THE weather was too rough for the Round Guernsey race – the longest event in the Rowing Club calendar – but rowers still braved the conditions and produced record-breaking performances in the Andrew Mahy memorial race.

Four new bests were set while the fastest time of the day went to the Geomarine quartet of Margi Jorgensen, Andy Chapple, Sam de Kooker and Kathy Tracey.

‘The conditions were tricky but not too, too bad,’ said Chapple. ‘It was a little lumpy on the homeward leg.

‘The event was held on different tides this year. The tides were slack and as a result records fell.’

The conditions for the 9km course were uncomfortable, especially for the light singles boats and after just five minutes, Matt Harradine was forced to retire with a broken oar.

Harradine is having very little luck this summer.

In the previous championship race, he broke an oar after a collision with Joe Paul and on Saturday it was Paul Montague’s turn to ram Harradine’s boat.

Later in the race, Paul Isaacs found himself taking an early bath.

Extreme chop in the middle of the Russel capsized the novice rower’s craft.

He was able to right the boat and get back in and he completed the course holding onto third place just two seconds ahead of Steve Desmond.

Joe Paul and Paula Evemy both broke the records for their sliding singles classes despite the sloppy seas.

Sarah Day teamed up successfully with Stuart Briggs in her fixed-seat boat and although there were no others in their class they were able to beat the former record by an outstanding nine minutes.

Tim Prout and Karl Pedersen in the men’s pairs and Geomarine in the mixed fours also set new records.

Stainless Steel Fabrications pushed Geomarine hard all the way around and they too were well inside the previous record.

Sadly Karl Guille, in the fixed- singles class, just missed out on a new record by 24 seconds.

More unfortunate still were the Wave Telecom crew who hit a rock, not for the first time this season. This ended their race and they had to head straight back for repairs.

Wave Telecom’s Adie de Kooker has had plenty of practice repairing the hull of his boat this summer.

Their withdrawal left the way clear for Andre Duquemin’s novice crew to record their first win of the season.

Their heavy boat coped well with conditions and they finished the race in a very respectable 47 minutes.

With just one championship and one handicap race left this season, many of the rowers are now preparing for the trip to the Cherbourg Regatta next month.

The club is taking a strong squad in an attempt to retain the overall trophy they won last year.