Rowing Festival 2019

Four boats and crews from Stour Sailing Club were joined by six other boats and crews from Brightlingsea Coastal Rowing Club, Burnham Coastal Rowing Club, University Sailing Club Brightlingsea, Blakeney Coastal Rowing Club, and Blackwater Rowers at Stone for our Rowing Festival on Sunday 16 June.

The race was to Wrabness and back – about seven miles with a start time scheduled for 11am. The tide took an age to come in and it was touch and go whether we would get all of the boats launched in time for the start. However our beach Marshalls did a sterling job and the last boat was launched just in time.

The weather conditions seemed benign at the start after the miserable weather of the previous week. However the race proved to be a tough one with a strong cross wind for most of the race and rough conditions down towards Bradfield and Wrabness challenging crews.

The race is handicapped for fixed seat coxed boats using a variant on the Great River Race handicaps so that the first boat over the line is not necessarily the winner! This year however the first boat over the line was also the fastest on handicap and the big winner of the day –  Harker’s Yard Gig Willow with a men’s crew from Burnham Coastal Rowing Club. The full results are below:

Class and Handicap Prizes: