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On Sunday 22nd November, members of Somerville College Boat Club will be taking on a 24 hour ergathon, rowing in a continuous relay to raise £2,000 towards our Easter 2027 training camp!
We’re hoping to return to Totnes, Devon, for around six days of rowing, coaching and team bonding, following on from two incredibly successful camps at Dart Totnes Rowing Club the past two years.
With 77 members, including 44 enthusiastic novices, SCBC is bigger and more ambitious than ever. But with a growing club and increasingly stretched finances, we need your help to make this year’s camp possible and accessible to as many members as possible.
Why is training camp so important?
Our usual training stretch on the Isis is notoriously short, narrow and busy, making it difficult to get long, uninterrupted stretches of rowing. To make matters worse, flooding frequently results in river closures for large portions of Michaelmas and Hilary terms, severely limiting our time on the water.
Training camp gives our rowers and coxes an invaluable six days of consistent, twice daily, focussed training on a much wider and quieter river (other than the seals!), with the time and space to develop their skills and particularly confidence for coxes.
Last year, following river closures for the majority of Hilary term, this opportunity was especially important. We took around 30 members to Totnes, hired three boats and saw extraordinary progress from those who attended, in particular among our novice rowers. Five coxes also had their first outings at camp, gaining vital experience in a much more forgiving environment before progressing to the Isis and for some racing in Trinity term.
Two years of incredible progress
Since introducing our Easter training camps, SCBC has enjoyed two of its most successful years in recent memory!
In 2025, all three of our women’s crews won blades, while in 2026, SCBC had the most bumps per crew of any college, without conceding a single bump.
Training camp has played an important role in this success, giving our crews the opportunity to improve technique, build confidence and develop as crews ahead of Summer Eights. This year, we entered an incredible seven crews into Summer Eights, which we believe really reflects the enthusiasm and commitment across the club.
However camp is about much more than just racing results - it’s also one of the highlights of the SCBC calendar. From fish and chips and pasties to wild swimming, camp creates friendships between year groups and memories, uniting the boat club. This sense of community has been a huge part of keeping so many members involved and recruiting many more.
Why we need your support
Despite our enthusiasm and recent successes, SCBC is facing significant financial pressure this year. With so many boats to keep on the water and such a large novice intake to support, funding regular coaching has become increasingly difficult alongside our many other running costs. Many of our committee members are already volunteering their time to coach outings alongside their studies, training and committee responsibilities to help keep costs down.
We’re determined to keep camp affordable and ensure that financial circumstances don’t prevent anyone from taking part.
Money raised through our ergathon will go towards:
- Coaching costs during the camp, giving our rowers and coxes the support they need to improve
- Boat hire, allowing as many members as possible to get out on the water throughout the week
- Costs to hire Dart Totnes Rowing Club, to allow us to make use of the boathouse facilities including their erg room
- An access fund, helping to partially or fully cover camp costs for members who might otherwise be unable to attend
Any additional funds will go towards subsidising accommodation costs for our members, helping to keep the overall price of camp as low as possible.
Last year, around 30 members joined us at camp and we’re hoping to welcome even more this Easter!
Help us reach our goal!
For 24 hours on Sunday 22nd November, SCBC members will be keeping the erg wheels spinning, taking turns to row throughout the day, night and early house of the morning, all to help make Easter training camp 2027 a reality.
Every bit of support will make a difference, thank you so much for supporting SCBC, we can’t wait to see what our crews can achieve in 2027!