The Varsity Eight

The boat represented on the mural is the Varsity Eight of 2017, the year in which the Zwanennest celebrated its tenth lustrum. Varsity Eights are traditionally manned by the best heavyweight rowers of each boat club in the Netherlands. Almost all the guys that manned the boat in 2017, also lived in the Zwanennest. This means that per week they had 10 training sessions together, took showers together at Njord, and lived in the same house. Now that’s called intensive bonding…

The current demography of the house is different: at the moment, there are first, second, and senior year rowers living there. One of the senior rowers is currently the captain of the boat club. So, another Zwanennest Varsity Eight does not seem likely this year…