 For more than 80 years C.A.I. has maintained a strong, proud, rowing tradition, producing excellent crews, year after year, that have competed successfully throughout Great Britain and Ireland. From C.A.I. crews, oarsmen have gone on to excel further in club and national crew boats basing their success on the comprehensive and complete rowing platform that they obtained, thanks to their experiences at CAIBC.
 Over the last decade alone, old boys have competed at all levels; Junior, lightweight and senior in events such as the Home international regatta, the Coupe de la Jeunesse, the Commonwealth rowing Championships, World Cup regattas, World Championships and even as recent as 2008, the Olympics. Within University and Club crews, C.A.I. oarsmen have won elite events at British and Irish Championships as well as at the world renowned Henley Royal Regatta. Old boys have further excelled in the fields of club organisation and coaching of rowing and the survival and success of the C.A.I. club in recent years owes much to this facet.
Due to the costs and time associated with the sport of rowing, we believe that it falls within the responsibilities of old boy oarsmen to help, as they have the passion and desire to support such a great establishment. It cannot be doubted that each old boy rower owes much to the boat club that has not only given them success on the water and the opportunity to row at unprecedented heights but has also provided many great friendships, experiences and key lessons for life.
 This is why we have set up C.O.B.R.A. The short term aim is to support C.A.I.B.C. financially as well as in terms of administration and coaching, to help develop this 80 year old, proud rowing tradition. Our long term aims would be to act as a supporters club for CAIBC and to provide a body within which old boy oarsmen may keep in touch with each other and even compete together.
We realise as indeed you must too, that this will not be easy and will require both practical and financial support from those who can proudly say that they themselves were once C.A.I. oarsmen. C.O.B.R.A. has been set up as a nonprofit organisation, with membership open to all, who have had or have a connection with C.A.I. and/or who have an interest in the sport of rowing. The yearly membership fee is set at £20, with this and other donations used solely to obtain the above objectives. If you would be interested in finding out more, please contact us at chairman @ cobrarowing.co.uk (remove the 2 spaces from the email address and put "COBRA" in the subject title to avoid the spam detector).
C.O.B.R.A. has been set up as a charity for tax purposes with all donations used solely to obtain the above objectives. If you would like to make a donation, please get in touch with us and we can provide a Gift Aid declaration form, which when completed, obtains from the Inland Revenue a further donation by way of the relevant % of Income Tax. You must pay an amount of income tax and/or Capital Gains tax at least equal to the tax that the charity reclaims on your donations in the tax year (currently 28p for each £1 you give).
 After the recent purchase of new sweep blades and rowing boats, the coaching staff of CAIBC and COBRA decided that the next equipment needed by the school club were new sculling blasdes to replace the 12 year old ones the 1st quad were currently using.
 These have been used to much success since they arrived in January.
 Wednesday 25th October 2007, saw the arrival of four new rowing boats for CAIBC. The boats are a coxed four/quad, a double/pair and two single sculls.
 The boats were named after the annual COBRA Vs CAIBC race. This purchase was organised by COBRA and funded by COBRA, with assistance from the Coleraine Old Boys Association and the Friends of Coleraine Inst.
 This substantial investment for a relatively young association represents COBRA’s continued commitment to support CAIBC in any way it can.
Our thanks to Mr Joe Cassells for the pics.
 Another milestone in COBRA’s history was reached. This involved the presentation of a set of 8 blades that had been purchased by COBRA for use by CAIBC. This substantial investment for a relatively young association represents COBRA’s commitment to support CAIBC in any way it can.
The picture shows COBRA chairman (& CAIBC coach) William Wright presenting the blades to CAIBC chief coach (& COBRA Patron) Bobby Platt MBE. Iain Giffin (chairman of the COBRA Fund Raising Committee) and Richard Arcibald (COBRA captain) look on, along with Mark Reid (CAIBC vice-captain) and David Stafford (CAIBC secretary).
If you are involved helping out at the school boat club from time to time, the school has asked that you attend a training session in the school. Please get in touch with me so i can sort out a date with the school child protection officer (Paddy Allen).
Cheers
William chairman @ cobrarowing.co.uk (remove the 2 spaces from the email address and put "COBRA" in the subject title to avoid the spam detector).
 If you would like to join, please contact us at chairman @ cobrarowing.co.uk (remove the 2 spaces from the email address and put "COBRA" in the subject title to avoid the spam detector) and we will email you a membership form and a copy of our constitution. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Alison Millar for all her gracious work towards preparing our constitution.
COBRA is proud to have the honour of naming Mr Bobby Platt, who is renown worldwide both inside and outside rowing circles, as our Patron. This is in addition to his role as Head Coach of CAIBC, President of Bann Rowing Club, Vice-President of City of Derry Rowing Club and much more (SEE bottom of page for more info on the legend that is Bobby Platt MBE).insmThe Board of COBRA consists of seven old boys of Coleraine Inst, who are-
position name CAI CAIBC presently
Chairman William Wright 1990-97 1992-97 CAIBC coach
Secretary Andrew Wright 1993-00 1996-00 CAIBC coach
Treasurer Jason Taggart 1996-03 1999-03 C.O.B.R.A.
Captain Richard Archibald 1989-96 1993-96 CAIBC
Vice-Captain Philip Hamill 1997-04 1999-04 C.O.B.R.A.
Membership Sec Steven Archibald 1992-99 1995-99 CAIBC
Social Convenor Jonathan Coulter 1991-99 1994-99 C.O.B.R.A.
Fund Raising Committee
The COBRA Fund Raising Committee has been established and will have responsibilities for organising COBRA events and raising funds for both CAIBC and COBRA.
The members of the committee who were elected at the AGM 2005 are as follows:
Colin Cochrane
David Ewart
David Stafford
Darren Taggart
Michael McNaul
Ryan Dinsmore
The remainder of the committee consists of two Board members and the Head Coach of CAIBC, Bobby Platt.
The committee can be reached by contacting any of the individual members, or by emailing chairman @ cobrarowing.co.uk (remove the 2 spaces from the email address and put "COBRA" in the subject title to avoid the spam detector).
 Newsletter
THE COBRA NEWSLETTER 2007 IS NOW AVAILABLE. For a copy, please email chairman @ cobrarowing.co.uk (remove the 2 spaces from the email address and put "COBRA" in the subject title to avoid the spam detector).
Our thanks to the editor Alex Humphrey and all the contributors for all their work in putting this together. If anyone has any articles for the next edition, I'm sure Alex would be very happy to receive them. These can be sent to chairman @ cobrarowing.co.uk (remove the 2 spaces from the email address and put "COBRA" in the subject title to avoid the spam detector).
Rowing Club
We would like to know if there is sufficient interest in setting up COBRA as a registered rowing club. We would need a number of people training in the same area, to warrant the expense of registering the club, and hiring the equipment needed to run a competitive rowing club. If there is such a group of people, please let us know at chairman @ cobrarowing.co.uk (remove the 2 spaces from the email address and put "COBRA" in the subject title to avoid the spam detector).
It would be appreciated if correspondence was via email, as this will help cut our overheads. Please feel free to contact us at chairman @ cobrarowing.co.uk (remove the 2 spaces from the email address and put "COBRA" in the subject title to avoid the spam detector). The other email addresses are still active, but have been removed from the website to reduce the volume of Spam emails.
If you do not receive a reply to your email, please leave a message on our Forum, and we will get back to you.
If a COBRA member requires a mail address in order to post material to COBRA, then please obtain it by emailing the relevant address above.
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We currently have a range of COBRA rowing kit, such as splash tops, all-in-ones, technical tops, long-sleeved tops, socks, etc.
 All this kit is personalised COBRA kit (either with the name, and/or the crest) and can only be obtained through COBRA. If you would like to buy generic Powerhouse kit, please visit their website at www.powerhouseclothing.co.uk
 There are also casual-wear items, such as fleeces, sweatshirts, polo shirts, baseball caps, polar fleece hats, etc.
These are available to COBRA members, and are bulk ordered whenever there is sufficient interest. Any individual orders will be subject to extra charges. For a complete list of currently available kit and kit orders, please email chairman @ cobrarowing.co.uk (remove the 2 spaces from the email address and put "COBRA" in the subject title to avoid the spam detector).
 Currently, we have a stock of COBRA ties, which retail at £15 and a limited number of silver CAI rowing badges for £45.
For more information and orders, please email chairman @ cobrarowing.co.uk (remove the 2 spaces from the email address and put "COBRA" in the subject title to avoid the spam detector).
 On behalf of all the members and friends of COBRA, I would like to pass on our congratulations to our Patron, Bobby Platt, who has awarded the MBE in the 2006 New Year Honours. This means that Bobby is a "Member of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire". In our opinion, the MBE is long overdue, and no-one deserves it more for dedication to sport, than Bobby Platt.
 Before Bobby got involved in rowing, he was a director of the Coleraine Football Club and coached the Reserves team to Cup success in the George Wilson Cup, the Louis Moore Cup and the North West Cup. After Bobby turned his attention to rowing in the 1940s (not mentioning his badminton career), Bobby saw many successes at Bann Rowing Club as an oarsman, a cox and a coach. Bann RC had the honour of Bobby being their captain in 1959/60 and again for a record spell of 10 years from 1972 to 1983.
 Bobby started coaching full-time at Coleraine Inst Boat Club in 1986, although being Bobby he had been helping out regularly for years before that. For example, Bobby (as Bann RC Captain) was involved coaching the composite Coleraine Inst/Bann VIII+ that won the Irish Schools/Junior Championships in 1975. Since 1986 he has been heavily involved in running Coleraine Inst Boat Club, especially after the retirement of Sid Grey in 1997. There is no doubt that without Bobby, the boat club would be in a bad way and may even have closed by now.
 There are a large number of successful oarsmen who owe their rowing foundation to Coleraine Inst Boat Club, during the time when Bobby was involved with the club; Brian Steele, Richard Archibald, Alan Campbell, Richard Chambers and Stephen Feeney to name just a few. This is why COBRA has appointed Bobby as Patron, in appreciation for all the years of service he has put into Rowing in Coleraine.
Being typically modest Bobby has said that “the award is for sports coaches throughout Coleraine Borough, especially in rowing”. However, I can’t think of anyone who deserves the MBE for services to sport, more than our own Bobby Platt.
William Wright (honoured to have been coached by Bobby Platt MBE from 1992 to the present day).
 At the Coleraine Sports Council Awards on Friday 6th November Bobby Platt MBE was the man of the hour when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. This is to mark Bobby's long service to sport in the coleraine area, and was long overdue.
Bobby has also won the Northern Ireland section of the Unsung Hero Awards this year. This meant that he was over at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award in Sheffield.
Alan Campbell also won the Sportsman of the Year award for 2009 to mark his acheivement in claiming the silver medal at the Worlds, which he did while breaking the Worlds Best Time.
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