Author: Lorraine Slade

Sunday 30^th April saw three clubs, Maidenhead, Weyfarers and Lea, visit our club for a morning’s competition.

The race was a 4km time trial in the Charles Stanley touring quads from the Club, down to a handbrake turn at the bottom of the 2^nd island and back to just before the bridge.

GGBC put out 6 crews with 6 from other clubs. The winning crew was Lea. It was a great atmosphere and several crews even decided to have another turn!

A big thanks goes to the coxes, starter, finishers, marshals, refreshment makers/sellers and to Richard for coordinating it all.  It takes a lot of effort, but hopefully rewarded with everyone’s sincere thanks and obvious enjoyment of the day.

It was Helen’s last row at the Club as she is moving away from the area so a good send off for her. We wish you well and hopefully you’ll find some water somewhere to keep rowing.

16 rowers, 3 coxes, 4 boats, 2 trailer drivers and some supporters made the three hour trip (well longer for the trailer!) down to Totnes last weekend. The race is from Totnes to Dartmouth, 15km downstream on the tidal estuary.

Amazingly after a miserable forecast we were blessed with perfect rowing conditions and a high tide avoiding the need to carry the boats down a set of steep steps to the river at Totnes.

It’s a timed race with the slowest out first. 3 out of our 4 crews qualify as slowest in the Charles Stanley touring boats, alongside gigs of various sizes, a four man kayak, singles, and some very slinky coastal rowing boats. The coxes navigated tight bends, tributaries (avoiding going up them!), moorings, sailing flotillas, the opposition, the RNLI and finally the Dartmouth ferry, with a scramble to de-boat where the ferry pulls in whilst its on the other side of the river! It was all very exciting.

Fun was had in the local pubs the night before and after, with a bit of a visit for most to enjoy the beautiful towns and landscape. A really lovely weekend. Look out for the date next year.

One of the first post lock down Thames Valley Explore Rowing League events was held in February. GGBC sent 6 crews and all the Charles Stanley Boats. No winners (Molesey did well on their home turf!) but lots of fun was had. We normally get a couple of crews out to these recreational events so six was extraordinary! The event list for the year is being published soon so check out the website for what’s coming up. Next stop is The Dart – a 15km race from Totnes to Dartmouth! Fingers crossed for good weather or we might have to rename a boat the Titanic.

A set of new to us, but preloved pontoons have arrived. The men in orange are showing our team of volunteers how to fit them together – apparently it’s just like Lego! We will need a few work parties to get our pontoon swapped over. These are more robust, longer lasting and sit lower in the water than our existing pontoons making for easier arrival and departure. For now, the new pontoon is only slightly longer than the current length but the long term plan is to extend to the full length we have planning permission for as our membership base increases and we find the money to pay for them. Worth noting that the club pays the Environment Agency by the meter for pontoons so a longer pontoon has ongoing additional running costs. Big thank you to Roger who did a huge amount of work sourcing these from a range of potential suppliers.