University of Warwick Boat Club | |
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Location | Barford, Warwickshire, UK |
Home water | River Avon |
Founded | 1966 |
Coaches | Thomas Broomfield, Oliver James, Patrick Hinton, Oliver Frazer, Craig Jackson |
Membership | 100 (approx) |
Affiliations | British Rowing |
Website | www |
Events | |
Varsity | |
Notable members | |
Tom Solesbury |
The University of Warwick Boat Club is the rowing club of the University of Warwick. The men's team is colloquailly known as the Warwick Rowers. The club was founded in 1966 and currently has over a hundred members. It rows out of a boathouse on a 3.5 km stretch of the River Avon, Warwickshire. It caters for all levels of rowers from novices to experienced oarsman, and previous members include Oxford University Boat Club member and Boat Race winner, Ben Ellison and Olympian Tom Solesbury. It is known internationally for its annual nude wall calendars for charity.
The club's facilities include sixteen Concept2 ergos and a Concept2 dynamic ergo, kept in the on-campus sports centre. The club's men's 1st VIII currently rows in a 2011 wing-rigged Hudson Boatworks and the women's 1st VIII currently rows in a 2015 Filippi Boats. The club owns three further eights, three fours and numerous small boats.
The club trains out of a recently rebuilt boathouse on a 3.5 km stretch of the River Avon south of Warwick Castle.
The club's alumni maintain strong links with the club through the Warwick Graduate Boat Club. Members of WGBC and UWBC regularly compete.
Recent alumni of the club include Boat Race winners Ben Ellison and Olympic rower Tom Solesbury.
Since 2009 the men's team, known as the Warwick Rowers, has produced an annual wall calendar featuring the rowers modeling nude, to help fund the team. Since 2012 some of the proceeds from sales of the calendar have gone to Sport Allies, a programme created by the team "to reach out to young people challenged by bullying, homophobia or low self-esteem". Since 2011 the women's team has produced a similar calendar featuring its rowers. Proceeds from the women's calendar are shared with Macmillan Cancer Support.