Nevertheless Manning River Rowing Club enjoyed a good deal of success on the water over the course of the two day regatta.

Mandy Cavill was the first to notch a win, romping to a convincing nine length decision in the Master women's C single scull in the worst conditions of the regatta, with the outgoing tide going against the north-easterly breeze. It was the start of a very successful weekend for Cavill who combined with Heidi and Nicole Pullen (both Manning River) and Janine Lippi (Balmain) to take out the championship women's quad scull by one boat length over Hunter Valley Grammar School. The crew also claimed a win in their category of the Master's women's quad scull split into two double sculls to claim gold in two divisions of the Masters women's double scull.

The crew of Lippi, Cavill, Pullen and Pullen proved they were as adept with sweep oars as well, having to work hard to overtake the Manning River crew of Marj Phillips, Genevieve Dobbs, Kaye Pullen and Narelle Drake in the last 150 metres to take out the Masters women's coxed four.

John Corbett recorded a four length win in the Masters men's single scull and combined with Sam Steedman to claim a second place in the championship men's double scull late on the Sunday. The race against the Hunter/Newcastle University crew was a brutal match race with the Manning River crew coming from two boat-lengths down with a strong finishing spurt to halve the deficit at the end of the 2000 metres.

Steedman notched a comfortable win in the men's under 17 single scull and a solid second placing behind Conrad Bond (Hunter Valley Grammer School) in the schoolboy single scull. In the latter event Bond pushed out to a clear water lead after 500 metres and Steedman was continuing to peg the margin back over the middle 1000 metres of the race and a strong finish by the local sculler reduced the margin to less than a boat-length at the finish.