Rowing Club Risk Assessment Template
A water-specific risk assessment written for rowing clubs, not lifted from a generic sports sheet. Download the PDF, take it out along your own stretch of river or bay, and adapt every line to your club. Free, no email address required.
What should a rowing club risk assessment cover?
A rowing risk assessment should cover the water (cold water immersion, capsize, currents, weirs, snags and submerged obstructions), traffic (ferries, tinnies, ski boats and other crews on shared rivers, navigation rules, blind bends), conditions (heat and UV, darkness, fog, wind, lightning), people (swim ability, medical conditions, juniors and supervision ratios) and land-side hazards (manual handling of boats, trestles, trailers and slippery pontoons). Each hazard gets a likelihood score, a severity score and named controls, reviewed at least annually and after any incident. Australian clubs should check the finished assessment against Rowing Australia's safety guidance and their state association's requirements.
Download the template
Download PDFFree. No email, no watermark. Check the finished document against current Rowing Australia and state association safety guidance.
How to use it
-
1
Walk your water. Do the assessment on your actual stretch - every club's hazards are different. A weir 400m downstream, or a ferry lane through your training water, changes everything.
-
2
Score honestly. Likelihood (1-5) times severity (1-5) gives each hazard a risk rating out of 25. Anything above 15 needs a control that brings it down before crews go afloat.
-
3
Name the controls and the owner. "Be careful" is not a control. "No outings when the river is above the flood marker, checked by the duty coach before boating" is.
-
4
Set the review date. Annually as a minimum, plus after every incident or near miss, and whenever your circumstances change - new water, new boat classes, a new junior intake.
The hazards in the template
The PDF includes a scored row for each of these, with typical controls filled in as a starting point. Adapt every one to your own water and circumstances.
| Hazard | Who is at risk | Example controls in the template |
|---|---|---|
| Cold water immersion | All rowers, especially through winter in the southern states | Cold-water briefing before the winter season, capsize drill for new members, layered kit guidance, buddy boating rules on cold mornings |
| Capsize and swim failure | Scullers, novices, juniors | Swim declaration at joining, capsize drill before single sculling, coach cover for novice outings |
| Collision with craft or obstruction | All crews | Local traffic pattern taught at induction, circulation map on the boatshed wall, lights and lookout rules on shared water |
| Weirs, locks and hazards downstream | All crews | Hard limits marked on the club water map, river-condition boards, no-go zones briefed to every new member |
| Darkness and poor visibility | Early morning and winter crews | Bow and stern lights required, high-vis kit, restricted outings in fog |
| Weather: heat, sun, lightning, wind | All rowers and coaches | Named decision-maker for cancelling, hot-day and UV rules (hydration, sunscreen, session timing), lightning 30-30 rule |
| Medical emergency afloat | All rowers | Medical declarations at joining, emergency contacts accessible to coaches, launch carrying a throw line and phone |
| Manual handling of boats and trestles | All members, land side | Lifting technique at induction, minimum numbers per boat class, trailer loading rules |
| Juniors and vulnerable adults | Junior squads | Child safety policy, coaches and volunteers holding current Working with Children Checks for your state, supervision ratios, parental consent records |
This template is a starting point, not a completed assessment. Your club is responsible for assessing its own water, activities and people. Australian clubs should check the finished document against Rowing Australia's safety guidance, their state association's requirements and any conditions set by their insurer.
The risk assessment is a document. The controls are data.
Half the controls in a rowing risk assessment are really record-keeping: who has done a capsize drill, whose swim declaration is on file, which members carry medical flags, whether a coach's Working with Children Check is current, which boat is out and who is in it. That is exactly what Row HQ keeps live - member records, qualifications, emergency contacts and outing logs, filled in once and always current. Write the risk assessment with this template; run the controls in Row HQ; spend the time you save on the water. There is also a free interactive risk assessment tool if you want a guided version.
Set up your club freeFree for clubs of up to 20 active members.
Risk assessment FAQs
Does a rowing club legally need a risk assessment?
Treat the answer as yes. Every club owes its members, volunteers and visitors a duty of care, and a current written risk assessment is the clearest evidence the club is taking that duty seriously. Rowing Australia and the state associations expect affiliated clubs to manage safety systematically, and insurers commonly ask to see risk assessments when writing or renewing club cover. If your club employs staff, workplace safety duties can apply on top - get specific advice for your state rather than guessing. Whatever the strict legal position, a club without one is exposed.
How often should the risk assessment be reviewed?
At least once a year, and immediately after any incident or near miss, any change to your water (flood damage, new moorings, changed ferry or ski-boat traffic, dredging works), or any change to your activities such as starting a junior program or coastal outings. Put the review date on the document itself and name the person responsible.
Who should write the club risk assessment?
Someone who knows the water and the club - typically the club safety officer or safety adviser, with input from coaches and the committee. It should not be written by one person at a desk: walk the site, row the stretch, and involve the people who coach on it every week. The committee should formally adopt the finished document so responsibility is clear.
What safety guidance applies to Australian rowing clubs?
Rowing Australia publishes national safety guidance for the sport, and each state association (Rowing NSW, Rowing Victoria, Rowing Queensland and the rest) sets requirements for its affiliated clubs - covering areas like on-water safety, coaching supervision and child safety. That guidance tells you what good looks like, but it is not a filled-in document: clubs still need to produce their own risk assessment for their own water. This template gives you the document structure with rowing-specific hazards pre-loaded; sense-check the finished assessment against the current Rowing Australia guidance and whatever your state association asks for.
Related
Pair this with the incident report form - the risk assessment says what might happen, the incident log tells you what actually does. There is also a guided interactive rowing risk assessment tool and the full templates library.