A Grand Day Out Racing
On Saturday 23rd August, our race crews gathered on the shores of North Berwick to race around Craigleith Island against fifteen other clubs. Conditions onshore were good but the sea, as ever, was lively especially on the seaward side of the island. Each race started just past the breaking water near the harbour’s pier. The race looped around Craigleith Island with 1km out to the island, 1km round it and about 1km back to the finish line. Rounding the seaward corner of the island to the north east was met with swells and swirls of water affectionately likened, by seasoned racers, to a washing machine.
As our Men’s 45+ team (Ade, Mike, Peter, Roger and Rhoda) were preparing for the opening race, primed for success, news came that the first race had been cancelled for safety reasons with rough water between shore and the starting line. Next up was our Women’s 45+ team (Lara, Rhoda, Karen, Jen and Dave) who finished third in their heat and fifth overall. We then watched two races (U18 and Mixed Decades) before our Mixed Open team (Ade, Mike, Karen, Jen and Gil) launched. The race was hotly contested in choppy waters, with our crew just pipping Newhaven to come third in their heat and sixth overall (the crew stopped racing short of the actual finish line due to a marshalling error which might have secured fifth overall).
After watching the Novice race, our 240+ Mixed team (Roger, Rhoda, Lara, Dave and Gil) raced, comfortably winning their heat and finishing joint second overall. They received their silver medals at the medal ceremony alongside Eastern (ranked no.2 in the World), well done crew. Next up was our Mixed 45+ team (Ewan, Cheryl, Gil, Ian and Dave) who raced into tenth position overall against some pretty strong opposition. Our last race was the Men’s Open (Ade, Peter, Dave, Rhoda and, to gain race experience, an U18 on loan from Eskmuthe), the crew finished third in their heat and fifth overall to round off a successful and solid Alnmouth performance by all crews.
As ever, there was lots of banter in the team camp between races. Those rowing at 3 argued that theirs had been the hardest position due to the direction of swell, those that had rowed in bow recounted airtime as if they had been roller coasting and the strokes and 2s listened and silently reflected on the races, as strokes and 2s do. Well done to our coxes that kept us out of trouble as boats closed in on each other rounding the island. Thanks also to our cheerleaders (Sue, Rachel and Alison T). As finely tuned Skiffies, all crews made the most of the homemade cakes and refreshments on offer by North Berwick Rowing club. We shall return again next year, skiff rowing at its best.
