Freshwater Sprints
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This year’s Freshwater Sprints took place at Loch Tummel on October 29th. Each year rowers from all over the SCRA ‘world‘ are encouraged to attend, to coincide with the SCRA AGM.
The scenery was breathtaking-autumnal colours, flat water and a midge or two! This was a fine venue and we were made most welcome by the local sailing club which supplied us with excellent facilities and splendid food and drink.
Ten rowers from NBRC, along with rowers from S. Queensferry, Eskmuthe, Boatie Blest and Porty took part in the many and varied categories, representing the ‘South East’ region. The competition on the water was as fierce as ever but onshore there was a great feeling of camaraderie as clubs and regions mingled and shared notes.
An interesting addition this year was the SCRA Picnic Class which some said was ‘no picnic’ but it was a joy to see a fine selection of small boats taking to the water, some slower, some faster, than others!
After a full day’s racing South East were pipped to the post by North East but a great day was had by all and thanks were conveyed to our organiser Stuat Mack and his team for putting the crews together and getting us organised. All race categories and results can be seen on the SCRA website.
Tiger Cup 2016
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We had our "Tiger Cup" this morning, as many club members as we could get out in short races using all 3 of our boats. Conditions couldn't have been better, flat calm sea, blue sunny sky, and no wind.
We laid a couple of marks in the morning to give each boat their own mark, over a course of (at a guess) 400m. It's pretty difficult laying three buoys in a straight line! Hats off to those regattas that manage to get a whole line of buoys in a straight line. Turn out lane one was at last a boat length further, oops....never mind it was fun races, and I don't think anybody noticed, or if they did they were too polite to mention it :-)
There were 6 races, with all crews getting two races before a seventh "final" race where the fastest three boats fought it out, and the poetically named "Team B" won - well done Claire Gardner, Ian Baird, Johnny Macnair, and Karen Johnston. Full results here
It was a great morning with 32 club members rowing, we should do it again sometime!
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2016 South Queensferry
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The day started early, after packing boat up in pouring rain and gusty winds the night before, we were blessed with clear skies and hardly a breath of wind. Chilly but with a promise of warmth as the day went on.
The course, clockwise, (90 degree starboard turns) started under the Forth Road Bridge, round a buoy, then parallel to Hawes pier, another turn and back for home. About ten minutes we thought.
Our fabulous 60+ ladies stormed ahead to take gold in the first race, not to be missed the 50+ men and women crews got silver and gold respectively. These were done in single waves. Now the harder part of winning your heat but also putting in a good time. The mixed open was a strong field leaving NB to miss out on the medals.
The Women's open had ten boats, our boat had a problem with the VHF radio and missed the start, but powered on to get a great first turn rowing through two boats on the bottom leg and managing to take third in their wave to be pipped to fourth by the second wave. Men's open slightly more vocal in the coxing, three boats getting towards the first turn fighting for a good line. Nb came out first and left the others standing to come through in fastest time of the day 8mins 47s and get gold.
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Our mixed novice, lovingly cared for and trained by Robbie, looked very professional and showed great technique as they pushed off the pontoon, huge smiles, enjoying the support. They did us proud, starting off in the far lane to bring Skiff John B round the turn with minimal rudder action and flew along the bottom leg and final stretch with a 30 second lead. Novice no more, fantastic job! Queensferry is the place our novices lose their newbie status. Andy's race to polish off the day won by the Anstruther boat, Anne presented little gnomes to the scratch crew. Great finale to a super day. All fueled by excellent soup, sandwiches and cake, the new bridge will be fully in place by the time we're back again. Well done everyone, keep smiling and keep rowing
Picnic row
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It's not all about the racing, fresh from raiding Largs of their Medals, Medium John (won't be Medium for long seeing as he was seen polishing off, not one, but two Ice Cream sundaes in Largs) rallied the troops for an early morning outing to Fidra. Clearly still on West Coast time, the planned 2 hour outing spanned into 3 as the crew refused to get off Fidra until a decent attempt had been made on the coffee and cake. Just as well because it was sunshine all the way back, as we cruised into NB.
Largs 2016
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We love going to Largs, a 2 hour trip leaving North Berwick at a fairly civilized time to head over to the West Coast for some skiff racing over a mixture of 2K races and 500m sprints....not sure they're so keen of having us as for the second time, we raided most of their medals...oops.
We took a squad of 15 for this years Largs regatta on Saturday, conditions when we arrived were pretty challenging. A stiff southerly breeze was whipping up the sea to produce white tops, but we like it a bit rough so we coped well with the conditions as we tackled the 2K, which involved surfing down to a buoy before battling back for the second half, great stuff.
Our men got a pretty good start, but doubted ourselves when the other competitors stalled on the line, a quick check to ensure we hadn't false started before getting stuck into the kind of racing we enjoy, check it out on this video.
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After the 2Ks the format shifted to a 500m sprint, a good opportunity for some new coxes to have a go at racing without the complication of mass starts and single buoy turns. The rain had started which flattened the water and made the racing faster, doesn't bother us though, we like it wet :-)
Thank goodness for the Gazebo, we were able to enjoy a lovely West Coast Indian summer (raining cats and dogs, but not actually Baltic). We knew Newburgh were keeping their powder dry and so it seemed as they knocked us down to second in the last two sprints of the day.
We must make more trips over to the West, they have great water, lovely scenery and tremendous ice creams.
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