Castle 2 Crane and Red Skiffies do Dragon Boat Racing
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Skiff John B made the rather long journey recently to take part in the amazing Castle 2 Crane for the third year running. Deposited by drivers Millie and Sam at Dumbarton Castle, ready to spend the night with 74 other boats. Predominantly skiffs but a few others too including wee sisters Flossie and Speedwell, pilot gigs and a super wee double skull from Broughty Ferry called Georgia.
Saturday dawned bright and with a forecast for a slight head wind, which we'd need to keep us cool. Millie, Sheena, Scott and Rob were my rowers. Bacon rolls and more coffee were enjoyed before our start place came about. Number 52 and we were off, 12 noon on the dot. Out to the first perch to turn up the Clyde. But wait, that wind is much stronger and my goodness the white tops and waves. The pushing started.
It took us 58 minutes to get the Erskine bridge, such a slog. We'd overtaken a good handful of boats already. Water taken on and a few wee snacks but no stopping for my awesome crew. Up through into the city concentration and loads of encouraging chat. Some great moments of laughter with misheard chat, not like Scott, ....the safety boat actually came over to make sure we were ok as we were all in stitches...it did lighten the load....
So 2 hours in, coming past Braehead shopping centre I can see the top of the masts of the Glenlee. There was a lot of groaning in pain, then back to focusing on catches and relaxing forward. The stroke was long, slow and damn strong, on the last stretch towards the finish we reeled in about ten skiffs. How were we managing it? The momentum kept coming, we caught St Baldred just at the BBC building to cross the line at Finnieston in 2 hours 45 mins. What a row! We drifted a lot of the way back to the retrieval slip, tired, but so chuffed too. It was not easy to get out into a standing position. Blister checking....ouchy.
Huge congratulations and 6th place in the open mixed category, so amazingly fought.
An excellent festival followed with toe tapping music. Clydebuilt put on a really interesting array of stalls and the food and bar were well attended. The last three standing or dancing at the ceilidh were Vik, Ann and myself, much to our delight. We knew what we were doing was helping along the gig rowers. What a fabulous day.
Sunday dawned. Good grief, what happened to the weather? Thunder boomed overhead and boy does it know how to rain through West.
Red skiffies were not looking very cheery, supporting blisters, bruised and tired, and now soaking. Dragon Boat racing, whose flaming idea was that?
Vik, Ann, Sheena, Lou, Laura, Dave and myself were joined by Arran skiffies David, Emma, Steve, Cil ( who'd even dyed her hair red for the event much to Steve's disgust) Fritz, encouraged by a poorly Stuart. Our Broughty pals, Liz and Kate finished up our crew. Like drowned rats we were trussed up in buoyancy aids, handed little paddles, given some tips, the main one being "no capsizing", and we were off.
Nine teams took part, some very fit looking, one certainly had done it before. Three dragons at a time paddled the 160 m alongside the Glenlee. Our first race took 85 seconds, and left us even more soaked....we swapped about as we only had ten paddlers at once and with a drummer for beat on stroke too. Lou and Laura looked really great holding on tight with their thighs on a really precarious seat in bow. Our times got better with every heat. The slowest of the three was taken out and the other two added together. And we were in fourth place - YEEHA!, the sun was coming out, folk were enjoying it, and smiling too, crowds were shouting, what a great afternoon.
The semi finals saw some poaching of team members to help Ben (organiser of Castle 2 Crane), beaten by a second, by red skiffies. OMG!, into the final! Tactics were formulated, seating, best stroke, beater, and then the tension as logs were removed from the race area. And they're off, and gosh there wasn't much in it at all. Great battles, more friends made, and such a great crew! A fantastic event highly recommend to others for next year.
The journey home was thankfully a lot quicker with baths and early beds at the end of it.Here's to next year, thank you to all the volunteers and organisers, and to the towers too. An oarsome weekend.
Jacque Turner
North Berwick Regatta 2019
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The North Berwick coastal skiff rowing regatta 2019 – the best yet!
What a day - wall to wall sunshine and not a breath of wind - conditions could not have been better.
There was an early start with a 7 o’clock meet to get the ribs out to lay the buoys and check that there were no creel lines that could snag the boats. Clive and Finlay were already looking a bit overdressed in dry suits.
So what were the highlights of the day? A few things really stand out.
One of my personal highlights of the day was the opportunity to help out on the water with Finlay Robertson showing me the ropes on the rib. I had absolutely no idea what we were doing but (I think) I managed to look quite officious and had a blast zooming around the Craig. Thanks Finlay maybe next year I’ll be semi-helpful.
So what else is worthy of a mention? Well the catering must be talked about. Meg, Ann and the team did a wonderful job. The catering was terrific throughout the day, and, of course, is such an important fundraiser for the club. The standard of catering was quite outstanding. Pretty early on I concluded that my cheese and pickle rolls were okay but they didn’t really compare to my favourite role of the day. This was humus and sun-dried tomato on a freshly home-made sourdough roll – outstanding.
A review of the day would not be complete without a mention of Messers Baird and Rooney on the tannoy. Their inane ramblings were quite wonderful entertainment and I understand the new weekly podcast will be coming out later in the year.
So what about the rowing ? Lots and lots of terrific rowing in wonderful conditions with some really fast times. All races were keenly contested and it was great to see a spread of medals across all the clubs.
At the end of the day we all gathered for a cold beer on the beach and a chance to listen to one of Sandy’s monologues - which never disappoints. All the medal winners were delighted with their unique medals (way to go Milly) which were a terrific memento of a wonderful day on and off the water.
Back To Where It All Began
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Tuesday last week I welcomed 8 Eyemouth rowers to have a wee row in our skiff John b and try out our oars.
How to make a great World Championships
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Ingredients:
- Venue – ideally a place of obscurity but somewhere competitors will talk fondly of for years
- Crew – preferably one you know – include a cox with a loud encouraging voice
- Motivation – Finals to make, Medals to win
- Enthusiasm – for winter circuits, freezing cold water at launch and dealing with NE spring winds – you will need buckets of this throughout the winter and the lead up to the championships
- Training – over 4 Million metres on Club ergos, add gym and personal machines if that is easier or if you don’t want to deal with the pain cave or torture terrace
- Planning – know your lane, and know how you are going to execute the race
- Strength – this is both mental and physical – do not underestimate the amount you will need of the former
- Confidence – believe in the training you have done
- Support – from fellow club members, Family and Friends, and on occasion from your fellow competitors
- Boat – 150kg – but just to be safe add 400g
- Oars – long and heavy, short and lighter – you choose – but bring 20 just in case
- Rudder – make sure it is down – coxes please touch it as little as possible
- Fun – know when to pick up a drink, have a laugh and dominate the dancefloor
…and a pinch of luck from the weather gods.
Method:
Take all of the above, mix well, spread evenly across the Club and you are close to being the best Club at the Championships – fourth best to be exact and second best in Scotland.
If you have read updates from other Clubs or you spoke to anyone at the Worlds you will know that the standard of competition is rising all the time and the margins are smaller than ever. So, to make finals with an increasingly bigger field of competitors (there were 57 Clubs in attendance at Stranraer) is an accomplishment on its own. Those who go and win medals (or narrowly miss out) – well you guys are up there as the best or close to the best in the World, and to those who didn’t win medals – you have made the start line, taken your chance and that is to be applauded also – you are within the top 15 Skiffie rowing crews in the World.
It would be easy to go through the days of Worlds and rhyme off the results and call out those who have medalled, but in short, we got through heats, in some cases repechages and made every final of every race we entered and came away with 7 Medals – 2 Gold, 1 Silver and 4 Bronze. We can take real pride in this achievement. It’s simple to underestimate this accomplishment and focus on the medal counts, but it is better summed up by looking at the 50+ Mixed race which demonstrates the real spirit of what we do. This race was won by Golspie and it is hard to put into words the emotion that was seen on the beach after their win. Everyone from all Clubs were elated for them that day, as their Club had won a Gold, and a medal which clearly meant a lot to them all. It was proper lump-in-the-throat stuff, and that’s what it is all about. The perfect recipe of camaraderie, perseverance and true sportsmanship.
Well done everyone for cooking up a great Skiffie World Championships in Stranraer 2019!
|
Race |
Stranraer 2019 Position |
|
60+ Women |
3 |
|
60+ Men |
9 |
|
60+ Mix |
4 |
|
50+ Women |
15 |
|
50+ Men |
8 |
|
50+ Mix |
12 |
|
40+ Women |
3 |
|
40+ Men |
3 |
|
40+ Mix |
2 |
|
Open Women |
7 |
|
Open Men |
1 |
|
Open Mix A |
1 |
|
Open Mix B |
6 |
|
u40 Men |
3 |
|
u40 Women |
4 |
World Champions
- Mens Open – Dave Davidson, Ian Baird, Clive Rooney, John Irvine, Alice Everett
- Mixed Open – Alice Everett, Ian Baird, Clive Rooney, Millie Scott, Lizzie Cowan
Silver Medallists
- 40+ Mix – Lou Presslie, Dave Davidson, Laura Cram, John Irvine, Jacque Turner
Bronze Medallists
- 60+ Women – Meg Ennis, Issy Anderson, Sarah Whitely, Anne Hume, Phil Robertson
- 40+ Women – Lou Presslie, Laura Cram, Jo Drewitt, Claire Simpson, Dave Davidson
- 40+ Men – Ross McKinney, John Irvine, John Sanderson, Robbie Wightman, Lou Presslie
- u40 Men – Gareth Walker, Clive Rooney, Ian Baird, Gregor Davidson, Alice Everett
- u19 Women – Kirsty Cram – who rowed for Avoch
Sunshine on...Greenock!
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The sun shone at Royal West on Saturday, just like it always does!
Seven clubs enjoyed a day of close racing and catching up with friends from afar. Royal West promised us a relaxed regatta, and so it was – but no-one took it easy on the water. Our Womens’ Open crew came second to Anstruther by 0.34s – and that was the story for much of the day. Anstruther took home most of the medals, winning 4 of the seven races, but a consistently strong performance by North Berwick crews meant that we shared the honours with equal points overall. Every stroke counted!
NBRC and Anstruther have won this regatta for the last six years, and this was a great end to the day. Thanks to Royal West for making us all so welcome and running a super regatta!
And bragging rights… go to the old boys, with the fastest time of the day, bringing home gold in the Mens 50+. <Smug Mode On>
Did I mention fastest time of the day already? Really? Did I? Oh.
Clive.
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