Another trip to the West Coast for NBRC took us to Largs, home of the famous Nardini Ice Cream parlour and a very fine spot for rowing indeed. 

No wind was bad news for the many sailors that were on the water, but great news for us rowers to enjoy fast rowing in flat conditions. 

Our hosts, Firth of Clyde Coastal Rowing club were having their second regatta, which was well attended by local clubs from the West Coast, and a couple of interlopers (ourselves and Anstruther) making the day trip over from the East Coast.

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The racing was a mixture of 2k races around a single buoy turn and 500m straight line sprints. The 2K races take about 12 minutes, our mixed open crew held off Anstruther and the local boats to get our first win under the belt. Next up was our men’s crew, who won their heat, but that wasn’t enough to get a medal as the next heat went faster and first prize went to Royal West. Our ladies knew they’d have to row well to get ahead of Anstruther but it wasn’t to be and we were pushed into second place by the Queens of Fife. 

After lunch was a series of 500m sprints and NBRC came into its own, to be fair we’ve been doing this for 5 or 6 years now and most of the clubs were in their first year of racing, but it’s a race so we went our hardest! We took all but one of the sprints, which was great for us, but the races were all hard fought and we were blowing hard at the finish. The one sprint that eluded us was the juniors, but we put in a mixed crew including a couple of 13 year olds (Gregor and Kirsty) along with Heather (aged 15) and the experienced old head of Cameron (aged 18) and they made us all proud with their neat rowing style and they pushed the local crew all the way.

After all that we felt fish and chips at the famous Nardinis was well deserved.

Many thanks to Firth of Clyde Coastal Rowing Club for a great regatta.