World rowing championships

County rowers show their mettle at Skiffie Worlds 2022

Iwas fortunate enough to be a member of the Canadian team competing at the St. Ayles Skiff World Championship held at Kortgene in The Netherlands from June 25 to July 2. Thirteen County residents, 10 of them rowers, were among the hundreds of competitors and supporters from seven countries that took part in the championship. The event is held every three years and is aimed at popularizing the sport of skiff rowing, which had its heyday in the late fifties and sixties, then falling into decline until it was revived around 2009 by the Scottish Fisheries Museum with the introduction of the St. Ayles skiff designed by Iain Oughtred. The boats are 22 feet long with a beam of 5 feet, 8 inches, and are crewed by four sweep rowers and a coxswain. They are only available in kit form so that clubs have to build their own boats. The first regatta in 2010 had just six boats, but in 2013 thirty clubs, including one from Tasmania, entered the first world championships held in Ullapool, Scotland. It was at about this time that a group of County men built their first boat as a winter project. Boat number two followed the next winter and the Ayle of Quinte Skiff Club was formed. A team from the County took part in the 2016 championship in Strangford, Northern Ireland, and again in 2019 at Stranraer, Scotland. Two hundred teams competed in 2019, and an estimated 30,000 spectators came to the event. The COVID-19 pandemic cast its ominous shadow on plans for the 2022 championships and it wasn’t until late 2021 that organizers decided to go ahead.

Last summer, a group of us started training for the competition. We tried various methods for the start of the race, looking to find the best way to get the boat up to speed. We set up a two-kilometre course and timed ourselves, showing steady improvement thorough until the fall, when we had to put the boats away for the winter. Many of us kept up our fitness on rowing machines, and we started on-water training sessions as soon as the boats were back in the water in May. We knew that many of the teams we would be competing against were year-round rowers, and there were some clubs that focused on competition rather that recreational rowing. We continued to hone our technique and our coordination with each other, and by the time we left for The Netherlands we were feeling confident and determined to do our best on the world stage.

The first order of business was to actually get the boat we would be using. A nearby skiff club gave us the use of one of their boats, the Groot & Grut 2, which had to be weighed prior to competition to ensure it was no less than 150 kilograms. While the boats are made from a standard kit, things like seats, oarlocks or rudders are up to the individual builder. The wide array of paint colours, rudder design, foot rests or boat stem details meant that no two boats were the same. With our loaned boat finally in the water, we wasted no time to try it out before the start of the competition. The event started with the official row past, where government representatives from each of the participating countries (but sadly not from Canada, despite the efforts of our chef de mission, George Molyneux) viewed the teams as they rowed past the grandstand.

I had wondered how it would feel to be representing Canada on the world stage. It was quite emotional to look up and see the Canadian flag flying from the stern of the boat and hear the crowd cheering as we rowed past, and I know everyone else in the boat had the same feeling of pride.

The racing started in earnest the following day, with our team taking part in three categories. We acquitted ourselves well, keeping with our race plan and working together as a team, but we could not keep up with the European powerhouses, especially in the latter third of the race where their better conditioning made all the difference. We also realized that our start strategy had to be modified. The other teams were quicker off the mark, and while we could mostly maintain our position in the first 500 metres or so, we couldn’t catch up. The following day we employed a different start, and the boat was up and going with the rest of them for nearly the first 1,000 metres. Once again, the year-round training of the other teams made the difference in the home stretch. Watching our team compete, I could see that our technique and execution was up there with the best of them. Our rowers kept in sync with each other and had a very consistent stroke rate, even near the end of the race when exhaustion was starting to make itself felt. The club’s best time for the 2k race was posted by the 60-plus mixed team, rowing in nearly ideal conditions, who crossed the finish line in 14:09.9, which was more than a minute faster than the Men’s 280+—although the latter was in challenging conditions with light rain and a headwind. Our final race of the competition was the Women’s 280+, where the age of the four rowers had to add up to at least 280. They came sixth in the final, and the points they earned allowed our club to vault into a tie for 26th place out of the 54 clubs competing. Given that the average age of our rowers was pretty close to 70, and we were at times competing with people more than a decade younger, this was a result that made us feel proud in each other and in our accomplishment.

Cheryl Shannon has been with the Ayle of Quinte Skiff Club for just a bit over a year, and this was her first competition. She was incredibly proud to represent Canada, and thoroughly enjoyed the competition. “This was my first time competing at these World Championships and what a great thrill it was. From the first day of joining the Ayle of Quinte Skiff Club, I was encouraged and supported to come to all practices and socials and to really get to know the current members. This support has always been fantastic and greatly appreciated. As the only skiff club in Canada, I feel very fortunate that it happens to be right in ‘my backyard’. The racing championship was certainly an event to remember. Racing against clubs from around the world, doing our best in unknown waters, unknown equipment, made each race all the more exciting for me. Who knew that two kilometres of hard rowing would be so exhausting, and so worth it. Now it’s time to get back on the water in preparation for the next Championships in three years time,” she said.

George Molyneux did a lot of the work to get the team organized, and to arrange for the loan of a boat at the venue. He was really happy with the performance of the team. “The Ayle of Quinte Skiff Club has returned from a successful world event with smiles on their faces. One doesn’t often have the opportunity to represent their country on a world stage and we were certainly proud to represent Canada in the Skiffie Worlds 2022. With the exception of a few cases of lost luggage, the event—which took place in The Netherlands—was a fun-filled week of competitions, fabulous food and new friends. Fifty-four teams from various countries including England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, The Republic of Ireland, the United States, Canada and host country ,The Netherlands, came together in Kortgene, a small fishing town in Zeeland near the Belgium border, for eight days of fierce but friendly competition. This event takes place every three years and was last hosted in 2019 in Scotland. Although the Canadian winters put us at a distinct disadvantage when compared to teams who can row 12 months a year, we are pleased and proud to have experienced significant improvement in our performance in this year’s competition due to aggressive practising by the 10 rowers who competed in the recent regatta. Four of the Canadian rowers were competing for the first time in an international event and they did the team proud. Although the focus was on rowing we did take some time to visit the many charming small towns and villages in the area and can confirm that the stories we have heard about the Dutch are true—they are tall, friendly and very fond of Canadians,” he said.

For more information about the Ayle of Quinte Skiff Club in PEC, please visit countycoastalrowing.org. Several members of the 2019 team in Stranraer are featured in a documentary film made during the previous championships in Stranraer: skiffieworlds2022.com/st-ayles-10- year-anniversary-film.