The Port of Dartmouth Royal Regatta takes place between Wednesday, August 26 and Saturday, August 29.

There will be rowing, sailing and the closing firework display.

The Whalers and Blue Boats need some maintenance every 20 years ago so to raise funds the committee are asking people to give £20 to have their names inscribed on one of the oars by artist Paul Barclay.

Seven of the Whalers were originally ordered in 1987 and they were supplied by Hockaday Brothers of Newton Ferrers.

Commentator Basil Williams and President Hilary Bastone have been involved in the event since the 1970s and Basil explained the history of the Whalers:

“Originally we used to use the Whalers from the Britannia Royal Naval College but in 1987 they decided that they were going to get rid of them so we were getting desperate as to what to do because Whaler rowing was very popular.

“We decided that we would try and have our own built, which we eventually did with the help of people in the town contributing large amounts of money.”

In 1991 the College decided to withdraw their Cadet Blue Boats so we found sponsorship and ordered seven from a firm at Henley-upon-Thames.

The Cadet Blue Boats are two-oared so much smaller and we use them for pair oared racing or for solo rowing.”

The event comprises eight days of rowing with around 3,000 participants here participating not to mention the 40,000 spectators.

Basil and Hillary have worked together commentating since the 1970s as Basil remarked:

“He's President, but he's been Chairman on two occasions.

“I was chairman on two occasions, and a chairman does three years.

Hilary talked us through the programme: “There’s Pilot Gig and Skiff racing but it's increased over the years.

“It's gone from three days rowing to eight days and we've done about 10,000 races so we know a bit about it.

“It's always based on the last Friday in August.

We start on the first Saturday August 22 with the gig rowing, then we do the heats of the local rowing on the Sunday.

On the Monday we do the semi-finals of the local rowing, Tuesday the same boat rowing. Wednesday Dragon Boat racing, Thursday fine boat rowing, on the Friday we have the finals of the local rowing and then on the final Saturday we have a new event that went into the Olympics last time, Coastal Rowing.“

Basil said the rowing isn’t the only thing on the agenda: “We also do tug-of-war with two Whalers in the Boat Float or a Bungee Pull which is done on the South Embankment where they row a Whaler against an elastic bungee and see how far they can row.

If you would like to be one of the 90 people to have your name painted on an oar to raise funds to refurbish the Whalers and Blue Boats contact:

Basil Williams on 07850 934 930 or e-mail: basil.h.williams at gmail.com

As of April 10, 20 had been sold.