Southsea regatta took place this weekend and small boats were the order of the day for Shanklin Sandown Rowing Club.
Southsea regatta remains one of the largest in the country in terms of entries as the Hants and Dorset ARA combine with Coast ARA to race on the notoriously rough waters of Southsea. Shanklin had just four entries on the day, with three scullers and the Mens Senior pair venturing over to Portsmouth.
The first race of the day came for the Mens Senior Pair who raced in a straight final on the calm early morning waters. Having late entered the event the duo of Alex Robertson and Joe Evans Murray found themselves a very unfavourable lane 11. Despite this the pair had a good start and headed into the turns in the main body of the race. On the return the crews on the inside lanes began to pull away. Despite losing touch with the race leaders the pair came home in 6th place in a field of 12.
Next to go afloat was Jamie Gamble in the Mens Novice sculls heat. With the waters still calm Jamie rowed in commanding fashion in his heat comfortably qualify for the final finishing second. The final was just ninety minutes later, this however was enough time for the water to chop up. In a strong field of 12 scullers Jamie quickly established himself amongst the race leaders with a strong start. Maintaining this strong performance in to the turns Jamie was sitting in the podium positions. On the return leg the leading Southsea sculler began to pull away from the rest of the field but Jamie continued to display his prowess over both Hants and Dorset and CARA scullers coming home third.
The final event for Shanklin was the Mens Senior Sculls. The senior pair once again split up and went out on the water against one another, with Joe in lane two and Alex out in lane 14. The start was a furious one and the field stayed close together for the first few hundred metres. Both Shanklin scullers were in the top half of the field heading in to the turns, with Alex exiting the buoys as the first Hants and Dorset sculler. On the return legs Alex had a close race with Ratcliffe of BTC for H&D point whilst Joe was battling it out for 6th place with James Foad. Both lost their individual battles in the final few hundred metres, with Alex finishing 5th and Joe coming home 7th.
The clubs next regatta will be the short trip to Newport next weekend. Finally the club would like to thank Ryde for transporting our boats to Southsea and to Newport for the lending of their single scull.