Brixham Gig Club shines among competitors at ‘masters’ regatta

By Hilary Bastone

Lyme Regis Gig Club hosted their ‘masters’ regatta to great acclaim, described as a ‘festival of rowing’ by some of those who took part.

The event, held on Sunday, May 21, featured 16 visiting teams and a total of 19 boats taking part.

The great weather allowed a full programme of racing to go ahead, with blue sky and blue sea making it ideal gig rowing racing conditions.

The regatta took place along Monmouth Beach with race control setting up at the Lyme Regis Power Boat Club due to repair work closing the top wall of the Cobb Harbour, the traditional viewing area.

A gloriously sunny day, with a breezy east wind, greeted the visitors as they arrived between 7am and 8am to unload and get their boats into position on the pontoons at Lyme, while some crews from further afield made a weekend of it all and arrived on Friday or Saturday.

Clubs from as far as Falmouth and Helford in Cornwall and Lewis in Sussex made the journey to Lyme and were rewarded with great racing conditions.

A traditional diamond-shaped course of around 1.6km was laid out along Monmouth Beach and spectators the length of the beach could view the whole race.

The crews all had a hard-final leg back into the wind to the finish line.

The format of the races had both men’s and women’s races split into two heats, with the first four from each heat progressing to the final, while the remaining four teams from the heat then took part in a Plate final.

The mixed crews were split into two races, ‘B’ teams for those clubs that wanted to field two teams and ‘A’ teams.

Brixham Gig Club fielded one men’s, two women’s and two mixed crews and as it was a masters’ event, all rowers had to be aged 60 plus.

Paul Goddard of Brixham Gig Club said: “The weather was glorious but the sea conditions were a little challenging. It was a great day, with close racing held over a 1.6 kilometre course, with three buoy turns.

“Brixham didn’t win any races on this occasion but were pleased with the results as most crews contained several relatively new rowers and several who haven’t raced previously. The experience for these rowers is invaluable. It was a well-run event and Brixham were very happy to have been able to take part.”

The men’s final saw Lyme Regis, Helford and Falmouth strongly competing, with Lyme narrowly getting to the first turn ahead of the others. From there they led the way and pulled ahead of Helford and Falmouth who battled for second place, with Helford securing second. Bridport’s Men in Blaze rowed hard throughout the final, finishing seventh ahead of the team from Flushing and Mylor.

The women’s final saw Falmouth, Rame and Lyme competing for the top slot. Falmouth crew stretched out comfortably ahead with Rame finishing second. Due to the Falmouth crew being made of rowers from more than one club (a composite crew) the result was given to Rame, with Lyme moving up to second place.

In the women’s Plate final, Lyme were leading almost all the way to the finish in the last leg of the race, only to be caught and just pipped at the final moment by Bristol. Bridport women rowed a solid race finishing fourth behind the women from Flushing and Mylor.

The two Brixham crews had a race within the race with both their A and B teams drawn next to each other. Both teams fought each other round the course, side by side for nearly the whole race, with perhaps some clashes of oars thrown in.

Brixham A won this encounter in the end, finishing fifth with Brixham B just beaten into last place but having given a close run the A team throughout.

The mixed A race saw 15 boats on the start line. Lyme Regis were beaten to the first turn by Falmouth, ahead of a strong pack and were made to work all the way round the course. Lyme chased hard but Falmouth kept ahead.

For all participating in this race, it would have been their third competitive row of the day. The B team race had two crews from Lyme competing in the race, with Lyme B winning outright. Bridport men finished back in 12th beating the Age Against the Machine composite crew and Boscastle.

The full list of those attending on the day: Lyme Regis, Bridport, Sidmouth, Exmouth, Swanage, Appledore, Brixham, Bristol, Boscastle and Crackington, Falmouth, Flushing and Mylor, Helford, Lewis, Rame, Tamar and Tavey, Torridge, Age against the Machine.

RESULTS

Men’s final: Lyme Regis A, women’s final: Rame, men’s plate: Torridge, women’s plate: Bristol, mixed A: Falmouth A, mixed B: Lyme Regis B.