A report from Men’s Captain, Robert Eckhart
On 29 August, we welcomed 15 visiting clubs from across Scotland and Northern England to our annual North Berwick Regatta. This included strong representation from our neighbouring clubs along the Forth, Troon, Burghead, Gourdon, Alnmouth and a very welcome return from Coigach.
The weather was kinder than forecast, with full sun for most of the day bathing a spectacular arena for the days racing.
Racing took place over our hallmark 3km course round Craigleith providing a classic mix of coastal rowing waters.
Racing got underway with the Mixed Decades, won by St Ayles. We were then delighted to host strong under 16 and under 18 junior races over a shorter course from Craighleith back to the harbour. Congratulations to North Berwick and Eastern crews for victories in each category respectively.
Next up were the 45+ races. North Berwick’s men posted the fastest time of the day (an impressive 17:03) to win the inaugural John Irvine Trophy, named after one of our club stalwarts.
North Berwick won the women’s race and Boatie Blest pipped us in the mixed. Well done Boatie!
There was a strong field of novice crews, with Boatie coming first with an impressive time of 18:24. Great result for novices! The mixed 240+ was won by Eastern.
The rescheduled Mixed Open was won by Coigach, who also prevailed against Eastern and North Berwick to take 1st place in the Men’s Open with a time of 18:02. The Women’s Open was won comfortably by Eskmuthe, rounding off a hugely successful day’s racing.
On Sunday morning, several clubs joined North Berwick for our annual Muster row to the Bass Rock. It’s always a tough but rewarding row to this iconic gannet colony and conditions were typically challenging. Well done to all the rowers who took part!
A huge amount of work goes into hosting our annual Regatta and we would particularly like to thank members and volunteers who made it a success as well as our local sponsors. It was a real community effort.
More photos on Flickr below.
