Dart gig club made its annual trip to Rame’s gig regatta last saturday. With two other events on elsewhere in Cornwall, there were a few boats less this year, however, there were still 21 clubs present.

With an ‘interesting’ weather forecast, rowers were not certain what sort of conditions they might meet – wind, rain or lightning – or possibly sun! The fresh south-westerly wind did make for lumpy conditions on the outer section of the course, and a swell built up thoughout the afternoon.

Dart was placed in heat two of all the races but fortunately heats were timed.

At noon, the ladies’ A was the first race of the day. They encountered the worst weather of the afternoon and were soaked through – as were the results of heat two, so the crew had no idea of their time or position! The ladies’ B fared better with the weather, coming home in 13th place out of 18.

The men’s A and B crews swapped round a little. Both crews did very well and it was difficult to compare times with the changing weather and tide. The men’s A came sixth out of 17 and the men’s B came second overall to Looe, who only had a nine-second lead – an excellent result.

Both the C crews rowed well – with the ladies’ crew having three novice racers and the men’s crew having three supervets! Both crews were seventh out of 14.

The final races of the day were the vets and the mixed. The ladies’ crew had a good row and came home sixth out of 17 and the men’s crew had an exciting row, coming home in third place, with Caradon first and the Dart crew one second behind the Cattewater crew.

Dart continued their excellent performance in the mixed races.

Unfortunately, at the last minute, Salcombe placed themselves on the inside end of the line, and although not in front of Dart by the first mark, they had enough of an overlap to have the water and they pulled ahead.

Dart chased them round the next two marks, with the tricky south-westerly swell making for interesting rowing and coxing.

Unfortunately, Dart were unable to catch the lead boat Salcombe, but they had a great fight with Young Bristol all the way down the last leg, to stay in a very well-deserved second place, which gave them fourth place overall, behind Looe, Salcombe and Caradon with only six seconds separating all four crews.