The eight members of our intrepid Explore Rowing Touring Crew took a hugely disrespectful three hours and fourteen minutes to row the twenty one miles of the Great River Race course on Sunday 15 September.
“We were rowing a very heavy Cornish Pilot Gig and I think spending the night before in the pub lent a certain relaxed style to our performance on the day! It is probably fair to say we had a troubled race with at least four collisions on the way to the start line and five other collisions during the race itself, only one of which was our fault! We swerved to miss a boat full of Danish pixies in smurf hats and locked oars with a crew who were dressed as Irish leprechauns: it was all a bit surreal!”
said Ray Coyte, Explore Rowing Recreational Crew Captain.
SuABC Explore Rowing Touring Crew
in The Great River Race
The crew (Stephen Rose, Richard Nelson, Ian Scott, Lorraine Mackey, Linda Casement, Ruth Winter, Tom Doherty and Ray himself) enjoyed waving to the twenty thousand spectators or so who watched the race from the bridges of London: rowing seems to have taken a bit of a backseat!
Glyn Hawkins, Stratford’s Masters’ Vice Captain, who had been training the team throughout the summer for the race was very proud of them.
Next year they plan to row the Vogalonga [‘long row’] 30km race in Venice, do another Channel crossing to France (thirty two miles) and see if they can maintain their Great River Race triumph! If you are interested in this type of madness, sorry fun, and building your stamina and fitness, please do Contact Us to find out more.