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Message board > Members' Opinion Polls > Members' poll: What do you look for in a boat club?

What do you look for in a boat club?

Many FaTties will be training away from the Cam over the summer, and there are also plenty of BPBCites rowing for different clubs who vote in these things. Anyway, what is the first thing you look for when hunting for a new boat club?

Top coaches		24%

Top oarsmen		6%

Shiny new boats		6%

Shiny new ergs		0%

Strong recent performances		12%

Glorious past		0%

Plentiful social events		12%

Capacious bar area		6%

Lard warehouse		35%

Total: 17 members' votes

by Chose the one nearest to where I live, even if it's not the biggest or most successful club in the region - Sun 29th Jul 2007, 5:24pm

Anyway, what is the first thing you look for when hunting for a new boat club?

Surely, location has to play a role. There are no rowable stretches of water within about 6 miles of where I live.

by Rich - Mon 30th Jul 2007, 9:20am

Fit female boaties?

by Moving to Putney soon! - Mon 30th Jul 2007, 11:14am

RTT said: what is the first thing you look for when hunting for a new boat club?
Top coaches: 33%
Top oarsmen: 17%

Top coaches are no use if they don't have any decent raw material to work with, and top oarsmen (or women!) won't get very far without decent coaching. "Strong recent performances" seem like a much better guide to the overall quality of the club, the coaches, the equipment and everything else.

Cost of membership seems to have been missed off the list - that's the most persuasive argument for me to go to ICBC next year.

by RTT - Mon 30th Jul 2007, 11:25am

Moving to Putney soon! said: top oarsmen (or women!)

Isn't the suffix non gender specific?

by dicitonary corner - Mon 30th Jul 2007, 11:44am

RTT said: Isn't the suffix non gender specific?

OED says "A person (esp. a man) who uses an oar or oars; a rower."

by Mike - Mon 30th Jul 2007, 11:44am

dicitonary corner said:

Oh, the irony of misspelling "dictionary"...

by mjb - Tue 31st Jul 2007, 11:19am

Chose the one nearest to where I live, even if it's not the biggest or most successful club in the region said: There are no rowable stretches of water within about 6 miles of where I live.

That's not very far ...

by Richard - Tue 31st Jul 2007, 12:24pm

mjb said: That's not very far ...

Yes, but I think what I meant to say is that the next nearest alternative is almost double that distance, and probably more difficult, traffic congestion wise, to get there.

Hence, I chose the nearest one, rather than a bigger club further away.

by gf - Tue 31st Jul 2007, 12:35pm

mjb said: That's not very far ...

It is if it's straight up (or down)...

by dw229 - Thu 9th Aug 2007, 6:27pm

I disagree - it's still just as far away.

It would just be either very much harder/easier to get to and very much easier/harder to get back from.

by Neil T - Thu 9th Aug 2007, 6:56pm

dw229 said: It would just be either very much harder/easier to get to and very much easier/harder to get back from.

Not necessarily.

by Simon - Thu 9th Aug 2007, 9:23pm

Frankly, I'd be at least a little bit worried if the nearest stretch of rowable water was at any height directly above my home.