The club recently travelled by car, bike and plane for its first foray over the Irish Sea to the Skiffiefest Regatta on Strangford Lough, venue of the 2016 Skiffie Worlds.
The 3-day regatta was superbly hosted by Down Coastal Rowing Association, with 20 clubs from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Netherlands joining in the fun.
The weather was glorious, the conditions superb and the standard of rowing extremely high, described by the entertaining and informative on and off the water commentators as at “Skiffie Worlds level”, which to be fair was pretty accurate.
A packed schedule of racing across a 2km course with a buoy turn at 1km resulted in fast times and fiercely competitive races with numerous photo finishes. Progression from heats through to finals were based on time so there was no easing off if you were positioned well in your heat because you knew that the next heat would be full of fast crews!
North Berwick crews produced some excellent performances securing 3 silver medals (Mixed 50; 40+ Women; 60+ Women) and 3 bronze medals (50+ Men; Mixed Open; 50+ Women). The club’s achievements were then capped by being awarded the Best Overseas Club – a fantastic recognition of the North Berwick crews’ performances and the club’s contribution to the festival.
It was a brilliant weekend of fun and rowing and we can’t thank Down Coastal Rowing Association enough for their amazing hospitality
More photos on Flickr below and thanks to Duncan Mckay for the reportage.
