Three Rivers Race
Sunday 16th March 2009

On Sunday 15th March, Caradon Gig Club hosted the first big event for the gig racing calendar, the Three Rivers Race at Saltash. The Three Rivers race is a 5 mile course, starting under the Tamar and Brunel bridges, racing up river towards the Tavy bridge where two buoys are turned before racing back down the Tamar towards the entrance of the Lynher, again buoy turns are negotiated and the last leg of the race is again up river, finishing opposite the Saltash Sailing Club.

 
The Three Rivers race has become increasingly popular in recent years, with crews eager to race their rivals prior to the World Championships in May. This year saw a record entry of 32 ladies crews and 34 mens crews take to the water.  Due to the number of gigs, there were two heats for each race, the second heat starting approximately 30 seconds behind the first.  All gigs are timed individually so those rowing in heat 2 can still compare their time equally with those in heat 1. The finish time for each gig in the mens and ladies race is then added together to give a combined time, from which the overall results are worked out.

As an early morning mist cleared the Tamar river, the ladies crews set out for the first race of the day. Falmouth in Irene Too took an early lead pushing hard against the ebb tide, with Caradon A in Millers Daughter and Mounts Bay in Kensa racing on their tail.  These positions held and Falmouth finished 20 seconds ahead of Caradon A with Mounts Bay in third. Pushing for the starboard end of the line the men’s start saw several crews clashing oars as they fought for room. Fowey in Lantic took an early lead and the front pack fought hard towards the first mark until Caradon A in Millers Daughter began to stretch out a lead on Mounts Bay in Kensa and Caradon B in Jupiter. Caradon A rounded the second mark with a convincing lead on Mounts Bay and Caradon B, eventually winning by 30 seconds in a time of 46.58.

There are also ‘wooden spoons’ for the slowest ladies and mens crew in each race. This year, this went to the HMS Raleigh crew in Jupiter in the ladies and the Tamar/Tavy crew in Tamar for the mens.

The results (men’s and ladies times combined), were,

Leanne Kent
Vice Chairman

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