ROWERS’ speed and endurance were tested in the hot midday sun as they competed in the longest race of the season so far. Starting in Havelet Bay, the 10-mile course took them along the south coast to the finishing line at Rocquaine.

Performance of the day came from women’s fours crew twodegreesnorth as they defeated fellow competitors Geomarine to claim their first victory of the season.

However, disaster almost struck in a warm-up row just 10 minutes before the start when one of the foot rests came loose from the boat.

Stroke Cat Peet was sent flying down her seat as the rest jolted free from its fittings and it took a good few minutes to fix, with the crew making it to the start line with just seconds to spare.

As the race started, Geomarine caught a crab almost immediately and twodegreesnorth wasted no time in using this opportunity to push away from their rivals towards St Martin’s Point.

They powered on to keep their lead and eventually finished in 1hr 24min. 21sec.

They were delighted with their performance as crew member Jules Marshman explained.

‘We knew when we started this season that Geomarine would be extremely tough to beat so our aim was to just secure this one win.

‘Our crew all share the same enthusiasm and competitive drive on the water and now that we’ve achieved our goal, we are hungry for another victory.’

There was another strong performance in the men’s singles as Stewart Briggs secured his second victory over Ben Byrom. Despite the baking heat making conditions very uncomfortable, Briggs managed to finish a convincing four minutes ahead of Byrom.

Channel Island Ceramics were the only mixed fours crew on the water.

Having no direct competition, they set their sights on the other fours boats in the fleet and pushed themselves hard along the seemingly never-ending course.

In the end, they were thrilled with their performance as they finished three minutes ahead of men’s fours crew Hash Anchors.

Nova continued to dominate the men’s fours by producing another new record in a time of 1-06-30.

Thames River Capital welcomed the experience of stand-in club coach Lloyd Le Page who couldn’t resist the opportunity of rowing the boat which he had a hand in building for the crew.

They too raced the course in a time faster than the current record, but were again unable to beat Nova to the finish line.

Tim Prout and Karl Pederson topped the men’s pairs in 1-15-36 with James Murray and Will Dodds following four minutes later.

Murray and Dodds were particularly excited as they finally got to row their new MPS boat recently purchased from France.

Being the only one of its type in the club, the competitive pair were keen to see how it measured up against the rest of the eurodiffusion designs on the water.

Dodds was very impressed with the potential of their new vessel.

‘The boat went well over the course and definitely has some speed, but as we’d only had the chance to spend 15 minutes prior to the race setting it up, some tweaking is still needed,’ he said.

‘I was especially relieved not to catch any granite rash on the way into Rocquaine – it was close. Timewise, we edged closer to leading pair Prout and Pederson and with the boat set up well, we’ll hopefully get closer still.’