Founded 1887
News Items
Some sad news was received this week regarding an old club member John Rodwell who passed away on Thursday.
John the was the eldest son of Mick Rodwell and brother to Chris and Sarah.
John was a senior pairs champion with his partner Malcom Clarke in the early sixties.
Our thoughts go out to all his family and friends
With nine wins, eight second places, three thirds and many more, we can’t think of a better way to kick start the rowing regatta season.
The weekend saw Herne Bay Amateur Rowing Club travelling to Bexhill and Hastings to race on both days in the sweltering sunshine and choppy waters. But rough seas are what the club are used to, so they were in their element!
The Masters 40+ crew, consisting of new captain, Darren White, Liz Taylor, Stuart Webb and John Cox went in to win straight away. Coxed by Maisie Jeffries on both days who pushed and shouted the well experienced crew into first place.
The Master 50+ also did incredibly well both days. On the Saturday they were slightly beaten by the Hastings crew, who are celebrating their club’s 150th anniversary this year. However, the Bay crew made up for it by coming first on the Sunday. Well done to Maisie Jeffries who helped them get to that finish line.
Well done to Junior 14 boys crew: Jacob Webb, Will White, Bradley Perry-French and brother Lewis Perry-French with Adam Taylor as cox, who beat the other crews by miles coming first in their race.
The men’s Junior four crew had an awesome start in both races, getting them that lead on the other crews in the race and landing them into first place on both days. Their crew consisted of bow man Manuel Marques, Will White, Tom Harris, Luke Taylor taking stroke position on the Saturday and James Dawkins joining the crew on the Sunday. This also means that young Will, at only 14 years old has moved up from Novice to Junior status.
The crew to watch was men’s senior four race, made up of Ryan Hosking in Bow, Tom Walton, Dan Ritchie and Will Campbell leading and keeping the pace in stroke and again coxed by twelve year old Maisie Jeffries. The powerhouse crew sped through the water beating the other crews by many lengths on the Sunday at Bexhill.
Luke Taylor and Manuel Marques were definitely on form this weekend as they jumped into their pair boat, beating all other crews to the finish line. These two have been competing together and training all winter, so they deserved to get to first position.
The race that amazed us all on the Saturday was the ladies junior pair. Georgia Shelton and Jasmine Amos have only been training a short while as a pair and absolutely smashed it in their race by coming second. They may not have come first, but they should be so proud.
Another second place was achieved on the Sunday by the Ladies Junior four crew: Jasmine Amos in stroke position, Heidi White, Georgia Shelton and Stephanie Rondel in bow. It was lovely to see everyone working together so well.
The newly appointed captain for 2018, Darren White said a few words about the weekends racing “I was so so proud to be captain this weekend! So many achievements, so much determination, commitment and shear guts! All the hard work and winter training gave us plenty of reward, well done to each and every one of you.”
Hastings and Bexhill was a huge success and with all of these wins, meant the club achieved second place in the grand aggregate and won the junior aggregate trophy for the weekend.
Maisie Jeffries has to be the coxwain of the weekend, as she was the one directing, steering, shouting and screaming the winning crews into their subsequent places! Well done to Maisie.
The Club’s Annual General Meeting was held at the Boathouse on Friday the 19th January.
The main business was to elect a new committe for the year ahead and the following officers of the club have been elected to serve this year:
The Viking Shield Regatta is held before the start of the CARA coastal rowing Regatta Season.
The Viking Shield is a trophy awarded annually to the fastest coastal pair from a Kent coastal rowing club. The winning club also have the honour of hosting the Regatta the following year.
The event has a special significance for Herne Bay Rowing Club as Ryan Hosking and Darren Ingram won the shield 10 times in a row and in recognition of this Herne Bay named a pair boat after them in 2010.
Their run came to an end in 2009 but the shield remained in Herne Bay when Ashley Epps and Andy Cooper beat Ryan and Darren.
According to its inscription, the shield was originally presented in 1925 by Emil Olskov-Hansen and Niels Ventegodt of the “Viking” Rowing Club, Langturs, Denmark (NB The spelling of some of these names may be suspect). The inscription continues :
“These two Danish Oarsmen rowed across the North Sea in an open Yole pair boat and were guests of the Kent Rowing clubs on the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th July 1925, while on their way to tour the European waters. They travelled light with minimum camping equipment packed under the Bow canvas of their boat.”
The pair were members of Odense Rowing Club in Denmark. Niels Ventegodt was keen on long distance rowing, he had founded the Viking Long distance Rowing Club in 1916 and had ambitions of rowing all the way to Bombay in India by rotating the crew but that effort ended off the coast of Spain when the boat “Viking” was wrecked in the Bay of Biscay. For some early parts of the journey, before crossing the Channel, Niels Ventegodt”s crew consisted of his wife “Edel” and his dog “Buster”.
There used to be more information (in Danish) on the Odense Rowing Club Website but that page only survives (without pictures) in the internet archive of the site.
The annual Viking Shield Regatta comprises a full programme of coastal rowing events which are not restricted to Kent coastal clubs (non-Kent clubs can also enter the senior pairs race but if they win the race, they don’t get the shield!). Entries have also come from the Sussex CARA clubs, some Kent river rowing clubs and coastal crews from further away.
in 2025 to celebrate 100 years since the shield was presented it has been refurbished and inscribed with the names of recent winners :
| Year | Viking Shield Winning Club | Winning Crew |
| 2000 | Herne Bay | R.Hosking D.Ingram |
| 2001 | Herne Bay | R.Hosking D.Ingram |
| 2002 | Dover | R.Hosking D.Ingram |
| 2003 | Herne Bay | R.Hosking D.Ingram |
| 2004 | Herne Bay | R.Hosking D.Ingram |
| 2005 | Herne Bay | R.Hosking D.Ingram |
| 2006 | Herne Bay | R.Hosking D.Ingram |
| 2007 | Herne Bay | R.Hosking D.Ingram |
| 2008 | Herne Bay | R.Hosking D.Ingram |
| 2009 | Herne Bay | A.Epps A.Cooper |
| 2010 | Herne Bay | A.Epps A.Cooper |
| 2011 | Folkestone | M.Simmonds J.Leppard |
| 2012 | Deal | J Morgan J.Morton |
| 2013 | Deal | J Morgan J.Morton |
| 2014 | Deal | W.Dennis J.Morton |
| 2015 | Deal | W.Dennis J.Morton |
| 2016 | Folkestone | J.Morgan J.Leppard |
| 2017 | Folkestone | J.Morgan J.Leppard |
| 2018 | Herne Bay | N.Pusinelli D.Ritchie |
| 2019 | Herne Bay | N.Pusinelli D.Ritchie |
| 2020 | Not Held | Not raced |
| 2021 | Deal | R.Mullaney W.Dennis |
| 2022 | Herne Bay | B.Perry-French L.Perry-French |
| 2023 | Herne Bay | B.Perry-French L.Perry-French |
| 2024 | Herne Bay | B.Perry-French L.Perry-French |
| 2025 |