WHEN the 40th Sark to Jersey race takes place tomorrow, there is one Guernseyman who will stand out above the rest. Brian Staples is a legend on the local rowing scene and has competed in each of the 39 since the first one in 1967.

But the 62-year-old carpenter and founding member of the Guernsey Rowing Club is hanging up his oars.

‘This is my last Sark to Jersey,’ he said.

‘I’m going to call it a day. I want to remember all the good and bad times. The older you get, the more nervous you get.’

The race that started out as a bet between two Sark fishermen is now regarded as the inter-insular rowing contest. It is the blue riband of the Channel Islands calendar.

The first race was on Saturday 22 July 1967. John Ridgeway and Chay Blyth, who were the first to row the Atlantic the year before, officially started the proceedings by parachuting into St Aubin’s Bay.

Blyth has been invited to start the 40th race.

Over the 39, Staples has notched 28 wins in a variety of classes. But he will hope that he does not repeat the experience in the first one when he and partner Derek Sparks failed to finish.

Excessive blistering and bleeding of Sparks’ hands forced the pair to pull out by Bonne Nuit buoy.

This was the only time that Staples has not completed the race.

‘We were both a bit tearful,’ said Staples. ‘It was a bit upsetting. At the time we both agreed to get a tow from a Jersey fisherman.’

Looking back, Staples is not too sure whether that was the right decision.

‘If we just sat in the boat, the tide would have taken us in but we didn’t realise it at the time,’ he said.

Staples first won the Sark to Jersey in 1972 as a single in Snip Guille’s old boat. That was the start of seven consecutive victories in the class.

It was with Guille that Staples formed the GRC a year later.

In the same year, after taking inspiration from canoes that he saw on holiday at Butlin’s, he designed and built his own singles boat in 10 days.

After the successes with it, a mould was taken in 1975 and a staggering 36 more were built.

With Staples still winning throughout the mid-70s, he came in for some criticism due to his wooden boat being lighter than the moulded fibreglass ones.

‘So I bought back a boat I had sold to Mick Solway and I won it in that,’ he said.

In 1979, Staples turned his attention back to pairs. With Peter Le Sauvage he won that year and the following two as well.

In 1981, Staples experienced his favourite race when they won the overall event, ahead of the fours teams.

He then moved to fours boats for the next two years before switching back to singles in 1984 at the age of 40.

For the next 13 years, Staples dominated the veterans’ class until 1997 when he joined the Hash Anchors. His remarkable run of 25 years of unbroken success ended when his team finished 12th that year.

Into the 2000s and he was back in the pairs class, firstly with John Pritchard, then Colin Fallaize and most recently with Ian Atkinson. Again class victories came his way.

Last year saw him return to the Hash Anchors with whom he will do his last Sark to Jersey. So why does he keep doing it?

‘It’s the challenge,’ he said.

‘I praise anyone who does it once but it’s a disease for me. I’ve altered holidays to race in the Sark to Jersey.

‘My wife is my backbone for it.’