Peter Bowman has been rowing his boat steadily down the stream while working on the Community and Environment team at Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) for a number of years, but now he’s made the call to retire and commit to building a faster wooden rowing skull.
Peter has spent the best part of 18 years in the mining industry, including two years at Bayswater Power Station and HVO. Prior to that he managed rural properties next to mines and dabbled in architecture.
“I was very happy at work and happy to keep working but I realised if I didn’t make the move to work on my boat building project full time, I’d run out of track to complete it.”
Rowing is something Peter has done all his life. If you ask him why he started in the first place he’ll tell you there wasn’t much else on offer for someone with little sporting talent at his school when he was 12.
“If you weren’t very good at anything else, rowing was for you,” Peter joked.
“I loved the teamwork, the comradery, the friendships and the benefits of being fit.
“I rowed through university, rowed for a club in London, then I was married and had children so I stopped for a while. When we had kids, for reasons I will never fathom, they took up the sport and I got roped back into it.
“When you’re older and rediscover the sports you played when you were young, it makes you feel young again. The things that made you happy when you were young make you happy when you’re older, it’s a pretty simple formula.
“I have competed at state and national competitions, as well as overseas. The race that I most fondly remember was when I was 22 years old and competed in a rowing marathon in Boston in the United Kingdom. I entered it without realising what I was doing! It was more than 49-kilometres and I came fourth.
“The wooden boat I used in the race was quite special, a senior rower “Ash” offered to let me use his boat, a wooden boat that was built before WWII. He was a special man, and it was a very special machine.”
With all his rowing goals achieved, Peter now wants to build the fastest boat he can. The idea came about after he came across plans designed by Dudley Dix for a single scull for lightweight rowers.
Peter was sitting with his mate Owen Redhead in 2017 watching their children row when he mentioned the idea and Owen jumped on board.
“We call ourselves Redbow. We’ve built two boats, one of which is average in speed but competitive and we know we can make the next one a lot faster. It’s a modern, experimental design and functions less like a traditional rowing boat and a little more like a power boat. It aims to address some of the limitations of a traditional boat,” Peter explained.
“We need a few months to build the next prototype and hopefully find a national standard rower and work with them to break or set a record.
“We train with the Endeavour Rowing Club at Morpeth in Berry Park on the beautiful Hunter River. Rowing is a wonderful sport, if anyone wants to take it up don’t hesitate to get in touch!”
| You can get involved in the Endeavour Rowing Club by reaching out to the team via their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/endeavourrowingclub |
