Lynne Mowbray |

The Yamba Surf Life Saving Club celebrated the christening of their new competition surf boat, at Yamba’s Main Beach on Friday.

The boat (and trailer) was a joint project of the Yamba SLSC and a federal government “Stronger Community” grant.

Federal Member for Page Kevin Hogan said that he was approached by the Yamba Surf Life Saving Club (SLSC) for a grant to purchase the new boat.

“I was happy to organise this grant that will allow more juniors and women boaties to compete,” Mr Hogan said.

“This is because the design of the new boat allows it to be manually adjusted to suit all size rowers.

“These boats are also lighter to manoeuvre on the beach which will suit junior crews who are currently struggling to carry the boats,” he said.

Yamba Surf Life Saving Club Boat Captain Rod McSkimming said that the club had performed well at the recent World Titles in Adelaide and was hoping to do even better with the new boat.

“Two of our crews won a silver and bronze at the recent World Titles in Adelaide,” Rod said.

“We’ve been competing very well at a lot of carnivals and getting good results and with this (new boat) I feel we’ll be that much quicker and better.

“It’s great to have this new boat and the one it’s replacing is eight years old.

“This new boat and trailer cost close to $40,000, and having something like this encourages everyone to get involved, which is what we’re after.

Rod said that the club had to christen the new boat on Friday, as it was competing the following morning, at the Queensland titles.

“After the Queensland titles we have two weeks of training before five crews head off to the Australian titles,” he said.