The advance party of Charlie, Robin & Barry headed off to Hamilton with boats and enough spare riggers to make a tub quad as a typo had led to both female D4s being entered in the D quad. Some hasty entry shuffling by Martin & Nicole saved the day. The advanced party dropped of the boats and hit the town sampling the local atmosphere and decided that the place to go was the Cally for dinner Saturday night.
Race day dawned and as I had cleverly left my laptop charger at home I was unable to check the running order, luckily I had plenty of time to get the C-grade women’s quad rigged and on the water for the Second event of the day. Finishing a hard fought 2nd in the heat & a win in the B-Final.
The untried and “who’s stroking this boat, where do I sit” mixed 8 finished 2nd on day one and thought we nearly had it in the bag on Sunday until a fast moving Hamilton/Alexandra College composite mowed us down after clashing blades and crabbing.
The girls jumped back in the boat and headed off to row the A grade 8 on Saturday finishing a really hard fought 2nd by not much more than a bow ball. Sunday was another hard fought effort with a convincing win in the heat and a 2nd in the a-final.
Karin Astrid & Emma headed out on Saturday in the tub pair final and finished hard for a 2nd. Despite being mocked at the start for the age of our beloved tub pair Laura & Robin rowed well and finished a flying 1st in their heat & a 2nd in the tub pair A-Final as well on Sunday.
Rachel, Charlie & Barry headed out in the much maligned D-tub pair on Saturday finished first in their heat once we wound the pair up to full steam by the 500 mark and were well beaten by a slippery Bendigo pair in the A-Final. Sunday we had a 2nd in our heat and a win in the B-Final.
Thanks to the aforementioned crew swapping we were able to slip the girls into a C-grade four and loan of a Prime racing bow-loader from Hamilton (although Derek did not like the coxes sling rather than seat). Robin, Karin, Rochelle & Susie aced their Heat and fought off some fast finishing crews to win the bling in the C-grade four.
The rest of the Girls jumped in a D-Coxed four for Saturday and very nearly came away with bling missing out by a very close margin again.
Laura, Geri, Susie & Rochelle our D quad lost out to Corio Bay in a really hot apparently ‘not’ racing kind of tub quad kindly loaned by Hamilton College by .4 of a second and then we saw they were coached by Jeff Sykes. (is he someone famous?)
Due to some tight turnarounds the girls managed to have about 6 races in the last half of the program and the C-grade four on Sunday finished a well placed first in their heat and a creditable 2nd in the A-Final.
Mike, Charlie Barry and Dave headed out for the D-grade four on Saturday with Rachel in the coxes seat. While heading to the start Barry remembered he can’t actually he’s never actually rowed as stroke of a stoke side boat and a mid course swap was required. This left out competitors in fits of laughter enabling us to run away winners on the day. Sunday we headed out with Derek as Cox minus mid course swap we again took away the Bling.
Geraldine Goss besides jumping in various fours quads and eights sculled her way to wins both days in the Female masters Single and 2nd on Saturday in both heat and final in the B-Grade Single and an emphatic win in the B-Grade Single First & final Sunday.
Big thanks to Derek, Rachel, Mike and Karin for coxing, Kevin for the booming voiced support and pictures. Charlie for towing the Boats. Everyone who came for making it a fun regatta and putting up with me rousting them out of bed each day.
Barry Campbell