Red Letter Day for Gig Rowing at Mengeham

Published 10:51 on 21 Mar 2022

On Saturday March the 19th rowers from Mengeham took part in the Three Harbours Rowing Regatta organised by the Coastal Rowing Academy, based at Northney. This truly was a red letter day for Rowing at Mengeham, being both the first time we have got Nerthek wet since her refurb and the first outing for Mengeham rowers to an organised event.

The regatta was planned as a fun event and owing to the strong easterly wind the proposed course was shortened to a short straight line sprint of approx half a mile. Throughout the day there were approximately 20 races of which our rowers took part in about 6. Our rowers race in Nerthek as well as another pilot gig, a Bursledon gig and a celtic longboat. Our performance was variable ranging from a solid last to a first in the Bursledon Gig and all positions in between.

Our rowing captain Matt Walton spent time the previous week working on our road trailer and towed Nerthek up to Northney for us. Matt also coxed Nerthek with myself coxing a couple of rows. All other rowers mucked in on the day to load the trailer and rig the boat etc. Without this teamwork we would not have been able to go.

Those that took part seemed suitably tired but 'fired up' at the end of the day and we look forward to attending more events over the coming year. Offers of help from people experienced in towing would be appreciated so we have a pool of people willing to aid us with taking Nerthek to local events.

The next proposed events are the Hamble River Raid on 15/05/22 and Cockleshell Challenge on the 22/05/22. I require rowers who are interested in taking part in these events to email an expression of interest to me at swr.architect@gmail.com.

Kind Regards, Your Rowing Coordinator.