{"id":2167,"date":"2014-05-08T22:17:45","date_gmt":"2014-05-08T22:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lee-robertson.co.uk\/?p=2167"},"modified":"2016-03-29T23:30:08","modified_gmt":"2016-03-29T23:30:08","slug":"scilly-isles-rowing-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lee-robertson.co.uk\/scilly-isles-rowing-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Scilly Isles World Gig Rowing Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It was my first visit to the islands, and after\u00a0arriving on a packed\u00a0ferry\u00a0at St Mary’s I saw\u00a0several gigs pulling across the waters between islands in training for the upcoming races. On the long beach at Hugh Town a great many teams were lined up. Multi coloured boats covered the sands from one end to the\u00a0other.<\/p>\n
I had an hour or two to prepare for the first race and after meeting the team at the beach\u00a0had a quick refreshing pint at The Mermaid, a fine old drinking pub close to the quay.<\/p>\n
On the Friday night are the races\u00a0for\u00a0the veterans and supervets. At 8pm after a long row out we waited at the start line, almost a mile of gig boats numbering perhaps a\u00a0hundred boats. The flag went down and we were off, pulling\u00a0our hearts out, concentrating on timing,\u00a0focussed. With\u00a0boats closing and mixing oars, we held our line and powered on. I could see others in the melee forced to change direction. After twenty minutes it was over and we glided into the harbour happy with our mid placing. My arms were shaking, it took an hour to recover. By the time I had a light meal it was dark.\u00a0The pubs were already alive with singing.<\/p>\n
On Saturday I wasn’t asked to\u00a0race\u00a0so\u00a0I soaked up the atmosphere and cheered on our teams from above the harbour. Hundreds watched each race, now the big races were\u00a0finished and the heats began to sort each group into order. Teams in first or second\u00a0went up, those who lost went down. With commentary from loudspeakers on the quay it was as exciting as a Grand Prix, and hundreds of spectators thronged the vantage points for several hundred metres.<\/p>\n
Here is Rival, with one of our ladies teams pulling very hard for the finish line. Rival was in the first world championships 25 years ago.\u00a0One of the boats\u00a0we competed against was\u00a0The Shah, an island boat from St Mary’s\u00a0used on the island since 1873.<\/p>\n
On Sunday morning I found out I had two races to compete in for the Mens B team. In our first race we powered home in a close 2nd with much excitement to be going up a group. After lunch I watched the ladies finals with hundreds of others on Rat Island.<\/p>\n
With all the mens boats now streaming out to the start there was a massive sense of excitement and anticipation for the finals. The final races are set with the slower boats going first with a few minutes between each group. The flag dropped for twelve of us and we powered between islands, this time wide of the pack and dropping slowly away from the leaders.<\/p>\n