The Clubrooms
The ARC clubhouse is a two storey building located prominently on the banks of the River Torrens, overlooking Elder Park and Pinky Flat. The upper storey of the clubhouse contains a bar, kitchen and other social amenities for the use by members, as well as an extensive gallery of photographs that cover the life of the club over its history. A boat storage area, gym, Concept2 indoor rower equipment and changerooms are located on the ground floor of the building.
The current building is the third reincarnation of the Club's boatshed. The first shed was opened on 22 July 1882, and lasted for 7 years before being washed away in a flood on 17 April 1889. [3] The second boatshed opened on 14 December 1889, before being destroyed by fire on 6 March 1931. The current building, intended to only be a temporary structure, was opened in October, 1931.
The Club also operates out of a bay at the SARA complex located at West Lakes.
Traditions of the Club
The motto of the Club is "Out of darkness, through fire, into light", and this is reflected in the uniform of the Club, which consists of a black, red and gold horizontal stripes, with gold always on top. These are same colours as the Australian I Zingari Cricket Club, with whom the Club maintains a close relationship.
The Adelaide Rowing Club has developed its own traditions for naming boats. All single sculls, double sculls and coxless pairs are named after Australian rivers. All coxed fours and coxed quad sculls are named Hunter. All coxless fours and coxless quad sculls are named Adelaide and similarly, the Club's coxed eights are named I'Zingari in honour of the Club's original name. These boats then have Roman numerals affixed after their names to denote how many boats have acquired that name.
Competition & Regattas
Adelaide Rowing Club is affiliated with the South Australian Rowing Association (SARA) and competes in local and interstate regattas on a regular basis.
A number of members have been selected to represent Australia at:
Club members compete at the Australian Rowing Championships, administered by Rowing Australia each year.
Adelaide Rowing Club members often comprise a large component of the South Australian State Rowing Team [5] that contest the following regattas:
Crews from the Club regularly travel to Melbourne to contest the Head of the Yarra regatta in November of each year, as well as the numerous country regattas that are held at various locations in South Australia, including Berri, Renmark, Murray Bridge and Mannum.
The Adelaide Rowing Club has dominated the SARA Senior Men's Premiership in recent years, winning in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. [6]
The Club hosts one SARA Premiership regatta each season, the ARC Twilight regatta and traditionally, this has been the regatta closest to Christmas. In recent years, the Club has evolved this regatta into a sprint match-race format regatta, held at night under lights on the Torrens Lake course.
The Head of the River is a name given to annual Australian rowing regattas held in South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia. The regattas feature competing independent schools, and the winner of the 1st division boys or girls race is crowned the "Head of the River".
Rowing has been part of the Summer Olympics since its debut in the 1900 Games. Rowing was on the program at the 1896 Summer Olympics but was cancelled due to bad weather. Only men were allowed to compete until the women's events were introduced at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal which gave national federations the incentive to support women's events and catalysed growth in women's rowing. Lightweight rowing events were introduced to the games in 1996. Qualifying for the rowing events is under the jurisdiction of the World Rowing Federation. World Rowing predates the modern Olympics and was the first international sport federation to join the modern Olympic movement.
Henley Women's Regatta, often abbreviated to "HWR" or "Women's Henley", is a rowing regatta held at Henley-on-Thames, England. Chris Aistrop and Rosemary Mayglothling were jointly responsible for setting up the Regatta in June 1988 and Aistrop was the first chairman.
Vesta Rowing Club is a rowing club based on the Tideway of the River Thames in Putney, London, England. It was founded in 1870.
Rob Roy Boat Club, or Robs, is a boat club based on the River Cam in Cambridge, UK, which has traditionally focused on training and racing in small boats. The club has members at all levels, from national squad through seniors and veterans to juniors and novices.
The Adelaide University Boat Club is a rowing club affiliated with the University of Adelaide. The club was founded in 1881, and in 1896 helped to form the Adelaide University Sports Association. The main clubrooms, donated by Robert Barr Smith in 1909, are located on the north bank of the River Torrens on War Memorial Drive, adjacent to the Adelaide University Sports Grounds. The shed has two boat bays, a gym and weights room and a small bar. The club also leases a secondary boatshed at the South Australian Rowing Association complex on Military Road at West Lakes, and also trains regularly at Port Adelaide's North Arm Creek and Murray Bridge. Members have included rowers of all levels, from total beginners to Olympic Gold Medallists. The club shares the nickname "The Blacks" with the Adelaide University Football Club.
Mosman Rowing Club is an all-level competitive and recreational rowing club on the North Shore of Sydney. Since 2007 the club's facilities have been wholly located at The Spit in Sydney's Middle Harbour, the northern arm of Port Jackson.
University of London Boat Club is the rowing club for the University of London and its member institutions, many of which also have their own boat clubs. The club has its boathouse on the Thames in Chiswick, London, UK. It is a designated High-Performance Programme funded by British Rowing.
Atlanta Rowing Club (ARC) is a non-profit 501(c)(4) masters rowing club located in Roswell, Georgia. ARC's colors are red and white. As a masters organization, it is the only club in the Atlanta area for rowers who are beyond high school or college age, although there are several members who are in college. The club is a volunteer-based organization with 200+ members throughout the year.
A coxless four, abbreviated as a 4- and also called a straight four, is a racing shell used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for four persons who propel the boat with sweep oars, without a coxswain.
Olympia Aldersey is an Australian rower. She is an Australian national champion, a dual Olympian and was a 2019 World Champion in the coxless four. In 2014 she set a world's fastest ever time (6:37.31) in a women's double scull over 2000m, a record which has stood since. She rowed in the Australian women's eight at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Michael McBryde is an Australian former lightweight rower. He was a national champion, an U23 World Champion and a medallist at senior World Championships.
Paul Anthony Thompson MBE is an Australian elite level rowing coach and former rower. As a rower he was an Australian under-age champion, won a silver medal at the 1985 U23 World Championships and rowed in senior King's Cup eights for both South Australia and New South Wales. He has coached Australian and British crews to World Championship titles and Olympic medals including taking Kate Slatter and Megan Still to Australia's first women's Olympic rowing gold at Atlanta 1996. By 2012 he was Great Britain's head coach for women and lightweights and took British crews to three gold and two silver medals at London 2012. Since 2022 he has been Rowing Australia's High Performance Director.
Sydney University Boat Club is the rowing club in Sydney, Australia with the oldest charter having been formed in 1860 by the founders of the University of Sydney. It has had a boatshed presence in various locations on Sydney Harbour since 1886, excepting between 1941 and 1966. A varsity and recreational club during most of its history, the Boat Club has since the 1990s had a focus on its high performance and elite rowing programs. Supported by the University's Sports Union the Club has developed an increasing number of Olympic representative oarsmen and women in the new millennium with club members rowing in twenty-two seats in those Australian Olympic crews who represented between Athens 2004 and Tokyo 2021.
Clydesdale Amateur Rowing Club is Scotland's largest rowing club, located on the River Clyde in the centre of Glasgow. It is successful each year in many events at the Scottish Rowing Championships and is affiliated to Scottish Rowing.
Roger Arthur Ninham was an Australian Olympian stillwater rower, a surfboat rower and surfcraft boat builder. As a stillwater rower he was a six-time national champion across both sculling and sweep-oared boats and competed at two Olympic Games.
Josephine Lips is an Australian former representative rower. She was a national champion and 2001 World champion.
Vaughan Bollen is an Australian former lightweight rower. He is from a prominent South Australian rowing family, was a seven-time Australian national champion and won a bronze medal at the 1978 World Rowing Championships. He competed over an eighteen-year period in events at the annual Interstate Regatta within the Australian Rowing Championships firstly as a South Australian King's Cup coxswain from 1961, then as a South Australian Presidents Cup rower from 1967 and finally till 1979, as a Victorian state representative President's Cup rower.
Kim Mackney is an Australian former representative rower. He competed in the men's coxless pair event at the 1972 Summer Olympics. From school until the national elite representative level and onto a long world-class masters career, Mackney rowed competitively for over fifty years. He can be credited with salvaging and re-establishing the Glebe Rowing Club in Sydney after its 1992 demise.
Perry Ward is an Australian national representative lightweight rower. He rowed in Western Australia's state selection lightweight crew for thirteen consecutive years from 2006 to 2018, winning the national title on four occasions. He represented Australia at eight senior and U23 world championships, stroking every crew in which he was selected and winning a silver medal at the 2010 World Rowing Championships.
