Last year, Lancaster University’s Boat Club made an application to the Lancaster University Friends’ Programme. The club explained that the primary aim of the project was to raise the competitiveness of their top crews to the next level, ensuring their athletes can reach their full potential without being held back by the limitations of equipment.

They had raised enough money to purchase both the men’s 4+ and the novice 8+. The former being prioritised due to the consistent demand over many years, and the latter due to the time-urgency. This however left the status of the women’s 4+ in peril; without enough funding to be even close to purchasing this boat, it was unlikely that they would be able to raise enough money to buy this boat within the next 3 or 4 years.

The club wrote to the Friends’ Programme committee to explain: “Our women’s squad is an extremely important part of our club and show great potential in the upcoming years. We believe proper investment in the form of a new 4+ boat would be extremely beneficial to all members of the squad and would return many successes in major events such as BUCS and Roses.”

The boats that the club had requested funding for were expected to last 15-20 years, so would be handed down through many generations, helping to maintain a strong and stable club at Lancaster University. We are absolutely delighted to say that the club were granted their request and they received funding of £6,000 for the new boats.

Great results followed!

• The Hudson USP 4+ boat was named Tim Cape and saw the club’s return to Henley qualifiers. The crew came first in their time trial and in the final at Peterborough Regatta. They also won the Grand Challenge Cup at Durham Regatta (the most coveted prize in the North of England), as well as coming second in their final at Met Regatta.
• The 8+ saw great success. Nicknamed 'The Penguin', it came second in the time trial and first in the final at Peterborough Regatta, as well as winning the Alderman cup at Durham Regatta.
• The women's 4+ has been collected from Henley Regatta and we can't wait to see the success it brings the crew in the coming year.

“I want to give a big thank you to everyone who donated money to LUBC this past year, without your help I don't think we would've made it this far. We have absolutely amazingly dedicated athletes who can now perform at top levels due to the money given to us to improve our equipment. The club has made such amazing progress thanks to this, and I'm so excited to see how we will continue to improve next year.”

Mathew Picken, Lancaster University Boat Club Captain