Shoreham Rowing Club travelled down to the West Country last week to compete at the prestigious 2013 Port of Dartmouth Royal Regatta. And negotiating the windy Devon lanes with a trailer-full of boats was well worth it, as Shoreham returned home with some fabulous wins at one of our favourite events of the year.

Flying the flag for Sussex and Kent’s Coastal Amateur Rowing Association in Dartmouth were both Shoreham Rowing Club and Bexhill Rowing Club and the clubs teamed up for the first race of the day, the Mixed Open Eights. Dartmouth Rowing Club held them off the start but despite never having rowed together (and for some a first-ever outing in an eight) the Shoreham-Bexhill crew pulled through every stroke to win by a length at the end of the 2000m course. Read More

The racing season is finally underway! After cancellations for the Viking Shield at Deal and Shoreham Regatta, Dover and Bexhill get us up and running with two fantastic regattas.

Shoreham Rowing Club had two of their best regatta results in years, winning every ladies’ event entered at Dover and coming second in the Grand Aggregate at both regattas. A fabulous start!

We regret to announce Shoreham Regatta is cancelled this weekend (11-12th May 2013) due to high winds. The event will be rescheduled for later this summer, and we’ll post more information in due course.

Sorry all…

Shoreham Regatta – Saturday 11th May 2013 on Shoreham Beach. 10am start.

Blistering head winds seem to be the order of the day for this year’s head races with Southampton outdoing the Adur by adding driving rain and waves into the mix. It made for some interesting racing conditions and a baptism for fire for the Shoreham novice crews more used to the gentle swell of the harbour.

Battling the 4.5 mile course first were the men’s crews, and for Shoreham the Junior Men’s four of James, Dan, Mark & Mal. The boys rowed beautifully through the middle section, but admittedly they did lose a few precious seconds at the end of the course by taking the more original approach of stopping before the finish line, rather than after it. Read More

This Sunday’s annual Adur Head race heralded some great results for Shoreham rowers. Despite tricky conditions –  a particularly vicious easterly head wind making life difficult for all involved – Shoreham showed their potential at the first race of 2013.

The first division saw several Shoreham fours take to the water. A few altercations at the start (involving a fast-flowing tide, other fours and a bridge) were soon forgotten once racing got underway.  Shoreham’s two Junior Ladies fours had mixed fortunes, one suffering an unfortunate equipment failure, the other of Rachel, Becca, Imogen & Becky rowed beautifully to win their category. The Senior Ladies race was always going to be a close battle between Shoreham and rivals Bexhill, who chased them down the river. Both crews dug deep but it was Shoreham who won by just 7 seconds. Well done girls.

In the men’s events both the Junior four and Veteran four rowed well to finish second, in times significantly quicker than the next boats in their categories. A great start to this season’s fours competitions

In the second division the wind-against-tide meant conditions down the Emerald Quay were decidedly choppy when the novices and small boats came to battle through. Big respect to Mal and James, who braved the distance in river sculls. For James a broken seat meant the latter part of the race was never going to go his way, not helped by Shoreham’s Mens’ river pair of Tim & Ollie promptly crashing into him.

The windy conditions made steering a challenge for the pairs but left the Shoreham Senior Ladies Pair of Sally & Sarah B undaunted as they rowed to win their category. For the Men’s Junior Pair an interesting race (mostly in the way of the Senior Ladies) ended in a tremendous victory (we shouldn’t mention they weren’t actually racing anyone).

It was a great day for Shoreham’s novice crews as well. The Novice Ladies of Charlotte, Charlotte, Rocky & Harriet had a fantastic row to come second to Southsea in their first ever competitive event having only finished their Learn to Row course a few months ago. Two Novice Men’s crews took to the water, again both rowing well in what was for most, their first ever race.

Many thanks once again to everyone who organised the event, manned start boats, marshalled along the course and ran the bar.