The impacts on our active members has been immense and on the current exit out of lockdown, will continue to be so. It will be an enormous challenge for our younger members to get the on-water miles under our belts in time for the National Championships and selection activities. With unusual study and work commitments, and continuous off water training, it is getting very tiring for our young athletes. They are currently doing 1100 hours of off water training a week! For our older rowers, it is now six months away from the sport we love. Our thoughts are with you all.

We may be able to get some athletes back on the water in October in singles, in groups of two, with a coach, if the government commits to stage 2. The difficulty will still be the 5km activity radius.

If the extremely high threshold of <5 cases on average over 14 days by 26th October is reached, we might allow us to get back into boats, but not into the boathouse.

If the unrealistic threshold on no cases for 14 days is reached by the 23rd November, we can open the boathouse.

As you might gather, your author does not believe the Victorian government is making realistic thresholds for sports, let alone the community.

Needless to say, regattas in 2020 are a dream but regattas might be a possibility in 2021. The Head of the Yarra has been cancelled.

Given the lack of regattas and so income for Rowing Victoria, their new CEO will not commence until October and the staff have been asked to work part-time.

Given that we have the benefit of JobKeeper payments for three of our coaching team, the Club coaching team continues to support our athletes and plans for better times.