AFTER having been postponed twice, the Andrew Mahy Memorial race finally took place in a stiff westerly wind on the full height of the 9.1m tide giving crews some very choppy conditions.
This race was the brain child of Vanessa Mahy in memory of her husband, who was a popular rower.
The 8,300m course took the 21 crews from Salerie corner north-east across Belle Greve Bay around a turn buoy just south of Vivian beacon before crossing the Little Russel to Aligande Beacon, then back on the long slog into wind and tide across the Russel to the finish line in Havelet Bay.
Experienced coxswain Neil Brennan, who was standing in at the last minute to cox the Fitness Factory crew, said there was a lot of tide at the Aligande turn and that many crews had got their approach wrong, which lost them valuable time as they had to fight the strong northerly tide to make the turn and head off in a southerly direction.
Unusually, this race has a mass start, with all the crews jostling on the line for a good position and a great deal of clashing oars in the first couple of minutes.
The green hull of men’s fours boat Julius Baer soon took the lead despite cox/coach Lloyd Le Page ‘taking the helm’ with broken ribs.
They managed to cling onto the lead for the entire race and crossed the finish line in a time of 45min. 49sec., just 28 seconds ahead of FRM who were rowing with a last minute sub as regular Geoff Gavey had been delayed in Jersey.
A very strong Fitness Factory crew powered across the finish line just 59 seconds after the winners.
In the men’s pairs class, the current leaders, Joseph Paul and Paul Isaacs, were not rowing and popular pairing Karl Pedersen and Simon Marley seized the opportunity to clock up their first win this season in 54-14.
That put them into the lead in this championship class, four points ahead of Source Recruitment.
In the mixed sliding pairs, Liz Bellot and Steve Pipe steered a fine course, one of the few crews to make a good turn around the Aligande beacon, and crossed the line in a fine time of 57min.
FRM, the other mixed sliding crew, enjoyed a friendly tussle with women’s pair Wheeler Developments, who managed to hold them off and cross the line first.
Paul, not content with celebrating the birth of his third child the night before, took to the water in the singles class and enjoyed an interesting collision with ex-teammate Paul Montague, which saw the two boats locked together for several minutes at one of the turn marks.
During that interlude, Paul managed to free himself and left his old rival behind, crossing the line in a time of 58-44 with Montague coming in just over three minutes later and Briggs, a fixed-pairs record holder in this race, coming in third.
In the female fours class, CMC Sirens continued their dominance with Saffery Champness putting in a very good performance to finish second and Hash Anchorettes third ahead of Two Degrees North.
Rowing stalwart Carol Le Page was unable to finish the race after encountering very choppy waters and capsizing.
The guard boats performed their duties flawlessly and she was soon rescued by head guard boater Mike Collenette.
Article posted on 12th June, 2008 - 2.29pm
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