Hamble River Raid

Congratulations to the CYC ladies team on an excellent result at the Hamble River Raid on Saturday – 20-05-2023

CYC entered one of the largest rowing regattas on the South Coast last Saturday, the course was set from the Hamble village quay, north to the Jolly Sailor pub in Bursledon and returning to the start line, a total distance of 3.8 nautical miles. We had 5 ladies rowing, we planned to swop rower 1 (bow position) at the halfway point, and myself coxing, not the ideal combination for a timed race; however, we did very well.  CYC came third in their class, behind Dell Quay Sailing Club, all men crew and Hartford Rowers, again all men crew, a total class field of 8 boats. In total, there were 72 entrants made up of a variety of rowed and paddled craft.

The start was chaos with multiple rowing boats, children / adults in dinghies and normal traffic entering or leaving the Hamble.  I was ordering the crew to do one thing then reversing the order and asking for something else, miraculously, no oars clashed and no inadvertent bumps. Once clear of the start line, we crossed the yacht channel, to find we had to change course rapidly and stop, as we were about to T bone a kayak not racing. We narrowly avoided a collision and rounded the first buoy turn.  It was now a long slog up the river against the prevailing wind, with some tide with us, the crew were consistent, strong and put a huge effort in.  Eventually we turned at the Jolly Sailor Pub.  We then swapped out rower 1 with our passenger; it was now a marginally easier row to the finish, we had the wind behind us and a slack tide. We were following the same course; however, we had regatta traffic running in the opposite direction.  We crossed the line with a time of 54.00 min with no penalties.

Well done CYC crew: Kim, Jennifer, Louise, Tracey and Charlotte. It was an epic performance and looking forward to more regattas (including Gig Fest in a few weeks at Bembridge and possible Round Hayling joint crew with DQSC) and especially the Hamble River Raid in 2024.

We also have a team of 4 ladies participating in the Vogalonga regatta in Venice next month, we will keep you updated.

If you are interested in trying out rowing, please ask the CYC Office who will provide all the information to join the CYC rowing community. We are always looking for crews and volunteer coxswains for the social rows, if interested, we can get you accredited, again, please ask the CYC Office for more details.

Martin Greenfield, CYC Rowing