It has been a busy few weeks at Royal West on the rowing front! We have seen an increased interest in competitive rowing from both existing club members and new members alike.
Saturday 29th April saw Royal West attend their first regatta of the season at Cockenzie and Port Seton. A team of 11 pictured below (with the exception of Elaine who left early) competed in 7 events during the day. The race format was a pursuit race between Port Seton’s 2 harbours, with an overall distance of approximately 500m. Crews started the race side by side but facing in opposite directions in the tight harbour mouth between the 2 harbours. The heats were all timed, with the fastest 4 boats progressing to semis and ultimately the final.
All crews turned in sub 3 minute heat times but this was unfortunately not enough to see them through to the semis apart from the Mixed 45+ who successfully made it through their heat and then beat the host club in the semi-final. Straight after their semi-final and with no time to rest, they faced Broughty Ferry in the hard fought final but unfortunately finishing 10 seconds behind them, resulting in the Silver medal for Royal West.
Fantastic first event with great weather and as usual, great company from the other clubs.
Saturday 5th May saw the club hosting our own Regatta with clubs attending from Largs, Arran, Troon, North Berwick and Carrick. Our event this year was sponsored by K&L Motors (owned by club member, Lindsay Dowds).
Our racing format was a sprint event with heats, followed by finals, over a 500m course. The finish line being the top of the middle slip. This format made for a great spectator event as the whole course could be viewed from the club balcony and beach.
This event saw the Royal West team expand to 19 plus 2 visitors from Ullapool. Royal West made it through to 6 of the 9 event finals. And of those 6 finals, we came 2nd in four of them! This was a fantastic result for us in what was the first regatta for some of our competitors.
In memory of Andy Jarvis from Queensferry, we also ran a 1500m race where each boat had to be crewed by the other clubs. I am delighted that the FoCCRC’s boat won this race with a new member from Carrick in the crew who lost year lost his leg in a motorbike accident. Following a conversation with the FoCCRC’s cox today, it is apparent that the crew was inspired to this win by the determination of this young man.
As I mentioned earlier, we had 2 visitors from Ullapool spend the weekend at Royal West. John and Tom (father and son) are currently travelling doing the 3 peaks and thought they would come visit us before heading to Snowden. They along with a contingent from Arran, stayed on for the party following the racing. On the Sunday, Adam took John and Tom to the Kilcreggan café for a coffee before they headed south.
In the overall results table, Royal West placed 3rd behind FoCCRC’s (2nd) and North Berwick (1st). Full results available on the link below:-
Royal West Regatta 2018 – RACE RESULTS
Many thanks to Alex Workman for the fantastic photos of the day posted on the club’s Facebook page.
Many thanks also to all those who contributed to the success of the day, both on and off the water. Special thanks to Phil Jones, Stuart Barr, Lindsay Dowds and Billy Carrol for providing safety cover. Robert Robertson and Jim Ford for starting the races. To my café crew, Angela Jones, Rose Sloan and Susie Clark. And to all the fantastic home bakers out there who supplied the café with lots of tasty treats. And lastly, to all you Royal West rowers – this has been a fantastic start to the season and you should all be proud of what you have achieved in a relatively short space of time. With results like these so early in the season, I am looking forward to seeing some Gold appearing round necks in the not too distant future!
And the not too distant future is Troon on the 2nd June and Arran on the 16th June. Go Royal West!!
Karen Graham
Rowing Convenor