Lyme Regis Gig Club hosted a ‘festival of rowing’ last weekend

The regatta took place along Monmouth Beach. A traditional diamond shaped course of around 1.6 Km was laid out along Monmouth Beach

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 7th 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 4th 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 5th 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.

Heather Prior, organiser of the regatta for Lyme said: “This is our second Masters regatta. We are so pleased that we could put on such an amazing event for all the teams and have been supported by clubs across the South West”.

Lyme Regis Gig Club pioneered “Masters” rowing, holding the World’s first such regatta for Pilot Gig rowers over the age of 60, in March of 2022. The category has continued to grow in popularity over the year and more regattas are being held across the South West through the summer.

“It has been an amazing day with so many different clubs able to win individual races, no one team has dominated today to show how close and strong we are across the South West”.

The full programme of races, winners and Lyme’s results are: Men’s Final: Winners: Lyme Regis A Women’s Final: Winners: Rame, Lyme Regis 2nd Men’s Plate: Winners: Torridge, Lyme Regis B 5th Women’s Plate: Winners: Bristol, Lyme Regis 2nd Mixed A: Winners: Falmouth A , Lyme Regis 2nd Mixed B: Winners: Lyme Regis B, Lyme Regis C 5th