MEMBERS of Dart Gig Club were delighted to be part of Salcombe Estuary Rowing Club's first up river gig event on the Salcombe estuary held for the Devon cup.

A squad of nine women and three men arrived at Batson Creek for the launching of the gigs.

Nine gigs lined up for the start of the men's race off the yacht club.

Dart were unable to muster enough men for a full crew, so they put out a mixed crew.

It was a breezy day but rowing upstream meant the rowers were unaffected by the wind and the men's race started at 1.15pm in sunny conditions.

The Dart mixed crew had a good start, keeping up with the other gigs for quite a distance.

They quickly pulled ahead of the Tamar Tavy crew and also pulled ahead of Appledore for a while.

However, Appledore settled down into a rhythm and slowly drew ahead of Lightning.

The course followed the line of the moorings up towards Kingsbridge.

To give the lead crews a line to follow, Justin Haymer, chairman of the Salcombe club, led the way in his boat.

Dart maintained their position all the way to the finish off the Crabshell Inn, coming in ahead of Tamar Tavy in a respectable time of 30 minutes. By this time the sky had clouded over, but at least the weather remained dry.

After refreshments at the pub, the ladies embarked on the race back to Salcombe.

The ladies had to row clear of the narrow channel off the Crabshell Inn to enable the 11 gigs to line up for the race back to Salcombe.

Dart struggled to find space on the start line and clashed oars for the first few strokes.

However, they soon settled into a good rhythm and had a really solid row, overtaking six of the boats. They were just edging into third place when the cox of the Salcombe gig asked Dart to give water to enable them to clear a moored boat, which Dart duly did.

The course through the yachts meant there was not much room to manoeuvre in places and some skilful coxing was required.

Due to the dinghy racing off Salcombe, the finish line for the ladies' race was just south of The Bag.

Salcombe took line honours, with Ilfracombe second and the Salcombe B crew third.

Dart came in fourth having had a great race.

They were highly delighted to be told they were the first ladies' vets crew home – for which there was a trophy!

Mixed crew: Shirley Waycott, Mary Eames, Jonny Holmes, Paul Kunert, Stan Bray, Paula Hine and cox Clare Thorp.

Ladies' crew: Jo Hayden, Carol Squire, Wendy Jones, Amanda Dyer, Clare Thorp, Peta Chivers and cox Paul Kunert.