The MSC Rowing Gig Elettra Has Another Successful Outing
A fresh and clear morning greeted the rowing crews up river on the River Blackwater. The itinerary from the Maldon Gig Rowing Club asked for us to get down bright and early to launch the gigs at 8.30, the only problem was, that they hadn’t informed the tide to be there as well! Sadly we didn’t have a Ladies team to cheer on so instead we got our highly tuned race bodies prepared with the only known food proven to improve performance by at least 10%, suspiciously similar in amount to that which race oars would add, Sausage& Bacon rolls!
The Men’s race was penciled in to start at 11 O’clock, however, the format of the racing which was time trials had led to some delays. Elettra was drawn as the 7th start, with her crew of Bow: Tristan Hutt, No.2: Darcy Robarts, No.3: Steve Cleaver, Stroke: Tom Clayton & Cox: Sandra Clayton. We got into position tight to the Hythe Quay and in in the lee of the Sailing Barge Hydrogen, and as the gun went, we got off to a fantastic start! As we settled into a good rhythm we could just about hear, over the sound our Cox’s encouragement, the support of club members from the shore cheering us on.
We had a tight rounding at the top mark, just off Byrhtnoth, the SW breeze gusted up and made the turn to head back particularly difficult! Coming back we dug in hard to fight the cross wind that was blowing us onto the bank, at one point getting a little too close as we felt the famed mud grabbing at our oars! For the home straight our cox was still shouting encouragement and had us sprinting for the finish, where we came in at the shortest end under the Hydrogen again, and to the adulation of the crowd!
The mixed race was to follow, and with a rapidly vanishing tide, now that it had turned, we quickly changed crews to: Bow: Sandra Clayton, No.2: Peter Clayton, No.3: Lee Hooper, Stroke: Roy Hardwicke & Cox: Tom Clayton. Sadly it wasn’t quick enough and as we were pushing off the pontoon the call over the radio came through for our one minute warning! We were almost facing the right way by the time the gun went, but the crew weren’t actually aware that we were racing. After some rallying calls from the cox and crowd we fell into rhythm heading once more for Byrhtnoth. The strong south westerly cross wind at times made it difficult to hold a straight course and at one point we were heading straight for the No. 17 channel marker. Thankfully the cox managed to alter course to steer us clear of the buoy, or so he thought! Not being quite used to the full width of a Harkers Yard Gig and combined with an even larger gust, of wind we lightly clipped the navigation light on the top of the buoy, which resulted in the snapping of our first thole pin. Unperturbed, following a swift replacement, we rowed on with the chasing boats bearing down on and taking advantage of our mishap. We turned again and headed for home with more gigs closing in, thankfully they went ahead and checked the depth for us so that we could tell where it was beginning to shallow! We pulled into the home straight neck and neck with Velocity who just pipped us at the line!
It was a fantastic day that saw some really close racing. In the men’s race we finished with a time of 15 minutes 18 secs, 6 secs behind the next boat, and 2 minutes and 22 seconds behind the winners. Excellent fun and a 9th place finish to show for it!
In the mixed race the tide had a greater effect and spread the results further apart, our finish time was 20 minutes and 55 seconds, and with only 1 second to Velocity who was in 8th place! So two 9th places, not a bad showing, leaving us in 12th overall in the winter series.
If you are interested in getting involved in gig rowing at MSC please contact Kevin Stubbs, contact details can be found in club publications and emails.