History

Founded in 1965, Van Mildert Boat Club is as old as Van Mildert College.

Simon Scott, one of Van Mildert College’s founding members came to Durham in 1965 with a strong background in school rowing and quickly began to establish the college’s very own rowing community. Scott’s determination culminated in the club winning the A A Macfarlane-Grieve Challenge Cup at Durham Regatta 1966, within just a year of the club being established.

A few years later, the JCR purchased the club’s first ‘fine’ boat, built by Sims, opening up more competitive opportunities for the club. By 1971 VMBC managed to attend the Head of the River Race (HORR) for the first time in a composite crew with University College Boat Club, and in 1979 VMBC sent its first fully Mildert crew to HORR. The 1979 race was eventful, for some of the crew it was their first time in at eight or rowing that distance, the boat the club borrowed amassed some six inches of water in the bottom, and the choppy conditions caused twenty boats to perish beneath the waves. Despite these circumstances, and in true VMBC style, the crew finished in a spectacular 131st position, the best known result to date. Finally, in 1999 our women’s squad raced at the Women’s Eights Head of the River Race (WEHoRR), becoming one of the first few women’s college crews to race on the Tideway.

VMBC crew on the River Wear in 1971

Durham Regatta Mayor’s Plate winners in 1974

In December 2021 VMBC’s boathouse was burnt down in an arsonist attack