As we take a look back we’ve had another fantastic year working together with you our customers to help you achieve your rowing goals. We have introduced new products to the rowing market in the UK, welcomed many new individuals, schools, clubs and universities to Team WinTech and celebrated your successes.
We couldn’t possibly include everything but here are some highlights from the last 12 months:
January - Nielsen-Kellerman Empower Oarlock Launch
The NK Empower Oarlock in conjunction with the SpeedCoach GPS2 with Training Pack is such a powerful tool, in just a couple of outings you can make big progress such as shown in the video below. Contact Andrew if you wish to book a trial of the Empower Oarlock and learn more.
March - Oarsport Junior Sculling Head
In what will be our 10th year sponsoring this event, we are pleased to see that your support is as strong as ever as it comes round again in 2018 on Tuesday 13th March and is quite a spectacle with a few thousand teenagers, their coaches, supporters and parents all thoroughly involved. The organisation, particularly in boating over 100 octuples is no mean feat by the “The Scullery”.
April - WinTech Racing SUP Rower Launch
The SUP Rower is a combined SUP board and with the addition of a sliding wing rigger station that simply bolts to the board, it becomes a stable, inexpensive sculling board that takes up minimal space when stored. It’s deep fin allows good tracking whilst still being highly manoeuvrable and a fun way to be introduced to sculling.
May - Successes at National School Regatta
National Schools Regatta has always been one of our favourite regattas in the calendar. We are always impressed with the enthusiasm of junior rowers and celebrating their successes early on in their careers. This year you impressed us with 8 Golds, 7 Silver & 9 Bronze Medals in WinTech boats. A full breakdown of the results can be found here.
July - Windsor Boys Henley Royal Regatta Win
We have been working closely with Windsor Boys coach Mark Wilkinson over the last few years culminating in their 2017 win in the Fawley Cup at HRR using our WinTech Cobra 4x and setting a new course record in the process! In fact we’d go as far to say that both their semi-final against Leander and the final against Claires Court were two of the stand out races of the 2017 regatta, and 2018 looks to be as close with the standard of British Junior sculling ever increasing. It says a lot when most of the WBS boys train in WinTech singles and doubles and so making that transition into a crew boat with commonality of equipment and feel goes a long way to their success.
July - Doggetts Coat & Badge
This year we again supported the oldest rowing race in the world. The Doggett's Coat and Badge Wager. Not only is it a race, it is a test of determination and endurance for these young apprentice watermen, some of whom may have only been sculling for a few months, or even weeks and take on the tricky waters of the tidal Thames in a WinTech fine racing shell.
August - Czech Junior World Champions for the second year running!
The Czech Republic once again were strong in the Women’s Junior 8+ emulating their 2016 world title. All the more impressive was that there were only 3 returning crew members in 2017 so it looks like their recipe for success has carried through. We were very pleased and proud that for both gold medals they chose WinTech!
September - Peterborough City World Rowing Masters Champions
It was so rewarding to see Peterborough City Women’s “Masters A” win gold in Bled in September. As a club they have embraced the WinTech brand and Oarsport so when they announced they wanted to race in our Cobra 8+ we were excited to see how they would get on. They didn’t let us down! A blistering start laid down by this determined ladies crew and went on to win by a handsome 2 lengths over the very picturesque 1000m course. All credit to their coaches and we hope the boat and our support went some way to achieving that wonderful win.
September - Bradley Wiggins Joins Team WinTech
Also in September we had the honour of meeting with Sir Bradley Wiggins and discussing his transition from cycling to rowing. Receiving coaching from WinTech Cobra owner and fellow Olympic Champion James Cracknell, Sir Bradley has started his rowing career in the WinTech Explorer range - the Explorer 30 2x with James, the Explorer 24 1x and with his progression, soon to be in….well let’s wait and see quite soon. We look forward to following his further progress.
October - Pairs Head of River Results
We know that buying a boat is just the start of your journey and are always following and love hearing your stories. This year at The Pairs Head 39 of the 55 categories had crews racing in WinTech Boats. 15 of those 39 categories came 1st with a further 9 crews coming in 2nd or 3rd place. Overall Winners went to Tideway Scullers School in their WinTech International in a time of 13:16.
A full breakdown of the results is available here.
So….what’s next?
We can’t say too much now but 2018 will be an exciting year for Oarsport and the brands we work with. We look forward to welcoming more of you to the WinTech Racing and NK communities here in the UK and working together to achieve your rowing goals.
As always, you can stay up to date on all our latest news, developments, offers right here on our blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and in our monthly newsletter. For anyone looking for a challenge in the new year, we will also be looking to grow our sales team. Please follow us on the channels above for more.
Set Yourself Up For Success in 2018
We’d like to help set you up for success in 2018. If you are considering a new boat we highly recommend giving our Boat Buying Guide a look which guides you through a series of questions helping you to decide the best boat for your needs and budget.
Once you have your boat it is important to be set up correctly. Our Basic Rigging Principles Guide walks you through this process.
We also offer a full range of NK electronics to measure your performance in real-time and for later analysis.
Oarsport Christmas Opening Hours
Our team will be taking a well earned break over Christmas and the New Year and we will return on 2nd January 2018. Please note that any orders placed now will not be despatched until this date.
We wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We look forward to an exciting 2018!
Team Oarsport
Andrew, Jack, Niall, Chris, Des, Berni & Nigel.
