THERE was no shortage of champagne as the Ballarat High School Boat Club christened two new boats last night, even if water to row on remains scarce.
Ballarat High School unveiled the two junior competition boats, worth $12,000 apiece, with the ceremonial shattering of champagne bottles to launch the 2007-2008 rowing season.
The boats, christened "Bartlett Family" and "Stewart Brown" after long-time supporters of the club, will be be crewed by the Year 9 and 10 girls teams.
School rowing director Peter Jeffery said the new boats meant the school's junior teams now had "excellent boats to run in".
"The boat club has tried to purchase a new boat each season," Jeffery explained.
"One was last season's boat, but we got it late so we didn't have a chance to name it.
"The next thing will be to start replacing senior boats because some of those are 15 years old."
The first boat was named after former club president John Bartlett and his wife Jill, who ran the club from 1999 to 2001, along with their daughters Amy and Sara who rowed with the team in 1999 (Amy) and in 2001 and 2002 (Sara).
Stewart Brown, who has been something of a `Mr Fixit' around the club, is currently vice president of the boat club.
Despite the new boats, school rowing director Peter Jeffery admitted the boat club faced a difficult season ahead.
"Without the water in Lake Wendouree it is extremely difficult," Jeffery said.
"The lake might look like there is water in it, but it's actually like a saucer where a little bit of water spreads out a long way. It's only about 30cm deep in the middle and the water only goes half way along our jetty.
"We're training at Nagambie, Geelong and at Essendon in the Maribyrnong River.
"With the other Ballarat schools, we've all got the same problem, but when we go up against the Melbourne schools or the nationals in Sydney we will be competitive but perhaps not as good as we have been in the past.
"We're down on numbers in our senior crews and, while we've got very good junior girl numbers, it's less so with the junior boys."
Training starts with a camp for the senior team at Nagambie this weekend and junior training in Melbourne on Sunday. The season proper kicks off with a regatta at Geelong on November 10 and 11, followed by a junior regatta
at Geelong on December 1 and a senior regatta at Melbourne on December 8.
The annual Head of the Lake regatta between all the Ballarat schools will be held at Geelong on February 17 next year.
The boat club also announced its captains and vice captains for the new season last night.
Ben Hobbs and Josh Boon were boys rowing captain and vice captain respectively, while the new girls captain and vice captain Mikaila Hoskin and Jamie Mayne.
A CD ROM celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Ballarat High School, produced by Barry Ryan and Jamie Greenwood and featuring over 750 photos from the school's history plus songs produced by school band Whizbang, is
being sold for $20 to raise funds for the boat club.
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