Cure Boating Club is 100 years old

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31781, 11 September 1968, Page 15

Cure Boating Club is 100 years old

'T'HE Cure Boating Club, of Kaiapoi, will celebrate Its centenary on Saturday in conjunction with its opening day. Friendly rowing contests will be held in the afternoon and a dinner and centennial ball will be held in the evening. A centennial regatta will be held on November 30 and an afternoon river carnival the next day will give all rowers and the public a chance to share in the festivities. The club now has its highest membership for more than a decade. The Cure club was not the first in the river town of Kaiapoi. In 1868 there were i at least three others, with keen rivalry between members and public enthusiasm frequently at fever heat. Crews adopted the names of their boats in the beginning. The original yellow pine Cure, built by R. H. Matthews, Kaiapoi, was 37ft long, had a beam of 3ft 6in and a draught of sin. The source of the name is not clear, although it has been accredited to a popular song of the day which began: "A cure, a cure, oh yes, a cure, you are an awful cure.” The club’s first object was "to promote amongst its members, in an economical, friendly and gentlemanly manner, the enjoyment of, and improvement in, the art of rowing.” All club boats and property were “strictly withheld from use for pleasure or practice on Sun- ,

days.” Any member could use a club boat for a private match provided that 25 per cent of the winnings were given to the club’s general fund. In 1873 the other clubs amalgamated with Cure, which had three inrigged four-oar boats built locally with fixed seats, the Tui, Piri, and Kuku. An imported four-oar outrigger, Cam, was built by Salter, Oxford, England, in polished cedar with a length of 42ft, and sliding seats. By 1886, Cure, in purple and white, had won 50 first prizes at Lyttelton, Heath-

cote, Christchurch and Kaiapoi regattas. From 1878 to 1899, the club won the four-1 oar championship 13 times, ) The Cam provided the local highlight of the 1874 i inter-provincial fours regatta, held at Kaiapol before 5000 spectators. Open to outrigged boats in the Australasian colonies and New Zealand, there were six entrants for the £l5O prize. Cam’s crew, comprising T. Mellor (bow), J. Winter, bourn (2), W. Wright (3), R. H. Matthews (stroke) and J. Ayres (cox), was fouled, but “rowing a thoroughly steady and game race,” came in fourth, defeating both of the other South Island competitors from Christchurch.