne Rowing Club reckon it’s easier to get to Karapiro than Brisbane for a Masters shindig. It may well be cheaper too. Entry for NZ Masters is $75 a head. In Aussie, it’s $A50 per set, per race.
Melbourne was one of five Australian clubs represented at the regatta and the Victorians made the most of the opportunity with nine gold medals.
The Melbourne Rowing Club competitors. Photo: Andy Hay
St George’s claimed local supremacy with Cambridge second.
Oldest competitor Brian Hutchison got his H-M Doubles row in with son Ross.
They were fifth in the heat and their B Final was cancelled.
But 92-year-old Brian has a title to defend next year, after getting a gold medal in the J-M Single.
There might be a quiet whiskey when father and son layover in Taihape on the way to the Cook Strait ferry.
Brian and Ross’ Blenheim clubmate Willie Parker broke his arm after coming off his bike earlier in the year. It’s been a slow build up to Masters for the 77-year-old who started rowing at Nelson College in 1963.
He stroked the G-M Quad first up in the morning. He reckoned he’d had enough by the second race of the day.
I asked him how many he had left.
“Seven,” he said with a wince.
A couple of scratchings and cancelled B finals eased the heavy load.
The weight was lifted. The wait for next year has just begun.
Brian Hutchison puts the shades down and steps on it in the J-M Single. Photo: Picture Show Ltd
The Blenheim rowers with Brian and Ross Hutchison seated and Willie Parker back row on right. Photo: Andy Hay
Andy Hay
Andy Hay is a freelance producer, writer and rowing coach. He was cox of the world champion New Zealand eight of 1982 and '83. He is NZ Olympian #446.
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- Home
- /
- Masters Rowing
- /
- Masters welcomes the...
Masters welcomes the Apprentice
The weekend’s racing was extra special for one of the more than 400 athletes.
The official arrival was 11.33pm last Tuesday.
The announcement came with the appearance of the name on rowIT.nz
Rowing NZ ratified all the T&Cs at the same time.
Inception began seven months ago with a bunch of ex-rowers who live out on the island.
But this week, it was Lucy Frater doing a lot of the hard labour to get things across the line.
“February was our inaugural meeting,” says Lucy. “The boys were like, ‘We've sent all the constitution, everything to the treasurer. It's all set up’. And I was like, ‘Oh yeah’. Midnight Tuesday I’m looking at all of the minutes and the actions for the meetings. I couldn't even read the minutes and I was at the bloody meeting, so I had to rewrite all of that...order a onesie in a week, we've done a whole logo branding, got a constitution set up, a WhatsApp group.”
They’ve even got a facility to nurture the new entity.
“We’re parked up at some auntie's friend's property on the side of the island,” says Lucy.
There’s a “90-page” Power Point dedicated to aims, ambitions, logo and uniform. The island’s famous palm trees have been cleverly worked into a rowing motif.
All this led to Lucy debuting the newest member of the Rowing New Zealand family in the Masters B Single. The Waiheke Island Rowing Club is up and running.
Lucy Frater with the her brand new Waiheke onesie, with the palm fronds incorporated into a rowing motif.
Blublokes in Waikato boats
Tim Beere got a chilling diagnosis at the age of 42. That was in 2015. He rowed one season for Cambridge in his youth but hadn’t picked up an oar since.
But he’d always been active, fit and looked after himself. So finding out he had prostate cancer came as a huge shock.
In 2018, Tim raced the gruelling Pioneer mountain bike event with a good mate to raise 22K for the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
That same year, Tim and a bunch of mates decided to give rowing a go out of the Waikato Club in Hamilton. Out of it all came Blublokes, Tim’s charitable trust aimed at advancing the health and wellbeing of men through early detection of prostate cancer.
His Blublokes crewmates are a bunch of absolute rascals.
You can tell they have a lot of laughs.
But they’ve all embraced the serious message of the charity and Tim wants to spread the word about early detection even wider.
“It would be wonderful to go to all the Masters and ask if they’d like to co-brand Blublokes rowing with your club, as we’ve done at Waikato Rowing, where the logo could be stylised to put your spoon colour into it.”
Tim’s been on what's called active surveillance for the last nine years. After 49 biopsies, he’s got a prostate that looks “like an industrial flour sifter”. But for now, things are good.
“I've still got no symptoms, but what I do know is it's not a matter of if, but it's a matter of when I'm going to have to be treated.”
The BluBlokes with Tim Beere fourth from left. Photo: Andy Hay
The BluBlokes logo. Tim hopes other clubs will come on board by adopting the logo and using their own club colours.
Melbourne Rowing Club reckon it’s easier to get to Karapiro than Brisbane for a Masters shindig. It may well be cheaper too. Entry for NZ Masters is $75 a head. In Aussie, it’s $A50 per set, per race.
Melbourne was one of five Australian clubs represented at the regatta and the Victorians made the most of the opportunity with nine gold medals.
The Melbourne Rowing Club competitors. Photo: Andy Hay
St George’s claimed local supremacy with Cambridge second.
Oldest competitor Brian Hutchison got his H-M Doubles row in with son Ross.
They were fifth in the heat and their B Final was cancelled.
But 92-year-old Brian has a title to defend next year, after getting a gold medal in the J-M Single.
There might be a quiet whiskey when father and son layover in Taihape on the way to the Cook Strait ferry.
Brian and Ross’ Blenheim clubmate Willie Parker broke his arm after coming off his bike earlier in the year. It’s been a slow build up to Masters for the 77-year-old who started rowing at Nelson College in 1963.
He stroked the G-M Quad first up in the morning. He reckoned he’d had enough by the second race of the day.
I asked him how many he had left.
“Seven,” he said with a wince.
A couple of scratchings and cancelled B finals eased the heavy load.
The weight was lifted. The wait for next year has just begun.
Brian Hutchison puts the shades down and steps on it in the J-M Single. Photo: Picture Show Ltd
The Blenheim rowers with Brian and Ross Hutchison seated and Willie Parker back row on right. Photo: Andy Hay
Andy Hay
Andy Hay is a freelance producer, writer and rowing coach. He was cox of the world champion New Zealand eight of 1982 and '83. He is NZ Olympian #446.
