Race Day From The Mussel Shell

The race days with Eastern (and more recently Porty too) have been very helpful in giving more of our rowers a chance to race in a more informal environment.

Until now, we've always gone along to Portobello, but on 29th September, we hosted on the Back Sands - with a buoy in line with the mussel shell as the start and finish line, with all boats turning around a single buoy.

With 4 or 5 boats in each race, this created some interesting situations at the turn - providing very helpful practice for coxes as well as rowers.

There were some great races, across a wide range of categories - under-40 women, 40+ women and 240+ mix, alongside open races in male, female and mixed categories, and another outing for our youth team. It's great to see the young lads improving and since the race day, we've also had our first female youth rowers in the boat.

As with all the race days, there is a lot to take away - and lots of experience gained. Emily raced for the first time and Rachel was back in the boat for her first race in many moons. Several of our other less experienced rowers built on their race know-how, including Sarah T, Leo, Jennifer and Damian.

And the most important thing? Our friends from Row Porty and Eastern, and all our own members, had a great day on the beach and on the water!