Sydney University Boat Club Annual Report for 2025
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The 2025 season was an overall success for Sydney University Boat Club, as the club continued to develop high-level talent and deliver strong performances across most programs.
During the season our Head Coach of the last eight years Don McLachlan resigned to take a new role at The Queensland Academy of Sport, and SUBC appointed Tom Laurich as Head Coach, overseeing the senior squad. Simon Huxley joined the coaching team, volunteering as Men’s Senior Development Coach, leading the men’s development program. In contrast, Phil Bourguignon joined Alan Bennett in the continued development of the women’s squad.
The year featured some standout performances and exceptional races. Most notably, Phoebe Teale topped the athlete medal tally at the 2025 Australian Rowing Championships, winning an outstanding five gold medals across the week. SUBC finished fourth overall at the Championships, behind Sydney Rowing Club, Melbourne University, and Mercantile. Nonetheless, it was a phenomenal regatta and a valuable opportunity for the club to continue developing emerging athletes.
At the NSW Rowing Championships, SUBC finished second on the overall medal tally. Standout performances came from Hamish Danks and Marcus Della Marta, who each claimed two gold medals in their respective events before combining in the men’s quad with Jackson Kench and Will Rogers to win a further gold, bringing their total to three gold medals each. Additional highlights included third place in the Under 21 Men’s Eight, second place in the Women’s Elite Eight, and gold in the Women’s Elite Quad.
The club produced one of its strongest performances in recent years at the 2025 UniSport Nationals, winning both the Overall Men’s and Women’s Pennants and securing key silverware. This success provided strong momentum heading into the 2025 Australian Boat Race against Melbourne University on the Yarra River, where both SUBC’s Men’s and Women’s crews claimed victory. The Women’s crew produced a particularly memorable race, pulling clear of Melbourne University in the final 200 metres to secure the win.
In 2025, The Boat Club would like to acknowledge our athletes who represented Australia in the green and gold in rowing:
Senior Team | Under 23 Team | Under-19 Team | Coaching Representation |
· Marcus Della Marta · Jaime Ford · Eleanor Price · Emily Shepherd · Taylor Caudle · Zara Collison · Sophia Wightman · Sophie Houston | · Liv Nattey (U23 Women’s Four) · Hamish Danks (U23 Men’s Quad) · Will Rogers (U23 Men’s Quad)
| · Gus Ciesiolka (Junior Men’s Four)
| · Tom Laurich – Coach, U23 Men’s Quad · Alfie Young – Coach, U23 Women’s Four
|
The Boat Club is proud of all our athletes and coaches who represent the club with pride and passion, and we look forward with great excitement to building on this success as we head into the 2026 season.
In 2025 The club continued its Winter Junior Program, encouraging development of school rowers as future recruits. Over 50 school rowers joined in the winter program. Alan Bennett took a group of ten junior girls to a Rowing USA Development Camp in Chattanooga in July and we sent several crews to China to attend University Regattas arranged by various cities. These events are cultural as well as competitive where, as visitors we try to impart our enthusiasm for rowing to local school kids and enjoy the rowing and social events put on by our hosts.
At Christmas the Boat Club hosted twenty of the Princeton University rowing team who were having their holiday break in Australia. Two of the Princeton team, Ed Nutt and Joe McAuley are also members of SUBC
The Boat Club would like to thank Sydney Uni Sport, Ed Smith and his team and especially acknowledge the assistance from the Elite Athlete Department and the Finance Department.
Our thanks also to Rowing Australia – Sydney Uni Boat Club is a designated Pathway Club within the Rowing Australia network and as such receives funding from RA towards our coaching budget.
We would also like to acknowledge the CEO of Rowing Australia, Sarah Cook who is both an alumnus of the club and our former President for her leadership of RA>
The club also would like to acknowledge our alumni who are or have served as directors of Sydney Uni Sport , Jane Spring, Mike Wiseman, Andrew Purchas and Sarah Verne.
Finally, thanks to the generous support of our alumni, we were able to invest in new equipment in 2025 and support our underage rowers selected on U19 and U 23 and World University teams with a payment towards their tour fee of $3,000 each.
In 2025, the Boat Club purchased:
1 x Fillipi Women’s Pair / Double
2 x Empacher ex NTC Pair / Doubles
2 x Sykes Pair /Doubles
2 x Sykes Single Sculls
1 x Set 10 Concept 2 Sweep Oars
2 x Coaching Catamarans plus Engines from Rowing Solutions UL
2 x sets 8-piece Peach Telemetry Systems
3 x 3 metre Aluminium Tables and 25 Chairs for Boatshed Deck
New Catamarans and NewTables and Chairs
The total spend on equipment was $225,000 ex GST - as mentioned all from funds and grants from our alumni.
The Board of SUBC extends a massive thanks to all our former rowers who assisted the Club with donations to fund our fleet and equipment renewal.
A new Boat Club Board was elected in June 2025.
| Sydney University Boat Club Inc |
| Board 2025-26 |
| Elected 21st June 2025 |
Role | Name |
President | Devlin Walsh |
Vice -President Male | John Boultbee |
Vice - President Female | Renee Kirby |
Treasurer | Miller Argent |
Secretary | Chris Noel |
Captain - Men's | Will Gregory |
Captain- Women's | Liv Nattey |
Student Committee Member Male | James Scott Brown |
Student Committee Member Female | Sophia Wightman |
Appointed Board Member 26 Aug 25 | Ella Mentzines |
The Boat Club Board with the Head Coach, meets monthly.
The Club had two member protection officers trained and appointed – Devlin Walsh and Ella Mentzines. The Boat Club follows the policies outlined by Sydney University Sport – our governing body.
All our coaches ( except one volunteer) are employed by Sydney University Sport and paid from our Boat Club budget. They are expected to note Sydney University Sport policies and to ensure their actions adhere to those policies.
Strong recruiting in the latter half of the year has seen a large expansion in our men’s U21 and U23 Development Squads. This will put extra pressure on our equipment requirements over the next few years.
The Sydney Uni Boat Club has over the last 40 years steadily built itself into a leading force in New South Wales and Australian Rowing development, and over the years provided significant numbers to serve on the Boards of Sydney University Sport, Rowing New South Wales, and in senior admin and coaching roles at Rowing Australia.
To continue this service to Rowing, our club needs alumni to look at contributing to our sport through the Club, Sydney University Sport, Rowing NSW, and Rowing Australia. The Club will soon issue a call for alumni volunteers.
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