Race Reports

Okay, we wimped out! We can only drop one race and it looks like this was it. Unfortunately the boat wasn't ready. The teams weren't really ready either, but hey, what's new! We would've gone if we could, we did actually get the boat on the trailer with all good intentions. Footplates and oars were our sticking points, but hopefully we will be ready to race at Bigton. Our new strips will be ready by then too. Just need some decent weather to get in some serious practice. See you all at Bigton .....

Bigton - Saturday 9th June 2007

Our first outing. New boat and new strips too! An ideal day for a regatta, lots of sunshine. As always, Bigton are very organised and helpful, it's a pleasure to attend a regatta here. A lot of hard work goes into making the event so successful and we are very thankful to them.

We entered two teams - Open Women and Veteran Women. The Open Women were the first race of the day. Sarah Johnston was coxing the new look team which consisted of some old and some new hands, with Jennifer Dell as stroke. Conditions were perfect and it was a closely fought race throughout, G&Q kept up with the pack and managed to achieve a respectable 7th place out of 9 with a time of 7 minutes 36.01 seconds. A good result for a first attempt. By the time the veteran women went out the wind had come up a bit. Coxed by Brenda Laurenson, with Ruth MacKenzie on stroke oar, the veterans worked really hard and although they came last were satisfied that they had come along and tried. 6th place is not so bad! The time was not so good as unfortunately the cox didn't realise she stopped them before crossing the finish line! The vets managed a time of 9 minutes 09.62 seconds. Things can only get better.......

Thanks to Billy Fox who has become G&Qs official photographer - please check out our gallery. Full results of all the days races can be found on the Bigton web site - just follow the link for our 'Links' page

Skeld - Friday 15th June 2007

We all enjoyed Bigton so much we decided 'lets go for Skeld'. It started off on a bad theme .... firstly the life jackets were left behind, the seats to stop us falling off our tafts were also left behind and finally, you guessed it .... we were all left for dust and came in in last position. It's the taking part that counts!

Whalsay - Saturday 7th July 2007

The open women were the only team to venture to Whalsay. The usual panic about getting a team together preceded. We ended up going regardless of being one rower short. For a while it looked like the cox might have to come out of rowing retirement, but thankfully Aith saved the day and we borrowed one of their team. Meanwhile the Trondra veterans took our boat off for a shot in the open mens race. The women looked on at their progress with interest - why were they only rowing with 5 oars? They were last over the finish line, not a bad result in the circumstances really - an oar had snapped in two at the very beginning! Thanks to Vidlin for lending us one of their spare oars to allow us to compete in the open womens race. Only 6 boats took part, conditions were fairly choppy but we got a reasonable start, unfortunately we failed to make any real impact and came in last.

Yell - Saturday 21st July 2007

The open women were the only team who travelled to Burravoe to participate in the Yell rowing regatta. Conditions were fine, not too much wind and plenty of sunshine. The womens race was at 5 o'clock and there were 9 boats taking part. Sherl MacLennan was trying out stroke position for the first time, and did a good job too. We got a good start and kept up with the pack only to wilt a bit towards the end. We managed to remain ahead of Unst and came in in 8th place. We then headed back to indulge in the splendid refreshments laid on - excellent bbq, teas and homebakes (and beer too). As we sat in the unbooked queue it looked unlikely we were going to get on the 7.20 ferry, but we surely have luck on our side sometimes and there were shouts of elation from the team as we boarded! As nice as Yell may be, we didn't fancy sitting at Ulsta until 8.40. The trip was made all the more interesting by the sighting of Whales in Yell Sound. All in all, it was an enjoyable day out - we're never going to be taking home any prizes but taking part is always fun.

Reawick - Friday 27th July 2007

Once again only the open women were tempted to race - with the assistance of two veterans. Again we were short and had to press gang two rowers from other teams. Problems earlier in the week, when another oar snapped, were resolved thanks to Leslie Tait from the Trondra team who very kindly lent us a full set of oars and sorted our humlibands into the bargain! With our mixed team and borrowed oars it was going to be an interesting race. Conditions were good and we got a off to a good start. Sherl was stroke oar for the second time and set a very steady pace. The whole team gave their all and were rewarded by a time of 6 minutes, 5 seconds - coming in in 7th place out of 11. Aith won with a time of 5 minutes, 32 seconds.

Trondra, Sunday 5th August 2007

No report received. The open women competed and were in last position.

Burra, Saturday 11th August 2007

Busy days and nights - hennys, weddings and the like meant that we couldn't muster a team to enter. Enthusiam waining!