The weekend saw Dover Rowing Club competing in the Teddington Head Race hosted by Walbrook Rowing Club. The course offered crews the opportunity to race on a wide section of the Thames over a 5200m route. Maria West-Burrows and Jo Johnston raced in the Ladies Double Sculls and Chris Price rowed in the open sculls event after being the sole entry in the coastal sculls class.

West-Burrows and Johnston were in the first division of the event starting at Hampton Court Bridge. The Ladies crew enjoyed the experience of a wide river allowing greater over-taking options as they pushed against the tide but with the wind. By the narrow section at Raven’s Ait Dover’s challenge had slipped away as the lead crew pulled away in their lighter river boat. At the finishing line at Steven’s Eyot they were given a rounded time of 27 minutes, leaving them 2nd.

Chris Price, sculling in a borrowed Southsea boat, was up against it with his opponents in their normal river sculls. Price got off to a safe start working hard to maintain contact with the leading boats. He successfully rounded Raven’s Ait as the conditions worsened with the rain increasing to heavy and in rapidly darkening skies. He successfully negotiated both Kingston bridges making home in a time of 24 m 49.4s, leaving him in a credible 4th place.

Dover RC would like to thank Jeff Watling from Southsea RC for enabling Price to complete and Joel Dinning, Worthing RC for the photographs.

Dover rowers Jo Johnston and Maria West-Burrows represented club and country, as GBR04, by competing in the semi-final heats of the Woman’s Double Sculls division World Rowing Coastal Championships held at Thonon-les-Bains on Lake Geneva on Friday. By qualifying for, and competing in, the World Championships Johnston and West-Burrows are hoping to inspire others to take up sport or new challenges regardless of age.

Maria showing off her accreditation and Jo and Maria signing autographs.

The course map for the World Rowing Coastal Championships displaying the 4 km route.

With an average age of over 50, Johnston and West-Burrows gave 20 years to most of their opponents, and rowed in conditions far calmer than they prefer. The initial 1100 metres leading to the first turn on the 4 km course saw a mass charge with Dover’s crew fighting to maintain a qualifying position. The run to the second turn saw the field spread out with Dover towards the back of qualifying and being pushed hard. By the fourth turn Dover had slipped out of the A Final qualifying position but were maintaining a qualifying place for the B Final. Their place assured Johnston and West-Burrows sought to conserve energy for the next race coming home behind their fellow GB crews from Welsh Sea RA in a time of 22:07.86.

Jo and Maria in their club colours.

Saturday saw Johnston and West-Burrows line up for the B final along with other GB and Irish crews. Racing was tight to the first buoy with Dover in the leading group of four. The battle continued through the next three buoys with GBR02 the eventual winners and IRL01 easing ahead leaving Dover to battle GBR05 for third place. It came down to the penultimate turn where Dover dropped a length behind GBR05 to miss out on 3rd place by 3.08 seconds, finishing in a time of 21:24.82. Johnston and West-Burrows were the highest placed English crew in their event and had they been in the second semi-final their Saturday race time would have been good enough to qualify for the A Final. They finished the competition ranked 24th in the World in Coastal Doubles.

Meridian News crew of Jenna Verdicchio and Siobhan Hart visited Dover Rowing Club to report on Jo Johnston and Maria West-Burrows qualification for the World Rowing Coastal Championships. Johnston and West-Burrows will be competing on Lake Geneva on Friday the 13th in the semi final heats aiming to reach the final on Saturday. Good Luck Ladies!

There was exciting news for Dover Rowers Jo Johnston and Maria West-Burrows as they received confirmation that their performance at the British Rowing Offshore Championships in July had qualified them straight into the semi finals of the 2017 World Rowing Coastal Championships held at Thonon-les-Bains, France. They will be competing as GBR4 on the waters of Lake Geneva in the Coastal Woman’s Double Sculls event and will be facing competitors from 9 other countries. The Dover crew will be competing in the blue and white of Dover’s club colours as it is traditional for this tournament to represent both your club and country.

Whilst the rest of the club have entered off season training, Johnston and West-Burrows have been balancing work and family responsibilities as they train in Dover Harbour in preparation for their semi final on the Friday the 13th October. The heat will be based on a 4km multiple turn course with the final being run over a 6km course. The preparations have not been ideal given the temporary space restriction caused by the West Docks Development but both rowers are hopeful of qualification for Saturday’s final, although the present expected calm conditions are not in their favour.
Anyone interested in learning or returning to rowing should contact Dover Rowing Club via the Club’s website.

Dover Rowing Club sent a depleted squad to the rearranged Worthing Town Regatta at the weekend.
First on the water was Lizzie Foley who volunteered to help Eastbourne RC by coxing their crew featuring a new rower. Foley used her experience to assist the crew as they raced coming home 10th.

Maria West-Burrows and Jo Johnston were in competition in the Senior Ladies Pairs. With the water at its roughest point of the day, in a few strokes one of Worthing’s crews capsized. The remaining boats fought on as they headed down the course. By the buoy turns it was clear that Worthing’s remaining crew and a Shoreham crew would battle for victory whilst the Dover boat would be fighting for third. With the Dover boat in the rougher water on the return leg the third placed crew moved away leaving them to come home in fourth.

The Men’s Junior Sculls race saw Chris Hall in a competitive field. With conditions rough at the start line one of his competitors was fortunate to avoid a capsize just after the ‘Go!’. Hall found himself in a battle with the two Bexhill scullers offering a repeat of the first regatta of the season. With clear daylight developing between the leading Bexhill Sculler as they headed to the turn Hall tried to hold onto the second placed boat. The turns went Bexhill’s way and both scullers broke clear of Hall who settled into third place as he worked his way up the course. With inshore conditions better than the middle course water Hall watched warily as the Shoreham sculler made ground on him egged on by the commentator. He upped his stroke rate but Hall responded, confident that he was in control of the third place only to see the Shoreham Sculler catch a crab and capsize with less than 400m to go allowing Hall to row controlled to the finish.

Jo Johnston competed in the Ladies Open Sculls in calmer conditions. Johnston got off to the better start and found herself leading the Southsea sculler. Forming a comfortable lead on the outward leg Johnston exended her lead to several lengths as she remained long and strong all the way back to the finish to claim her first win of the season.
With only the South Coast Championships left in the coastal season Dover Rowing Club are looking for new and returning members to bolster their squads competing in under 14’s through to over 50 categories for the 2018 season, please see the club’s website for contact details.

Dover Rowing Club were in action at the inaugural British Rowing Offshore Championships held over the weekend at Sandbanks, Poole. The Championships serve as a qualifier for the FISA World Coastal Rowing Championships at Thoron, France. Dover RC were flying the flag for Coast Amateur Rowing Association in competing in this longer rowing format. Unlike the normal CARA races the start sees crews standing with their boats in the water, the course being a 4km triangle for qualifying and 6km for the finals and the finish seeing a crew member sprinting up the beach to cross the finishing line.

Dover RC entered 3 crews into the competition, Chris Price and Robin McCorkell in the Men’s single sculls (C1), and Jo Johnston and Maria West-Burrows in the Woman’s Doubles (CW2); all competing in hired FISA boats. The first sculler on the water was Price who has previous experience at the FISA Worlds having coxed Dover’s Quad to win the qualifying round before finishing second in the World Championships in the Channel Islands in 2006. Price pushed hard off the start but found the competition too strong as the field quickly settled into two groups with Price leading the second group of scullers fighting for 5th place. With the qualifying out of his reach by the second turn Price pushed hard to break free from his group to secure 5th place in a time of 23 m 24.3 s.

Picture courtesy of British Rowing / Naomi Barker
Johnston and West-Burrows found themselves left at the line as the more experienced FISA style starters gained an advantage in their straight final in the Double Sculls. Once in stroke the ladies closed the gap immediately only to be blocked by the Welsh Sea crew. As the race progressed the experienced FISA crew from Jersey pulled out a substantial lead with Dover in a fight for the minor placings. By the second buoy Dover had been dropped from the medal placings and were fighting for 4th. In an exciting finish Dover’s boat came hammering into the beach with two Welsh crews on their stern. Johnston, belying her 60 years, sprinted up the beach to beat her young Welsh opponent by less than a second. Dover’s fourth place was secured in a time of 34 m 14.9 s; second of the English crews.
McCorkell found himself competing against 2014 World Champion Single Sculls Champion Peter Berg from Sweden. McCorkell got off to a fine start and was in the leading group through the first turn. By the second he was in a comfortable third place and rowed a controlled race to the finish in a time of 20 m 50.9 s thereby qualifying for Sunday’s final.

 
Finals day saw McCorkell on the start line at 07:35. Berg and the Czech Huja rapidly pulled away from the rest of the field leaving McCorkell battling for third. Fighting hard round the first turn to keep in contact his challenge started to fall away at the second buoy with the young rower coming home 5th in a time of 36 m 29.4 s; second among the British competitors.

Southsea Regatta, the traditional competition between the Coast Amateur Rowing Association clubs and those from the Hants and Dorset division, ended prior to the completion of most finals due to deteriorating sea conditions.

For Dover Rowing Club there was frustration as none of their finals were completed. With recent seasons being blessed with generally good conditions this has been a challenging year.  Disruption caused by strong winds has led to three regattas being curtailed with a further five cancelled on their original scheduled dates. This weekend will see Dover RC competing at the rearranged Worthing regattas, as ever weather permitting!