The Boat Club's much-awaited new women's eight finally arrived in August. The sleek yellow Empacher was due to be christened on the lawn in the Main Quad at the University, but heavy rain forced its relocation to the cloisters surrounding the Quad.
The new boat brings our women's eights fleet to three Empacher boats and puts it on par with the men's fleet..
The purchase of this boat was made possible through a grant from the Thyne Reid Foundation. Thyne Reid was a rower at Sydney University Boat Club and St Andrew's College in the 1920's. Thyne Reid was primarily responsible for procuring a home for SUBC after WWII. The Army had resumed the club's old shed in Blackwattle Bay at the start of the war in 1939-40 and it was subsequently demolished.
The Boat Club resumed training after the war in 1946 but for the next 18 years relied on the charity of other rowing clubs until December 1964 when the then-new boatshed was opened in Burns Bay, Lane Cove.
In about 1960 Thyne Reid purchased a large waterfront block in Wrights Road, Drummoyne with an 8 bedroom 2-3 story brick house and gave it to the University along with funds to construct a boatshed on the waterfront. His idea was that the house would be Boat Club HQ and serve as accommodation for rowers who had left college but were keen to continue rowing.
Unfortunately, there were some issues building the boatshed and the University took over the use of the property and in return built the A-Frame boatshed at Lane Cove.
The Boat Club has aimed to keep Thyne Reid's memory alive and on this occasion, his memory has been honoured by naming this new boat "Thyne Reid IV" .
Thyne Reid set up and endowed two charitable trusts - one in Melbourne in 1944 and one in Sydney in 1955. He endowed these trusts with a total of 3 million pounds (110-120 million dollars in today's money).
George Reid rowed for the Boat Club in the 1980s while studying at Sydney University and St Andrew's College.
The Boat Club thanks George Reid and the Thyne Reid Foundation.
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