Hi everyone

Thanks to everyone that attended the CNY regatta on the weekend, which was a great success for UTS SDB and I hope you all enjoyed yourselves. It was great to see that nearly everyone was on time and arriving around 6:15am as scheduled, which really assisted the coaches and committee in any organizational duties that were required. It was an extremely hot and hard day of racing, so we hope you have all pulled through ok.

Results wise, while we didn't come away with a trophy on Saturday, we weren't far off and that is an excellent effort when we look at the crews out there on the water. Our women's team looked great on the water and with strength in numbers at the moment, if the team stays together, only better things will come for them. This time last year our Mixed team was 3rd in the Minor (B) final, so coming forth in the Major (A) final is a fantastic result. While we finished 6th in the Opens final, we weren't too far off 3rd place and if you compare that to our 200m result at Penrith (3rd place with PD's not present), we haven't really gone backwards too far.

No one should be disappointed in the weekend's result and all focus should be on States in 4 weeks time, which was our goal since the season started in August! A big thank you to all the coaches for their efforts on Saturday and the team captains in getting teams to marshalling on time.

Thanks to all the girlfriends and spouses that attended, along with ex-members who came to pay a visit to us during the day. It's always nice to catch up with these people who are a very important part of our club still. Thanks also to Aimee and Liz from UTS who paid us a quick visit and I hope they enjoyed some of the racing with a few cold beers in hand.

For those who attended dinner at Oscar's, thank you for making it a great night out. It's really great when the club gets together and hangs out, outside of training and regattas, where we can all relax and get to know each other. With the Venice crew in attendance, it was a special occasion and I hope some of you managed to pick up a few Italian lines. SDB is very honoured and humbled to have received a plaque from the Venice crew and be assured they all had a great weekend in Sydney.

Lastly, but definitely not least, was our only disappointing result of the day, where our SDB A crew of Joel Turns, Stephen Jack, Seanus King, Semi Vulisuva, Charisse Dunn and Suze Mayhew, lost to the ACCA Reds (B) crew in a boat race at the Point Hotel after dinner. Special mention goes to Steve Jack who wanted to take on ACCA's A crew, yet was out drunk by female competitor, Georgie Way, from ACCA Reds.

Albert is out of Sydney for work this week, so footage from the weekend will be posted on sdb.com soon, look out for it!

All the best and see you back at training soon

Colin Lau

UTS SDB Club Secretary