The solicitations of the editor for alumni to send old photos for the alumni crew section of this website has finally yielded a result with 1970’s lightweight rowing guru and dentist Eric Carter sending in this photo of a crew of partly bearded and long haired students raising money by attempting to set a long distance rowing record. In July 1973 SUBC Committee conceived a hare-brained idea to raise money by breaking the world record for long distance rowing in the one session. In due course in late September the crew as detailed below took to the Nepean River with over $2000 in sponsorship (about $15-20,000 in todays dollars) and rowed 90 miles (144 kms) in 11 hours 54 minutes and 16 seconds to break the previous record of 78 miles in 12 hours set by New Zealand Club Aramoho.
Recently Eric Carter sent SUBC this photo of the crew during their record attempt. Apparently crew members have suffered no adverse long term effects from this silly stunt.
The crew from bow is: Eric Carter ( now a dentist in Hong Kong and Sydney), Dave Roberts ( doing doctoring in WA) , Al Simpson (vet in the Hunter Valley), Ian Plater ( runs a software company in Sydney) Austin Curtin ( surgeon at Lismore Base Hospital), Chris Shinners ( senior engineer with Esso in Melbourne and noted masters rower along with Eric Carter), Ted O’Loughlin (pediatrician at Westmead hospital Sydney), Steve Newnham (financial services Sydney) and Joe Donnelly (Bursar Kinross Wallaroi School at Orange. Coach Maurie Grace is retired and works on his farm at Snowview near Jindabyne ( in 2004 Maurie’s grandson Sam Conrad represented Australia in the Sen A Coxed Four at the World Championships). Manager was John Boultbee currently in Athens as the official on course commentator for rowing for the Athens Olympic Organizing Committee and recently appointed Director of High Performance for Australian Soccer