With 682 entries received across all boat classes, fingers, and anything else crossable, was crossed that the weather would be kind, and no freak localised and stubborn fog patches would stop play this time. Cool with a gentle breeze was on order and it was therefore a bit of a surprise to pull back the curtains on Saturday morning to see to snow falling. Luckily the snow cleared and all looked set for a great weekends racing. To try to lessen the time spent marshalling each day was being split in to three divisions for the first time. This also seemed to make getting on to the water a bit more relaxed.
The first division went off bang on time but unfortunately for most of the small boats this coincided with a brief but almighty downpour of sleety rain – unlikely to have been able to get more wet if the racers had capsized! The water was however perfectly flat and the drenching distracted minds from the effort that was being applied. Luckily that was the last of the precipitation to be seen and the sun had an ever increasing prominence in proceedings. EUBC sent down the fastest boat in the first division recording an impressive 14:08 in their Open 8+. IRC had to settle for some very tight second places.
Division 2 produced the first medal for IRC with Bethan Hinkley and Heather Gordon leading the way in their WR1 2x (18:36). EUBC were back in their 8+ for Division 3 as a time only entry and managed to set the fastest time of the weekend by knocking 7 seconds off of their morning effort.
Sunday dawned bright and still. Tom Baker and Jim Smillie took advantage of the fantastic conditions to win the Mas 2x. And the medals kept coming for IRC in Division 2 with Shay Hammock taking first place in the J14 1x (19:59) and Mary Clouston winning the WMas Novice 1x. The success continued in Division 3 with Heather Gordon winning the WR1 1x in 19:51 and Gary Hunt and Sophie Baker sharing the Mix Mas 2x spoils with Dave Rothwell and Jude McManus in a dead heat. The fastest ladies crew of the weekend was St Andrew Boat Clubs WR1 8+ with a time of 16:48.
A great event to draw a close to our head season and great to hear so much chatter already about the upcoming regatta season – all looking forward to what we hope will be some warm summer days competition. Finally, it was brilliant to see so many people enjoying the racing and so many of our own crews progress in experience and seeing their times coming down. And as always a huge thanks to all of those involved in the organisation and running of what is the largest head race in Scotland.