Hi All Rowers,
As we look forward to the coming season (2019) it is always nice to review the past 12 months.
At the Tudor Sailing Club we had a great rowing year in 2018 and to cap it we introduced a brand new designed Gig, the “Freedom 15” she is based on the Bursledon gig format but specifically designed for leisure and racing rowing.
This is a round-up of the 2018 rowing action……….
Our first Bursledon gig “Rosie” has been in constant use throughout the year both leisure rowing and racing.
The first race event was the ECA Cockleshell Challenge consisting of 3 races on the Saturday and a long 9 mile race round Horse Sands fort in the Solent on the Sunday….The Cadets Callum, Daniel, Ella and Jay with Cox Ian did the Saturday races with the Seniors John, Ian and Sandy and Cox Jay taking the Sunday Fort race, the Cadets performed fantastic against all adult teams beating most of them most of the time…..”.they know how to turn on a buoy”.
For the second year running The Tudor Team took the overall Cockleshell Trophy…see pics below;-
The next race for the Tudor boat was at the Hamble River Games and the cadets Danni, Ella and Jay excelled themselves as they were competing against “all adult” crewed boats, the weather was tough with both wind and tide to contend with over a 6 mile course. See the pics below.
Then came the Round Hayling Race……blowing a Hooley so it was constrained to Chichester Harbour….conditions were just as bad as 2016 with all the crews agreeing it was one of the toughest races ever, 2 boats towed back and a case of suspected hypothermia brought back by a rescue boat!!! The Tudor race team again proved their staying power winning Two trophies, Ella was our Cox and her knowledge of the Chichester Buoy layout was highly valuable….see pic below.
Then came the 2018 “Thames Great River Race” the rowers marathon, 21.6 miles from Millwall to Richmond. We did exceptionally well last year coming in 17th out of a fleet of 323, we were wondering how we could possibly beat that…we need not have worried as this year we came 6th out of a fleet of 329!!!!!!Next year will be really tough, The race team crew of John, Ian and Sandy rowing, with Heather Owen and Jay DuCane as Cox/passengers…this is an odd race in that every boat has to have both a Cox and passenger. Our time was 2hrs. 52mins of hard unremitting output, but it is a fantastic race, extremely well organized and with approx. 2000 competitors the atmosphere is awesome. This was the first race outing for the teams new boat “Freedom” just designed and built by Ian DuCane and she proved herself to be everything that was wished for not only having exceptional sea-keeping but perfect to row and extremely comfortable for the coxswains. See pics below;-
“Freedom” crossing the 2018 Thames Great River Race Finish line.
The Race team decided to raise Charity money from the GRR for the local Eastney RNLI and in the end we were able to hand over £880, this was given specifically to the Eastney station rather than going into the general national RNLI pot. We regularly row past their slipway and it is a comfort to know they are there should something go wrong. See Pic`s below;-
Both “Rosie” and “Freedom” will continue to be in constant use throughout the Winter, increasingly being launched together for a bit of added fun and we are confident these boats will bring ever increasing pleasure to the Tudor Sailing Club and the 3harbours rowing in general.