Rowing requires equipment that is expensive. This includes:
- coach/safety boats and motors
- rowing shells
- oars
The club’s employees, volunteers and members do their best to take care of this equipment and properly maintain it. When this equipment wears out or otherwise reaches end of life, it typically costs thousands of dollars, and frequently in excess of ten thousand dollars, to replace a single item of equipment. Our operating budget typically has a hard time absorbing such large expenses, even if the need for replacement is anticipated. This is a typical problem for non-profit societies that try to balance their books each year and keep costs low for members. Operating costs are easy to predict and fund. Capital equipment costs are difficult to predict and fund out of program revenues.
The Deep Cove Rowing Club has an ongoing fundraising campaign to help us buy new or gently used equipment such as coach boats, motors, rowing shells, oars, etc. If anybody would like to support this effort, we would greatly appreciate it. You can donate via credit card through the BC Amateur Sport Fund. A donation of $20 or more will receive a charitable tax receipt.
Our highest priority fundraising goal is to raise money to buy a new mid-weight quad rowing shell. Our high school rowing academy is growing and we desperately need a new quad that is lighter and more suitable for smaller youth in the program. We have received a generous donation that pays for the 30% down payment. We need your help to raise the rest. The board of directors has applied for a capital grant that may also help.
We have some older rowing shells (Seymour & Cates) that are heavily used but are 20 years old. We do a good job of repairing them, and we can get them repainted to improve their appearance, but from a structural perspective, they too have a limited remaining life span. They will need replacing in the next few years.
Also on our wish list is a coastal single rowing shell. It would really help learn to row students, because coastal rowing shells are more stable than the shells we typically use. It would also give our more experienced rowers, who wish to race in coastal events, the chance to practice with a coastal rowing shell before participating.
Our inflatable coach/safety boats with PVC tubes have typically lasted 10 years, twice the warrantied life span of 5 years. Our newest inflatable coach/safety boats have Hypalon tubes and a warrantied life span of 10 years. We are hoping that they will last substantially longer. At this time, our one remaining inflatable coach/safety boat with a PVC tube is 7 years old, is patched in a difficult to patch location and is showing substantial signs of age. It will probably have to be replaced in the next year or two. We must keep this third coach/safety boat functional in order to fulfill our obligations to the Deep Cove Yacht Club’s sailing program and maintain our ability to moor coach/safety boats on their docks. Without moorage for our coach/safety boats, the club cannot continue to operate.
The Boston Whaler coach/safety boat gets a lot of use. Its 60 HP outboard motor typically lasts for 3 – 4 years, by which time we have eked out well over the industry average expected hours of operation. The current motor was recently replaced after 3-1/2 years and 2700+ hours of operation. The industry average is apparently 1600 hours of operation. Fundraising helped to replace this motor.
If you have any questions or suggestions, would like more information or you would rather write a cheque or donate in an alternate form, please contact Wendy Moore (club president) at admin@deepcoverowingclub.com. All donations will be kept confidential, unless you wish it otherwise.