This Is Guernsey

Pierre Paul, left, and Lloyd Le Page out on the water preparing for the new season, which begins on Saturday 26 April. (0560686)

AN ANTICIPATED 30-plus boats will be on the water for the fast-approaching Guernsey Rowing Club season.

The programme starts on Saturday 26 April with a time trial from St Sampson’s to St Peter Port (10.30am), which at just over 3,000m is the shortest in the local calendar.

It will be the first opportunity for many of the competitors to test their fitness, new boats and new crew members. The fastest boats will be aiming for the 12-minute record time to cover the distance.

A number of personnel changes over the winter months means the season will see new champions in just about every class.

Racing Line, the previous men’s champions, have disbanded, while the 2007 winning men’s pairs crew will form a new fours comprising brothers Matt and Dan Harradine, Ian Atkinson and the experienced Geoff Gavey, along with cox Jane Menzies in their new Financial Risk Management-sponsored boat.

This crew will also campaign a mixed pair comprising Sam de Kooker and Sarah Stonebridge with the intention of operating a male crew rotational system.

Also using a new boat will be the Long Port crew, formerly PWC.

Jon Lowe, Ed Prow and Pete Langford have this year been joined by cox Richard Perrio, along with new team members Marcus Cooper, Gary van der Linden and former river rower Tom Martel.

The 2006 Sark to Jersey winners, Thames River, have also seen a change with the inclusion of the experienced Dave Perrio along with relative newcomer Johnny Wilcocks joining Matt Burns, Trevor Coulter and cox Kerry Heaume.

Paula van Katwyk will aim to retain her women’s solo title once more, injuries permitting, while ex Racing Line crew members Paul Montague and Neil Brennan will campaign in the men’s single class.

The women’s pairs this year sees a new combination of ex-Cambridge University rower Jo Watts teaming up with the experienced Regina Luxton.

Having spent the winter training extensively, they have set their sights on beating some of the men’s pairings and challenging last year’s dominant female pair Wheeler Develop-ments.

The 2007 mixed pairs champions, James Murray and Jules Duquemin, have also parted. Will Dodds, having overcome a double arm fracture, will row again with Murray in the men’s pairs class.

They will have stiff opposition from Simon Marley and Karl Pedersen, the men’s solo champion who is going back to pairs in the Brewin Dolphin boat, and the new Source Recruitment-sponsored boat of Adam Heaume and Tim Duquemin, which is already undergoing repairs as it arrived from France damaged.

The new pairing of Paul Isaacs and Joe Paul will be the crew to watch.

An interesting class will be the women’s fours.

Geomarine, the previous champions, have also disbanded and the Saffrey Champness crew, formerly Mix’ Chix, have bought their boat.

Although with a slightly changed line-up from last year, this crew raised over £10,000 last year for their nominated charity CI Air Search.

Saffrey very generously donated a large sum to the girls’ cause last year and have continued their support with crew sponsorship for 2008.

Preseason training has been progressing well and two new novice and existing crewmembers are ready to take on last year’s best novice award winners, the former ComProp crew.

Now sponsored by Two Degrees North, the crew have spent many hours over the winter reconditioning the ex Wave Telecom boat, their new cox Wendy Lewis will be tasked with motivating the crew to build on last year’s performances.