ACT Rowing Association

Australia Day Bridge to Bridge Race

The annual Bridge to Bridge Race is held as part of the Australia Day festivities in the Australian Capital Territory. Until 2006 held early on the day of the public holiday. Since 2007 it has been held as part of the evening festivities. The event is for fun eights and starts from Aspen Island and finishes between the Nationial Library and Commonwealth Avenue Bridge. This is approximately 1.5 kilometres in central Canberra. Formal entries are not required and no seat fees are levied.

Results 2009 2009 Bridge to Bridge Regatta was run at 18:00 on a course running from a start line to the west side of Aspen Island running westward to a finish line adjacent to the Canadian Flagpole at Regatta Point.   Conditions for the race were poor, with winds blowing from the East at 31 km/hr gusting to 48 km/hr.   As seems to be the way in rowing, the strongest winds recorded for the day were at the time the race was in progress.    Water conditions were choppy with swell averaging 0.5 metres – the windsurfers were having a ball wave jumping.   Conditions were marginal for rowing, but most crews seemed oblivious of this and were happy to proceed.   9 eights and two quads were sighted proceeding to the start line – however, one quad did not proceed into central basin and returned home prior to the start.   This left one quad, which was started with the eights, but given a head start of approximately 100m distance.The race was successfully completed, with boats finishing in the following order:   1st – CRC Quad 2nd – ANU Smurfs 3rd – BMRC #1 4th – CRC “Zinc” 5th – CGS 6th – CRC Australia Crew 7th – CRC Green and Gold Headbands 8th – CLRC Boxing Kangaroo 9th – CLRC Crocodile 10th – BMRC with Aboriginal flag at bow The event organisers innovated on the start, arranging for the start to be done by the watching crowd using a countdown over a radio.   This was successful from a crowd point of view, but was sprung on the crews at the last minute, so some confusion was experienced at the start.   If this approach is continued in the future, the starter needs to ensure he continues to use a red flag to signal the start so that crews are not left in doubt on the start line.   The crews ‘frocked up’ in fine livery for the event – with a patriotic theme the most popular.   Special mention should go to the ANU crew, who came out as Smurfs, complete with blue skin and white Smurf caps.   Papa Smurf was absent from the boat – he may have been commentating.   Overall the event was a success, with continuing entertainment on the way back to Yarralumla bay provided by the CGS crew, who were determined to prove that a crew can bail water and row at the same time.   The coordination between immersed riggers shipping water into the boat, and sturdy bailing by the crew between stokes maintained an uneasy equilibrium that endured until safely back at Yarralumla Bay.  Special mention must be made of one CGS rower who demonstrated how to bail water simultaneously from both sides of the boat while maintaining control over an oar, and the cox who showed innovation that only comes from a desperate man – using both the stoke’s hat to bail water and his own tracksuit. 2008 No results available 2007 The race was run at 1930hrs for the first time, at the peak of the Australia Day festivities. Crews that participated in the race were: AIS - one men's 8 and two women's 8s ANUBC - one mixed 8 CGS - one men's 8 CRC - five mixed 8s CLRC - three mixed 8s BMRC - one mixed 8 2006  Position Club Time Interval after win  Crew 1 ANU NTT 0  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, J Chenoweth, 8, (cox) 2 CLRC1 NTT 28.40s 1, 2, 3, 4, F Nelson, 6, 7, 8, (cox) 3 CRC3 NTT 34.45s M Pentony, A Preiner, S Linacre, K Wellman, L Res, B Hewitt, J Strapps, R Lawrence, A Whelan (cox) 4 CRC1 NTT 57.63s H Snedden, I Brewer, G Dennett, K Laffan, D Dyer, D Gazzard, J Daley, J Simson, H Davis (cox) 5 CRC4 NTT 59.47s  A Charlton, N Connor, S Mackay, F Antill, T Wilkins, R Munnings, B Greer, B Prout, M Thomson (cox) 6 CRC2 NTT 84.59s G Davis, K Collins, J Small, J Seymour, L Mitchell, J Eyers, G Prime, R Davis, ? (cox) 7 CGS NTT 86.29   8 CLRC2 NTT 100.29s   2005  Position Club Time Interval after win  Crew 1 CRC 1 4:29.46 0   2 BMRC2 4:36.18 0:06.72   3 CRC2 4:46.5 0:17.05   4 CRC3 4:50.2 0:20.73   5 BMRC2 4:54.2 0:24.72   6 CRC5 4:56.5 0:27.06   7 CLRC2 5:14.8 0:45.39   8 CLRC1 5:26.2 0:56.75   9 CRC4 5:52.7 1:23.29     RMC DNS        2005 rowed over a shorter course - Carillon to Library corner 2004  Position Club Time Interval after win 1 CRC 1  5:17   0 2 CRC 2  5:30  13:71 3 BMRC/DARA  5:31  14:10 4 CRC 4  5:58  41:26 5 LTRC  6:06  49:57 6 CRC 3  6:08  51:53 7 CGS  6:36  1:19:78 2003  Position Club Time  1  ANUBC 1  5:15  2  CLRC  5:25  3  CRC 1  5:29  4  ANUBC 2  5:46  5  Daramalan  5:58  6  BMRC  6:00  7  CRC 2  6:19  8  LTRC  6:42