It has bought three new boats — a coxless four/quad, an eight and a single scull — which took to the water for the first time this month at the Otago Rowing Championships on Lake Ruataniwha.
The boats cost a combined $75,000, which was funded by grants from the Oamaru Licensing Trust, Lion Foundation and Otago Community Trust as well as family and friends of the club and fundraising efforts by the club itself.
It was important for the club to replenish its fleet so the Oamaru athletes would be on a level playing surface with bigger clubs across the country, head coach Ivan Docherty said.
"It just gives the athletes the confidence when they line up on the start line that their equipment is the same as everyone else and [the race result] comes down to the work they’ve done versus the work that the opposition have done."
The boats were named after former rowers of the club Jo Kearney, Mark Taylor and the late Lex Clark.
Mr Clark was the most successful of the three, having rowed in the New Zealand men’s eight at the 1964 Olympics.
He was also a life member of South Island Rowing and had been a race official at Ruataniwha and other local regattas since the 1980s.
Ms Kearney is one of the club’s most successful female athletes.
She represented New Zealand at the junior and under-23 world championships, earning a silver medal at each regatta.
Ms Kearney won her red coat — a jacket awarded to rowers who win their first gold medal in premier events at the New Zealand championships — as part of the Southern High-Performance team in 2014.
Mr Taylor won two singles titles at Maadi Cup, representing Waitaki Boys’ High School, and went on to represent New Zealand at the junior and under-23 world championships.
He won his red coat as part of the Southern High-Performance Centre in 2020.
Mr Docherty said the boats would be put to good use with the business end of the rowing season coming up in the new year.
