The Great River Race 2018

08 Sep The Great River Race 2018

Known as London’s River Marathon this is a 21.6 miles course on the River Thames.  320 vessels took part, 51 Cornish Pilot Gigs.  The start at the Millwall Slipway in the Isle of Dogs from 9.50 am with the slowest boats starting first.  The handicap system was 1 to 67 with Cornish Pilot gigs ranked fast vessels at a handicap of 49.  Within our category there were at least 5 ‘classes’ including Men only, Ladies only, Ladies Vets, Men’s Vets and Mixed crews.   

Our crew was a mixed crew and made up of the 5 members of our club who were selected from the County trials:-  Nina in stroke, Terrey in 5, Fraser in 4, Steve in 3, Deb in 2 and another experienced long distance rower (and cox) Rob in 1.  In the pilot seat was Brian Nobbs who built Avona and myself, Leiza as coxswain.

We arrived early on the Saturday morning to prepare Avona and the usual admiring comments from other teams were met with us explaining that Brian had built her in 2016 despite her looking brand new.  Brian beamed most of the morning and stood proudly by her side as we psyched ourselves up for the big day with energy gels, hydrating drinks and buttock stretches.

At 9.50 the race started and I looked out across the start line to see a flotilla of vessels racing past the start line made by a huge vessel called ‘Adieu’ moored midstream and a flag on the wall next to the slipway.  The vessels were flying past due to the incoming tide – my stomach really started churning!  Eventually it was our turn to enter the river and with a bit of last minute confusion and unexpected difficulty we managed to leave the slipway avoiding the London Cornish gig with a crew dressed as pirates that was sinking (we did make sure they got ashore before we headed off).  The marshall shouted across to us that we were late to start and gave us the go ahead to head straight for the start line which was upon us in seconds.  Brian held our number aloft for ‘Adieu’ to see and ‘264’ Clifton Pilot Gig was on her way.  We were 5 minutes late over the line but with all the other gigs in the distance we had something to aim for!  

Nina was in machine mode and kept a steady 29 strokes per minute rate.  We started to catch up with the gigs that had left 5 minutes before us.  The clicks in the boat were bang on and the speed of the river carried us along.  We passed under Tower Bridge, the first bridge of 28 we would go under and the cheering crowd encouraged us on.  We started to catch up with the gig boats and steer our way between, around and through we went.  At 1 hour 13 minutes we passed under Wandsworth bridge.  This was the half way point and crew were buzzing and confident.  Bridge after bridge and gig after gig we passed our fellow rowers.  I steered us around slower boats which at times was hairy because the speed of Avona was so quick and the bridge arches narrow.  We continued on our way wherever steering to the central channel where the water ran the quickest.  We eventually crossed the finish line at Richmond in an amazing 2 hours 38 minutes.  The crew physically exhausted and myself mentally drained.   We headed straight for the White Swan pub on the other side of the river, moored up and headed for the bar.  

We await the final results to be confirmed but it looks like…… 

1st Mixed Crew in a Cornish Pilot Gig – Avona 

3rd Fastest Mixed Crew in any vessel – Avona

9th Fastest Cornish Pilot Gig – Avona

24th overall – Avona (329 complete the race)

Thank you Steve and Terrey for delivering Avona and bringing her home again.

Thank you Brian for building our beautiful Avona and Ginette for cheering us on somewhere along the course!

 A huge thank you to Leiza for taking on such an epic adventure as her first ever experience as race coxswain!