On Saturday 18 September the majority of Herne Bay Rowing club members travelled to Southampton (Netley to be specific) to take part in the 64th South Coast Championships.
Herne Bay entered eight crews, competing against about 20 other coastal clubs along the south coast throughout the day.
The water was deceiving from the shoreline and proved to be quite challenging, particularly with the many large freighters going past on the Solent.
However that didn’t deter the Junior Senior crew! Bradley and Lewis Perry-French, Will White and Luke Taylor in Stroke took to the water like any other regatta race, coxed by Maisie Jeffries.
Their first race of the day was the bowl race, which is an important feature in the championships (men’s senior). This was a warm up race to them and they happened to come a super third place, with Itchen coming first and Deal a very close second.
The boy’s second race however, was the Junior senior race, which they have been coming in first in all of their regattas this season. There was a lot of pressure on the four boys to do well and they didn’t disappoint.
They came a very easy first place beating other crews from Hants & Dorset and Shoreham by at least three lengths.
The evening presentation, as you can imagine, was a joyous occasion. The crew posed with GB women’s eight olympic rower, Caragh McMurtry but overall it was great to finish the season on a high and enjoy a weekend away with our rowing family.
Thank you to John for towing the boats to and from Southampton, thank you to Stuart (and Poppy) for being welcoming hosts, thank you to Kevin for organising the campsite, thank you to our supporters (family and friends) for just being there but above all, a massive thank you to Darren, our captain for being super organised and making sure our races went smoothly. The whole weekend went like a well-oiled machine.
Herne Bay results:
Championships
1st Men’s J/S
3rd Men’s Senior
3rd Ladies Junior
4th Ladies Senior
Open races
5th Men’s J/S
5th Master 50+
5th Men’s novice
5th J16 quad