Shawnigan Lake Rowing, along with athletes from 18 other clubs and schools took to the lake this weekend in the annual Shawnigan Lake Regatta. Despite the heavy rain on Sunday, Shawnigan athletes gave the school some excellent results, picking up 8 top three finishes including 4 first place victories.

Leading the way was the Junior Girls program, who continued to win races by significant margins - claiming victory in the Jr B Four by over ten seconds, and the Jr B Eight by a similar margin. The girls also had strong showings in some very competitive sculling events.

The Senior Girls Eight also raced well this weekend, fighting hard through Sunday's downpour to come away with a second place finish. Though 2nd in the Eight was a great result, the best finish of the weekend for the Senior Girls was in the Senior Girls Four, where the girls fought off challenges from Victoria City Rowing Club, St Michael's, and Brentwood en rout to a dramatic win.

Also fighting hard all weekend was the Junior Boys program, who continue to improve as they have all season, closing the gap between themselves and the top boats in the eights and the fours.

After dominating the Lightweight sweep events two weeks ago at Brentwood, the Senior Boys showed that they could perfom in small boats as well. Lining up two Lightweight Pairs in the Heavyweight category, Shawnigan Lake advanced two boats to the final in a field of fifteen competitors. In the final, the pair of Saeed Naguib and Caleb McCleary cleared the field by over 10 seconds in a convincing win to close off Saturday's racing.

Saturday's schedule also included a very special boat christening, where three brand new Shawnigan eights were christened. The Hailstorm was named after the potentially devestating hailstorm the Shawnigan boat trailer went through on its way to St Catherines in 2010. Shawnigan lost two eights in this storm, but with the insurance claim, as well as some timely donations from Shawnigan supporters, allowed the club to turn that loss into a new fleet of eights!

The second eight was named after long-time Shawnigan Business Manager Linda Ewert. As one of Shawnigan Rowing's biggest supporters on campus, this honour was a long time coming, and certainly well deserved.

The final eight christened was renamed after the CSSRA winning crew of 1959. The original "Spirit of '59" was a two year-old boat which was lost in the hailstorm of 2010. It was only fitting that the School continue to honour that great crew by renaming its' replacement after the same crew.

The Shawnigan Regatta is the last race of the west coast regatta circuit, and the last chance for many crews to get some all-important race experience before heading east for the CSSRA regatta in St Catherines Ontario.

Though the weather wasn't perfect, the 2011 regatta was a big success, and the organizers wish to thank all those who volunteered including students, parents and Shawnigan staff. Without this committed group of volunteers, this regatta (like every successful regatta, both at Shawnigan and elsewhere), could not have been as successful as it was.