Pengwern Boat Club
Pengwern Boat Club
Thursday 24th July 2008
CELTIC CHALLENGE 2008
Dave Bishop and Joss Elliott spent the May bank holiday weekend joining up with Aberdovey rowing club in The Celtic Challenge – a 90 mile rowing race from Arklow in Southern Ireland to Aberystwyth in Wales. The event is raced in fixed seat Celtic longboats, and each team must have three crews of four, a support boat (in Aberdovey’s case a fishing boat), and a rigid inflatable boat that transports the crews between the support boat and the rowing boat during change-overs.
The race was scheduled to start on Saturday afternoon, so the Aberdovey team arrived in Arklow on Friday evening to “experience a taste of Irish culture.” Waking on Saturday morning with mysteriously thick heads, the team were distraught to learn that the start of the race had been put back by 24 hours, and would now begin at 4pm on Sunday. Some more Irish culture was tasted on Saturday instead.
Sunday afternoon brought brilliant sunshine and clearer heads. However, once the rowing boat had left the shelter of Arklow harbour, it very quickly became apparent that it would not be an easy crossing. A fresh headwind was blowing, and the sea was remarkably choppy. Nevertheless, all 13 teams started, and Aberdovey quickly established themselves in the top three, and even led for a short time.
With the onset of darkness, and conditions not improving, morale began to deteriorate on the boat. Five of our crew were sick, and everyone had run out of dry clothes by midnight. The change-overs in particular were damp affairs – transferring from the rowing boat to the rib invariably involved getting wet. One particular change-over, in which Joss was coxing and Dave was about to enter the rowing boat, the entire rowing crew leant the same way at the same time, resulting in the boat listing so far that it was incredible that it didn’t capsize. The next 15 minutes were spent with six people on board with buckets and bilge pumps, desperately bailing out to save the boat from sinking.
Despite these demoralising conditions, the crew rowed on, and with daylight arriving at around half past four, and conditions improving with every stroke, spirits were lifted and the average speed increased the closer they got to Wales. It was also nice to see dolphins and seals about 10 miles off Aberystwyth.
At almost exactly 10.00am on Monday morning, after 18 hours of rowing, the exhausted crew reached Aberystwyth harbour, where they were greeted by hundreds of well-wishers applauding them in. Of the 13 crews that had started, only 6 made it to the finish, and Aberdovey had come third, finishing behind Arklow and Aberystwyth – a tremendous all round team effort.
Pengwern Boat Club,
Kingsland,
Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY3 7BD
Tel: 01743 362196
Email the Secretary