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ROWING OVERVIEW

The Saint Patrick's College Wellington (SPC) Rowing squad is part of the Wellington Rowing Club and three other colleges, Samuel Marsden, St Mary's, and Onslow. In addition, all schools use the Wellington Rowing Club facilities for training.

The SPC philosophy is to get as much water time as possible, so our afternoon sessions (yes, that's right, no morning training!) are held after school either on the Wellington waterfront or at our base at Petone Beach, depending on the water and wind conditions. The season commences with a Learn to Row Programme designed for novice rowers who want to get a taste of rowing and understand what rowing is all about. Learn to row season concludes with a rowing camp away to Whanganui. The team stays at the nearby Aramaho Rowing Club, sessions are on the Whanganui River, and all rowing squad members attend.

The major regatta of the season is the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships (Maadi Cup), held in March either at Lake Karapiro (Cambridge) or Lake Ruataniwha (Twizel). The Maadi Cup is the biggest sporting event in the Southern Hemisphere and a fantastic experience. Other significant regattas are on Lake Karapiro, with some smaller local regattas held at Whanganui, Porirua, Petone, or Wellington harbour.

SPC Rowing aims to:

Develop your rowing skills.
Raise your fitness and stamina levels to a high level.
Build good team skills.
Compete successfully at regattas.
Have fun, training and competing in a great team sport.

Rowing is a 'true' team sport. The commitment of the rowers to hard work is vital! Each person in the boat depends on the others, all doing the same thing simultaneously. The team is only as good as the 'weakest link.' if one boy constantly misses training or does not take the hard work seriously, their rowing mates will be affected.

2022/2023 Season

SPC Rowing squad had 13 rowers competing over the 2022/2023 season.

Ollie Florance won a bronze medal in the U16 Single Sculls event at the North Island Secondary Schools Champs
Ollie Florance and Cameron MacKay placed 4th in the U16 Double Sculls at the North Island Secondary Schools Champs (0.18 seconds off Bronze!)
At Maadi Cup, there were plenty of impressive performances, which included:

Qualifying for 4 B final events, 1 D final, and 1 A Final in the U16 Double Sculls.