Lyme Regis Gig Club ‘masters’ its regatta in the sunshine

LYME Regis Gig Club hosted its Masters Regatta on Sunday, May 21 to great acclaim, described as a “festival of rowing” by some of those who took part.

The event featured 16 visiting teams and a total of 19 boats taking part, with Lyme Regis fielding three teams during the mixed races.

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 Lyme Regis Power Boat Club due to repair work closing the top wall of the Cobb, which has become the traditional viewing area for such regattas.

Clubs from as far as Falmouth and Helford in Cornwall, and Lewis in Sussex, made the journey to Lyme Regis.

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

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.

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, with Helford securing second.

The women’s final saw Falmouth, Rame and Lyme competing for the top slot. Falmouth crew stretched out 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.

Brixham 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 in 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.

Heather Prior, organiser of the regatta, 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.”

Marcus Dixon, chair of Lyme Regis Gig Club and part of the commentary team for the regatta, added: “I’d like to thank everyone who took part in planning, managing, catering and hospitality, safety boats, laying of the course, race control, commentary, merchandising and so much more – all working so hard to make yesterday such a success. And on such a hot day!

“Feedback from clubs attending has been very positive, we had well fought and competitive races all admirably umpired by Allard from Weymouth.

“The strength of our results, the commitment to training and putting on this event shows that we are a club open to all, we are committed to rowing for all”.

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.

The full programme of races, winners and Lyme’s results are: