BSC at the Great River Race
Published 14:51 on 23 Sep 2025
Great River Race 2025 (by Jane MacKenzie)
Valiant and Belle both had outings to London last weekend to row 21 miles up the Thames from Millwall Slip to Ham in Richmond. Race day was overcast and breezy, but this did not dampen the spirits of the flotilla of boats waiting at the start, with much banter between boats and some ingenious fancy dress costumes. Once the race started the field spread out along the river, with both Bosham boats dealing with very choppy conditions and a brisk headwind for most of the course.
Belle was crewed by the Bosham Gorillas, a cadet crew coxed by George Storton. It was their first row outside of Chichester harbour and they rose to the occasion putting in a magnificent time of 3h02m and coming 2nd out of the 17 St Ayles skiffs taking part.
Valiant was crewed by the Rum Belles who also rowed hard and finished in a very creditable time of 3h12m which put them 8th in the St Ayles race, and 9th in the Women's 40+ category of 19 boats taking part.
Rowing up the Thames through the heart of London, jostling with 300 boats, passing the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament and under numerous wonderful bridges, is a breathtaking experience, and I would encourage all rowers to think about participating in this very special event.
A huge vote of thanks to all the Bosham supporters who cheered us loudly from the bridges and the banks, which gave us all huge boosts throughout the race. We also could not have loaded or unloaded the boats without their help and, of course, Steve Board who trailered the boats up and back for us.
The great river race report (by Olaf Storton).
The Prep
As a team we first started rowing last winter. Amazingly the club (BSC) had a keen coach in Peter Haining' an ex Olympic rower and Olympic coach. He said that we were an able group and we trained weekly in many conditions ~ though in bad weather we were given space in another member's gym to maintain fitness and team spirit. George Storton, one of the dads and our cox, had done the river race when he was 15 and so offered to cox us - the race was on!
The race
The race was a blur of many things, from the supporters, to the competition in our path. The race started off in some miserable conditions, with it being choppy and grey for the first 10 miles. It was rough going, but we pushed through, overtaking many St Ayles skiffs and junior crews. From then on out, we blasted through, losing no pace and almost gaining momentum as we passed more and more boats. As we got further into the second half in the greener parts, we pushed past our boundaries and really gave it our all. The one junior crew that chased us down and eventually overtook us were amazing, and after some back and forth they finally overtook us.
The race was 21.6 miles, and we sustained a constant pace of 6.3 knots. We managed to get our target time by a tiny amount, just getting under 3 hours for our time. The views were amazing, passing through Tower Bridge, past the Houses of Parliament and even more views. Though we faced challenges such as blisters, which we had to tape up and swap gloves for, we persevered though the challenges and finished in second in the under 18s category, as well as 44th overall out of over 300 boats.
We had efficient swaps and communication thanks to our training and Peter's kick start to get us started. We also have the Gardners to thank for the T-shirts, and Sally Mealing for organising our snack bags. And of course, we had George, who coached us up to the race, who supported us and organised everything for this to happen, covering every minor detail.
To any young person out there, we highly recommend rowing as it is a phenomenal sport!
We are looking forward to competing next year!
Thank you to all that helped make this happen, ESPECIALLY the youth sailing fund for enabling us to do this.
The Gorillas.
Last updated 19:44 on 24 September 2025
