WAUCHOPE-Bonny Hills Surf Life Saving Club will get back to business this weekend for round four and five of the North Coast Surfboat Series.
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In what is anticipated to be an emotion-charged weekend, the open men’s crew will have to focus on the job at hand.
They will enter the water for the first time in a competitive race since Simon Stennett passed away a fortnight ago.
Boat captain Tony Kee said it had been a tough couple of weeks for the club and they will pay tribute to Stennett in race one at Scotts Head.
“I know Simon’s crew are going to head out with three in the boat in the first race; whether they choose to continue that for the remainder of the weekend is up to them,” Kee said.
“It will be dedicated to Simon and his family so hopefully we can go out there and do the right thing.”
As part of the series, all teams will line the sand and raise their oars before the start of the first race.
Kee said the closeness of the club had ensured everyone looked after each other.
All members of the club will wear black armbands this weekend.
“It’s a tight-knit club who will band together and in times like this we need to lean on each other to get through it,” he said.
“We’ll go out there and do our best.”
Wauchope-Bonny Hills will aim to replicate their success from South West Rocks where the open men’s and reserve men’s crews finished first.
Kee said they had previously performed well at Scotts Head.
They will take their open men, reserve men and masters men and women crews north.
“We’ll hope that both our men’s teams can perform again like they did a couple of weeks ago,” he said.
“Scotts Head is always a great venue; Macksville always host it well and there’s always a wave on.”
“The most pleasing thing is that our A-grade crew haven’t skipped a beat.”
Port Macquarie Surf Life Saving Club will take two of their own crews.
They had a competitive run in round two and three although boat captain Rick Rolfe knows they have to be better.
“We didn’t go all that bad at South West Rocks,” he said.
“We just weren’t as skilled as we’d like and hopefully we’ll go a bit better this weekend.”
Their masters women’s crew will be in a hotly contested field which features national champions Woolgoolga.
“They play for keeps up there,” he said.
“They’re one of the best crews in their division.”
Rolfe said they had been working hard on their turns in the weeks following South West Rocks.
“We’ve done a fair bit of training since then,” he said.