Bosham Sailing Club's inaugural Rowing Regatta!
Published 12:20 on 29 Jun 2022
Last Saturday the Quay looked different to a usual Saturday, a rarity in the BSC calendar - no scheduled sailing meant that BSC rowers took the opportunity to host their first rowing regatta - we replaced sails with oars and took over the water.
As the first event of its' kind at Bosham it was always going to take on the spirit of nothing ventured, nothing gained! We intentionally limited invites to a few local clubs that have keen rowers so we could test how it would work in our busy channel - that being said uptake was brilliant with eight boats racing (3 Burdlesdon Gigs, 2 Celtic Long Boats, 2 St Ayles Skiffs and our sliding seat Coastal Quad) with 40 rowers from Dell Quay, Itchenor, Tudor Sailing Clubs and of course BSC. The conditions were a little blustery with F4/F5 winds - nothing these coastal rowing boats can't manage with strong crews.
Racing was in pursuit style - whereby boats crossed the line with a delay between each boat. This was to ease congestion in Bosham Channel. We now know we could have more boats starting at once so hopefully some more fun spectating on the start line next year! There were three races in total - a 3 miler and two short 1 mile races. Some crews raced all races with Dell Quay switching out crews every race - they brought 9 rowers!
After racing the crews took to the terrace to enjoy BSC hospitality at its finest with drinks, laughter, BBQ and a small prize giving.
Have a look at the photo gallery on the website for pictures from the day (thank you safety boat crew) and also some pretty impressive drone footage taken by member Michael Hulme from Surrey Visuals (due to FoS we had a no fly zone over the Quay so we couldn't capture the starts but you get a great feel for the how the crews rowed on the day looking at them from directly overhead). Click here to see the gallery.
The results can be viewed online here but for those that came down to spectate it was clear to see that Tudor's crews were the strongest and they took the top two spots - and credit due they definitely rowed well - as the drone footage really shows SEE HERE.
An event such as this cannot happen without a brilliant team -
On the water: Mike, Rob and Michael - thank you not just for your help leading up to and on the day but your support and encouragement for all things rowing, you do really make it possible.
The Office: Mark, Helen, Jane and Sarah - the booking for this type of event was something new, but you got us there - CC Paddlesports will hopefully be less demanding on your time now.
The House - RC House Claire, Colin, Helen, Alysha, Sophie and Beno - you all made visitors feel welcome and set the bar for Sailing Club hospitality.
Those that signed up for duties: Hollie and Lucie Mirams on safety boat (and photography crew), Sandi Johnstone Assistant Race Officer (and her assistant Alastair Johnstone) - made a first time RO confident with the bridge team, new member Anil Rachwani (welcome to BSC!) who provided helping hands on shore, Keith Bradley and Tim Bell who didn't sign up for a duty but got stuck in when asked and for all those in the morning when the coffee couldn't be made quick enough that just sorted it all out.
BSC members: Thank you all for getting so involved: we had seasoned rowers, some who hadn't rowed in a while, some hadn't rowed much before at all and some of you only had a quick how to cox session a couple of days before, Dick Pratt - thanks for agreeing to cox you were brilliant. Thank you also to those that weren't rowing that came to have a look to see what all the fuss was about.
Our guests: Thanks for coming to BSC and we hope to be able to welcome back again very soon.
The rowing regatta is set to be a permanent fixture in the BSC Calendar - here's to BSC Rowing Regatta 2023.
Last updated 11:51 on 12 March 2024
