A Welcome from the Captains

Welcome to KCBC – the friendliest Boat Club on the Cam! We are an entirely student-run club with over 180 years of history rowing, and the largest sports club at King’s.

All King’s students are welcome to join the Boat Club: there’s a place for everyone, regardless of rowing experience or commitment. The vast majority of the Club – including the three of us – hadn’t seen a rowing boat before Cambridge, and picked up the sport during the Novice Rowing programmes running in Michaelmas and Easter Terms. If you have rowed before, we’ll find the right spot for you amongst our senior crews – from serious training programmes to the more casual “social boats”. We even have a few members who each year trial for the University team in the Boat Race against O*ford – including in 2022  King’s first men’s Blue since 1953!

With our boathouse recently refurbished in 2016, we have some of the most modern facilities in Cambridge – all a mere ten-minute cycle from the College. Off the water, the Club has a thriving social scene, with a range of events from informal crew meals and trips, to black-tie dinners at the end of every term in celebration of our achievements. It’s no surprise that so many Alumni are keen to return for these every year.

See you around the boathouse!

  • Katie Staunton, Lena Kaisinger & Oscar Wilson

KCBC Captains 2022-23

The earliest records of our Boat Club and rowing at King’s are from 1838, and it has been active ever since. Throughout world wars and pandemics, we have amassed several notable members including Alan Turing (KC 1931-38), Lindsay Burns (KC 1987-91), and Adrian Cadbury (KC 1949-52). We also have one of the oldest women’s sides in Cambridge: formed in 1973 as Queen Margaret of Anjou Boat Club, named after the Mother of Tudors, and wife of King’s founder, Henry VI. The two clubs merged into one in 1996, and all crews since have rowed under the banner of King’s College Boat Club.

This is the oldest known photo of members of the boat club and is the the 1867 bumps boat.