This will be the first time the club has been represented at Country in three years. Old Bar was in administration for two seasons and club president Ben Stevenson admits the focus has been on other aspects this summer.

Stevenson swept the women's crew to a gold medal at Country four years ago and will steer the boat again this weekend. While the same crew members will take to the water at South West Rocks, Stevenson doesn't expect to add to the medal tally.

"The club's in a rebuilding phase and we've all been busy with other things,'' he said.

However, he is confident the crew will be competitive.

"We went okay at the North Coast series round held at One Mile and we've been doing a bit of training at Wallis Lake with the Cape Hawke women's crew,'' he said.

He said the crew's completed a few training sessions in the surf in recent weeks.

"I think we can make the semi-finals this weekend, but we'll need a fair bit of luck with the ocean to go any further,'' he said.

Stevenson, who is also the club president, said this season the emphasis has been building the patrol numbers and bulking up the number of qualified members.

"We had four patrols over the peak holiday season so we'd have more people on the beach,'' he said.

"We're back to five patrols now.''

He said there's a bronze squad currently in training while other members are gaining their IRB qualifications. The club will also host the Lower North Coast Branch championships on Sunday February 21. This is the first time the branch titles have been at Old Bar for more than a decade.

Stevenson hopes this will be the catalyst to increase the numbers of competitors the club will boast next season.

Meanwhile, Cape Hawke, Forster and Black Head will send strong squads to the Country Championships this weekend. The competition will start tomorrow morning.