On Saturday 7th May, Spitfire held what was probably the first racing event at the boathouse in the past 5 years. Our club invited the University of Kent RC rowers and their alumni to take part in a short head race, open to coxed fours.
Upon arrival, the participants (from both UKRC and Spitfire) were all randomly drawn into several crews, who then raced each other over a short 650-metre course. In addition to the actual racing, we also held a short skills competition, in which crews were asked to spin their coxed fours as quickly as possible. First to three spins was the winner, which ended up being very entertaining to watch. 😀
Food and drink was on offer and in plentiful supply, courtesy of our talented volunteer bakers, Sarah and Sally. The cake stand was particularly popular, with hot soup, a variety of cakes, and even vegan options!
The day ended up with the unveiling of a memorial plaque honouring Mike Kennedy, who was Director of Rowing of UKRC for many years, in addition to running Spitfire and the Plucks Gutter boathouse. The plaque was unveiled by Lynne Kennedy, Mike’s widow and an honorary member of Spitfire.
Overall, we had a brilliant time, and we thank UKRC for supporting and attending the event, especially Ewan, Will and Sasha. Special thanks should go to our team of volunteers, without whom the event would have not been possible: James, Jess, Bricey, Sam, Manny, George, Tom, Sarah, Keith, and our photographer for the day, Julien. And a big cheer to Pete for donating a lovely prize for the raffle! 😉
As the club grows from strength to strength, we will aim to run a “proper” head race at Plucks Gutter in the foreseeable future. Watch this space… 😊
Full photo gallery available below (courtesy of Julien Camard).
A few of our rowers travelled to East London last weekend to take part in the Spring edition of Lea Regatta, and in this way kicked off the regatta season for the club after a long, cold and dark winter of head racing. The club had taken part in the Autumn edition of Lea Regatta last year and really enjoyed themselves in the short, tree (and canal boat)-lined course, so of course we would make a return to it.
This time, though, we have entered some larger boats, namely coxed fours, and we are grateful to Lea RC for lending us a fine example for our exclusive use for the whole day – our crews really enjoyed the mighty Jumbo Sheppard! Hopefully, as the club trailer project is closer to completion, we will be able to race in our own boats on this year’s Autumn Lea Regatta in September. And this will avoid future eventful drives to Lea under fairly strong breezes, which in this particular instance made it “interesting” for one of our rowers transporting both of our club doubles on top of his car 😀 (but luckily nothing came of it!).
Spitfire entered the event with four crews in total, two coxed fours and two double sculls. Both coxed four events had very healthy attendance, with quarter-, semi-, and finals to go through.
Kicking off the day with the open (male) band 2 coxed four event, the crew comprising captain Manuel Marques, LTR coordinator Mark Latymer and our very decorated Perry-French twins made their way to the start of the (mostly straight) 600-metre course. Coxed by Abbie Latymer, who until that point only really had race coxing experience from coxed quad-scull boats, the crew pulled away rapidly and held their distance to their opposition, and comfortably qualified for the next event. After also winning their semi-final later in the day, the crew went on to become one of the two Spitfire winning crews of the day, with a solid 4-length win in the final, and this being Mark’s ever first win in a sweep oar event. Well done to all!
The winning band 2 Open coxed quad crew, coxed to victory by Abbie. Many thanks to Lea for lending us the Jumbo Sheppard!
The other coxed four event the club entered was the mixed coxed four one. This allowed Manuel and Mark to partner up with club secretary Michèle Thomas and our super weather guru, Sarah Tyler, and, again coxed by Abbie, the crew managed to get to the semi-finals, but a more coordinated crew from Lea proved stronger and denied the final to the crew.
Manuel and vice-captain George also entered the open double-scull event, but a wobbled start meant an early lead to their Gravesend opposition, which they could not claw back in the short 600-metre course, but still only finishing 1 ½ lengths away. The Gravesend crew went on to easily win their final.
Brad and Lewis, winners of the Open J18 double scull event.
And look at them go storming through the line in their final!
The club’s second win of the day went to the Perry-French twins, who stormed down the course in a time of 2 minutes exactly (which was the fastest overall time of the day!) and easily beat their opposition in the J18 boys double-scull event. Well done to them – and especially for such an impressive win, which was achieved in one of our oldest (and most battered) doubles in the club’s fleet, our mid-1990s Burgashell, Jack.
Overall, the club had a fabulous day out in East London, and we can’t thank enough Lea RC for not just organising a lovely and well-ran event, but also for making it easy for us to participate in the event, namely with the boat we were able to borrow from them. We hope to see you all in some of the summer regattas, and we will definitely be back for the Autumn Sprints!
Spitfire kick-started the 2022 season at the Head of the Adur 2022, organised by Shoreham Rowing Club. This event, which had not been run since 2018 due to a combination of bad weather and Covid restrictions, is normally well-attended by the coastal rowing clubs, with river clubs such as ours being equally welcome (even if the slightly choppy conditions made it for some challenging rowing in river boats).
Manny, Mark L, Bricey and Jon G made their way down to Shoreham, racing in three crews across both divisions, one coxless quad and two doubles; additionally, Sarah joined two composite crews with Herne Bay and Shoreham rowers, rowing in both novice men’s fours and novice ladies’ fours. Vice-captain George came along too, being “our man on the beach”, proving to be invaluable to the whole operation as all of our rowers ended up racing over both divisions, and enduring cold, wet jeans throughout the day – as he often stepped into the water to help crews boat and unboat! (and stoically refusing any offers of dry kit from other club members)
Spot Sarah in the composite Herne Bay boat!
Starting with the first division, in which crews raced downstream but against the incoming tide, they all battled challenging choppy conditions at the beginning of the course, by being exposed to the chilly northerly winds. Still, the coxless quad finished in a respectable 6th place in that division, even after a navigational error from bowman Manny which took the crew through a tight spot between moored boats. Sarah, racing in the bow of Herne Bay’s novice men’s boat (filling in for one of their crewmembers), only went and won the very closely-fought event, finishing 4 seconds in front of their Shoreham rivals! Well done to Sarah and the crew, but especially to Sarah for filling in at such short notice.
Sarah with her Herne Bay composite crew.
The boys about to head off in their coxless quad event, posing with Hot Toddy!
The coxless quad crew finishing their race.
Racing now with the outgoing tide, in the second division it was inevitable that the times were going to get shorter. Sarah jumped again into the bow of another coastal 4+, this time with Shoreham, and she thoroughly enjoyed herself there, having a very fun row. The boys from the quad then split into two doubles, one with captain Manny and Jon G (it was Jon’s first time racing for Spitfire too!), and the other being “the boat of Marks” – Mark L and Bricey.
One of the winning crews of the day – Bricey and Mark L, in Gilbert!
After battling some challenging conditions at the start of the course, Mark L and Bricey powered their craft all the way to the finish, ending with a very respectable time of 16:23, only a few seconds slower than the earlier quad and winning their category.
Happy at the start… not so happy (and not so dry either) at the end of it! 😁
In the other boat, Manny and Jon G started up strong, trying to keep the chasing crews at bay, namely the Perry-French twins racing in the senior pair event (but in Herne Bay guise). The race was going very well until about 100 metres from the finish line, when a navigational error by bowman Manny (starting to see a pattern here…) got the crew too close to moored boats, causing them to capsize, and giving them a full body experience of the Adur river! (we believe this was the only capsize of the day, too… 😀)
Overall, even with the unwanted cold water immersion drill (let’s call it that…), all crews and rowers thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and we thank Shoreham for hosting such a great event, and for all the hospitality, including lending us a 2x for one of our crews (which they then proceeded to capsize – but thankfully no harm done there, just Manny’s ego being a bit bruised). Our thanks to Herne Bay as well for sharing the trailer and towing logistics, we would have not been able to attend the event without them. Lastly, our thanks to club member James K for letting us use Gilbert in this event – we fear our Jack would have struggled a bit more in the choppy conditions!
Some of our rowers in action at Deal regatta, donning the HBARC blue kit for the day! (photo by J Short).
A few of our rowers had another opportunity to try out racing in the salty stuff a few weeks ago at Deal, Walmer and Kingsdown Amateur Rowing Club’s home regatta. Again, our many thanks to Herne Bay ARC for allowing our rowers to integrate with some of their crews!
It was the very first time our very own Lewin Hynes had a go at a coastal regatta (turns included) and in Deal’s case, he had two to contend with! Integrated in a Junior/Senior 4+ crew with fellow clubmate Mark Latymer and two HBARC lads, they finished 3rd, not too far from the experienced Shoreham crew who came 2nd. Our part-coastal/part-river rowers, twins Lewis and Bradley Perry-French formed HBARC’s A-crew in the same event, together with captain Manuel Marques and HBARC rower Luke Taylor, winning the race and securing a championship win in this category for HBARC. The same crew raced in the senior event as well, coming a few lengths behind Deal’s A-crew who won it.
The Perry-French twins continued to assert their dominance in the sculling and pairs events, coming 2nd in the senior pairs category, and with Bradley also coming second in the Junior single sculls event, followed by Lewis in 3rd. Manuel and his trusty stroke Luke Taylor finished last in the senior pair event, after battling very challenging conditions on the outside lane (and afterwards being asked whether they had brought any duty free from France, as the offshore winds kept pushing the outside crew out to sea during the race).
While it was not the first time that our new recruit Billy Baxter had rowed in coastal conditions (having done plenty of gig rowing back in the south west), it was the first time for him racing in this format. Billy partnered with Mark Latymer, and two other HBARC lads, racing in both Novice and Junior category. They came 2nd in the Novice 4+ category, which helped HBARC secure the novice aggregate trophy for this event. Sadly, the crew never managed to finish the Junior 4+ race, as HBARC stroke Tom Self suffered an injury just before the first turn and the crew had to abandon the race.
We wish Tom a speedy and full recovery, and we again thank HBARC for the opportunity provided to race at this event. And, obviously, our thanks to Deal for organising an event that went so smoothly, bar the challenging weather towards the end!
Some photos of the racing (photo credits: M Bowerman/J Dinning)
Last weekend, some of our rowers had a taste of coastal rowing in the shores of Bexhill-on-Sea, courtesy of our friends at Herne Bay ARC. We were meant to race at their home regatta on the Saturday, but unfortunately it got cancelled due to the uncertain weather conditions. Instead, our rowers made their way in the following day to Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex to make their coastal debut in Bexhill Regatta 2021.
Some of our rowers are no strangers to the coastal rowing scene, spending half of their rowing time with salt water beneath their hulls – junior rowers Lewis and Bradley Perry-French, as well as captain Manuel “Manny” Marques, all have a few coastal rowing seasons under their AIOs. But for long-time Spitfire sculler Mark Latymer and enthusiastic new sculler George Matthews, racing in the sea was a totally new experience. Not only that, it was Latymer’s second race following his debut at Henley Masters Regatta, and Matthews’ first ever one (no, we don’t count your indoor ergometer race as a “proper” race, George! 😀).
Some of the Spitfire contingent at Bexhill Regatta, all dressed up in Herne Bay colours. Left to right, George Matthews, Mark Latymer, Bradley Perry-French, Manuel Marques. (photo courtesy of Amy Harrison)
Mark and George integrated a four-man crew with other two Herne Bay oarsmen, Tom Self and Dan Lauder, racing in the junior four event. They did exceedingly well for their very first race with an effectively scratch crew (they had never rowed with Self and Lauder until race day!), coming 3rd hot on Bexhill’s tail, in a dramatic finish.
Mark and George at the start of the junior four race with crewmate Dan Lauder. (photo courtesy of Amy Harrison)
Our very experienced junior rowers, twins Bradley and Lewis Perry-French impressed us all with the amount of events they’ve raced, both doing a total of four events over the course of the day – racing senior pair (and coming 4th amid a very experienced pool of rowers, and after suffering a crash from another crew at the turn), junior sculls (with Lewis coming 2nd, and Brad unfortunately getting held back in 5th position due to a collision at the turn), and two coxed four events, junior/senior (winning it!!) and senior (coming 4th, again amid a very experienced pool, certainly punching above their weight there!).
Captain Manuel Marques enjoyed his “nice day out on the beach” by only doing two events, coming 6th in senior pairs with his trusty strokeman HB rower Luke Taylor (who also stroke the twins’ four) and 4th in the junior/senior coxed four race.
The winning junior/senior four crew at Bexhill Regatta with the Perry-French twins on either side of the picture. (photo courtesy of Kevin Hall)
We thank Herne Bay ARC for the possibility to race with them at Bexhill Regatta, and hope we can do that again soon, with a few more of us!
With the lockdown restrictions lifting and competitions resuming all over the country, our club has made its first appearance in on-water competitions in well over a decade!
James Knight and Lewin Hynes on their way to the British Rowing Masters Championship.
In early June, Spitfire scullers James Knight and Lewin Hynes attended the British Rowing Masters Championship in Nottingham. They took part in the Masters C double-sculls event in James’s 30-year-old Sims double. After battling their way through the heats, James and Lewin ended the final with a fabulous podium position, winning 3rd place overall.
The club then decided to take things up a notch…and there’s no better way than at the emblematic Henley course, racing at Henley Masters Regatta. James and Lewin teamed up with long-time Spitfire scullers Manuel Marques and Mark Latymer to enter the Masters B coxless quad event. Not only was this going to be the first time visiting Henley for both Mark and Manuel, but it was also Mark’s very first competition! This event was shaping up to be a very special event indeed for our little Club.
Then, disaster struck! James Knight was lost to the crew due to COVID self-isolation in the week leading up to the event.
Luckily for the Club (and the rest of the crew), Leonard “Lenny” Colling from Monmouth heroically jumped into the boat as a last-minute substitute – for which we are extremely grateful. Lenny also raced with Lewin in the Masters C 8+ event, forming a composite crew with Las Vegas Institute of Sport and Monmouth RC. In the semi-final against Kingston RC earlier in the day, they battled it out in an incredibly close race, securing their spot in the finals by over a length. Our plucky scratch crew later put in a strong performance in the final against Crabtree RC, but came home with second place when Crabtree were able to open a lead of two lengths.
The Masters C composite 8+ at their final!
With the unfortunate loss of bow steersman James, Manuel was “promoted” to the role in the coxless quad event. Given his track record in steering boats during races, this could have easily ended in chaos – especially since he had only one session before the race to master the coxless steering! Despite all this, and the big wooden booms on either side of the Henley course, Manuel managed to steer smoothly and uneventfully.
The Spitfire crew at Henley Masters Regatta, shortly after their race! (photo courtesy of David “Reg” Reed)Masters 4x- crew ready to start the race! (photo courtesy of Darren Prior)
Although the crew was convincingly beaten by City of Bristol, this (and the British Masters Champ event before it) was a momentous occasion for the club. Only a few years ago, Spitfire entering any competition would have been unimaginable, let alone at the iconic Henley. We owe our participation to the Ardingly Rowing Club and Falcon Racing Boats for welcoming us and lending us a beautiful (brand new) coxless quad, and we want to express our heartfelt gratitude to them.
After this spirited start to Spitfire competitions, we have a few more events planned for this summer so that even our newest members can participate and get involved! Watch this space for details!
Club junior rowers Lewis and Bradley Perry-French participated in this year’s edition of the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships, entering in the Year 12 boys event. The lads, who are also members of Herne Bay Amateur RC, completed the 2,000-metre event during the 3-day competition window, both of them not just achieving but surpassing their targets.
Not just surpassing their targets, the Perry-French twins both medalled at the event, with Lewis getting silver for his time of 6 minutes 32.5 seconds, and Brad bronze, with his time of 6 minutes 36.1 seconds. Fabulous effort from the two lads, with Lewis just a mere 3 seconds from the overall winner in their category. Really well done!
The lads’ next event will be the National Schools Regatta, where they will enter the double-sculls event – best of luck to them!
Last Saturday, February 27th, some of our rowers participated in another virtual event, but this time, with a twist: unlike previous challenges and races, this one allowed crews to race against each other in real-time, with real race commentary, all from their garages, sheds and lounges. Organised by Runcorn RC, this is their virtual take of their Spring Head, annually raced on the river Weaver by many clubs of the north-west over a distance of 3,500 metres.
Due to its virtual format, Spitfire was not the only club from far away attending the event, with crews from as far as Poole and Southsea joining in for the fun. We entered three events in total, the coxless MasC quad in the first (morning) division, and two pairs, one MasB and another MasC, in the second (afternoon) division.
Real-time racing required some more gear, and crucially… a stable connection to the Internet, meaning network cables were definitely necessary!
In the morning session, after a few hiccups with getting the racing started (just like a real head race!), and a last-minute substitution with a veteran rower from Runcorn, George Perrin, filling in for Lewin, the crew of Manuel Marques, James Knight, George Perrin and Mark Latymer came 2nd in their category, 23 seconds behind Brexbourne who won the event. George’s connection dropped off mid-race, which equated to a crewmember ejection by the system, with the whole crew suffering a time penalty as a consequence of that.
Spitfire crews getting ready to start racing in the pairs event.
But it was in the afternoon session that the racing became interesting for the Spitfire crews, with the rowers from the morning’s quad split into two pairs, racing in the same event alongside a Lancaster crew (what an amazing coincidence!). The crew of Manuel Marques and James Knight finished first in the time trial, with a total time of 11:46, but as they were racing in the MasB category that meant that they incurred in a 13-second handicap over the MasC crew of Lewin Hynes and Mark Latymer, whose final time of 11:39 guaranteed their victory.
Full results here. More details about Runcorn’s Virtual Spring Head here, and do check out the YouTube commentary that was live-streamed throughout the day!
Some pictures (and videos!) of the Spitfire rowers in action during the event below:
Club rower Lewin Hynes contributed with this great video, showing the virtual head underway (in this case, the pairs event with two Spitfire crews).
Club captain Manuel Marques on the final sprint towards the finish in the pairs event (with some post-ergo theatrics at the finish…).Club rower and Club Safety Adviser Mark Latymer finishing the first race of the day! (and emptying the tanks, too!)
Our club entered the Masters C quad that had already entered in the previous event, consisting of captain Manuel Marques (bow), James Knight, Lewin Hynes and Mark Latymer, who again came victorious in their category, with a combined time of 19:09.9!
The same rowers also competed in pairs, with Mark and Manuel finishing 3rd in the Masters B category, and Lewin and James taking 4th place in the Masters C category. Individually, in addition to these four rowers, Nigel Weaver also competed in the Masters G category, finishing 8th with a time of 20:50.5.
James, Manuel and Mark also chose to do the 5k running option, with James winning his category with a very respectable time of 20:35.1, and Mark managing to get his fastest 5k run time of this year – well done to both!
Full results below and spreadsheet with all the details accessible here. Our thanks to Bewl Bridge RC for organising this event, which is keeping us motivated throughout this lockdown.
5,000-metre ergo
1x MasC (Lewin Hynes) – 5th place, out of 24 entrants;
1x MasC (Mark Latymer) – 14th place, out of 24 entrants;
1x MasD (James Knight) – 10th place, out of 21 entrants;
1x MasG (Nigel Weaver) – 8th place, out of 12 entrants;
1x MasA Lwt (Manuel Marques) – 1st place, out of 2 entrants; 🥇
2x MasB (Marques/Latymer) – 3rd place, out of 4 entrants; 🥉
2x MasC (Knight/Hynes) – 4th place, out of 7 entrants;
4x MasC (Marques/Knight/Hynes/Latymer) – 1st place, out of 3 entrants; 🥇
5,000-metre run
1x MasA (Manuel Marques) – 3rd place, out of 7 entrants; 🥉
1x MasC (Mark Latymer) – 5th place, out of 5 entrants;
1x MasD (James Knight) – 1st place, single entrant. 🥇
Some images from our Spitfire rowers taking part on the challenge:
Spitfire J16 rower Bradley Perry-French logged an impressive 308,760 metres during the month of January. Together with his twin brother Lewis, the Perry-French brothers contributed over 40% of the overall distance for this challenge. Impressive work, boys!
Along with taking part in virtual head races, our Spitfire rowers have also been busy throughout the first month of 2021, taking part on Concept2’s Virtual Team Challenge. This challenge, part of a series that ergo and oar manufacturer Concept2 regularly features in their online log tool, saw rowers from all over the world competing in teams across several categories, rowing as many metres as possible from January 1st until January 31st.
Spitfire competed alongside other on-water clubs in the 2-5 member category. Amazingly, with 1,110,780 metres, our club placed third in this category’s leaderboard, with a considerable distance from the fourth placed club, Mighty Crabs from Maryland in the USA, and a mere ~ 150 km from second placed Bezzers Boozers from Cornwall. Full results here.
To put things into perspective, the cumulative distance rowed by these five Spitfire rowers would allow one to reach (starting from our boathouse, and as the crow flies) the whole of the British Isles, the north of Spain, and even the southern end of Scandinavia, just to name a few – this is visually represented in the map below. Impressive work, everyone!
