An invitation by Eastern Rowing Club for a fun day of race practice last Sunday at Portobello. Clubs attending alongside us were Eskmuthe, Row Porty, Alnmouth and of course Eastern. A welcome opportunity to get on the water for some much needed race training after the abysmal, stormy winter! A chance to see our fellow rowers too, lots of catching up and cake.
The weather played ball and whilst the sun took a while to appear the wind didn’t pick up enough to cause any real problems. Getting the boats in and out was a bit of a challenge in the waves, some folk got a bit of a drenching and the poor boat was sloshing some water about by the end. Once out past the breaking waves though the water was nice and the 2 km triangular course was enough of a challenge for us.
A big shout out to the 7 juniors who did really well under Claire Simpsons coxing on a 1.2km course, for some of them it was their first taste of ‘racing’ conditions.
Another first was for Jackie Suprenant, first time in a boat! Talk about in at the deep end! Well done Jackie.
Although it wasn’t about the ‘racing’ everyone was keen to get home first.
Our results:
U50 Women 5th (Novice women’s crew)
U50’s Men 3rd.
050 Men 2nd to Eastern
Women 50 + 1st
50 + Mixed 3rd
U50 Men 2nd Eastern 1st
Let’s hope we can get on the water regularly now, next Regatta is Eskmuthe on the 5th May.
Lynn Hanley