Club names rowing boats

THE newest boats in Ballarat City Rowing Club’s fleet have been officially named at a christening earlier this month.

Four of the shed’s boats and a small motorboat now recognise community support, local history, and wildlife with individual names on their bows.

BCRC’s Italian-made Filippi boat is called Grazie, three other rowing boats have been named Rakali, Kodara, and Eureka, and the newest small motorboat is the Bendigo Bank.

“We want to be an inclusive and welcoming rowing club, so naming our boats after areas and creatures specific to Ballarat is a good way of acknowledging that,” president Hamish Rowlands said.

Grazie, meaning thank you in Italian, has been chosen to recognise everyone who donated money to help the club purchase the high performance Filippi, while Eureka honours the sacrifices made during the 1854 Eureka Stockade in Ballarat East.

Rakali celebrates the native water rodent that the rowers share Lake Wendouree with, and Kodara honours the “entertaining” musk ducks, which also call the lake home, popping their heads up and down at water’s surface.

“When we’re rowing, we see those animals either late in the evening, or early in the morning, and as a guy from New Zealand, I think they’re quite fascinating,” Rowlands said.

“It’s great that we can call those two boats after animals we see every day.”

The small motorboat was purchased with support from a Connected Communities Grant from Bendigo Bank.

“Grant support is everything to us,” Rowlands said. “We need help from the local and wider community, or we cannot exist.

“Receiving money for that boat was a massive injection to help us coach our existing and upcoming athletes.”

The naming ceremony was held during a BCRC open day, and Rowlands thanked Rowing Victoria, club members, and all event attendees for their support.

“We’re trying to develop our club and get more people in Ballarat excited about rowing,” he said.

“We’ve got a great asset, and training facility in the lake, and compared to other places used for rowing around the world, it’s so underutilised.”