GCBC is the boat club of Girton College, Cambridge, and is open to all members of the College. The club had its roots as a women’s boating society in 1906, and has been rowing since 1918, with the welcoming GCBC spirit of inclusivity and community continuing to this day.
Girton College is know as the "friendly College" and we keep this spirit in the boat club by encouraging all college members to try rowing at Girton with us, regardless of fitness or ability. All you need is a positive can-do attitude and we’ll do the rest! Almost all our senior rowers have never rowed before coming to Girton and every rower either races for Girton or the University Boat Clubs.
For regular updates on our recent activities, visit our Facebook and Instagram pages. Keen to get involved, or want to find out more? Visit the Freshers page. We look forwards to hearing from you! #YeahGirton!
Ranging from PhD students to freshers
And counting
With many more in between
Held in Girton College
We mainly focus on training for the "Bumps" races which happen during Lent and Easter Term, however we like to enter as many races as our crews can handle! Not everything revolves around training however, as we have a large and varied social calendar. From our own social Curries, “boatie” events, impromptu post-training socials and swaps with other boatclubs, to our termly, formal “Boat Club Dinner”, there’s always something going on!
Rowing brings people together like hardly any other sport – maybe it’s the shared misery (joy, I meant joy!) of 6 am outings, the synchronisation that makes eight people move and breathe together (under the guidance of the cox!) as if participating in a form of highly exhaustive outdoor yoga, or simply spending several hours a week with the same crew. Whatever it may be, the fact of matter is that we like to party together as much as row.
We have some recurring club socials throughout the year. At the beginning of each term we go for our traditional Boat Club Curry, and the end of the term is invariably concluded with a formal, black-tie event that is an inseparable element of the Oxbridge rowing culture, the Boat Club Dinner. In addition to those, we tend to have post-race socials, swaps with other colleges, and other events held by other clubs, from pub-crawls, to rowing-themed Valentine’s Day ball! There is a lot to pick from, and we can guarantee you won’t be complaining about the lack of social life even when seriously committing to rowing in the first college crews!