Clyde 3 Heads - Racing Snakes Race Report

Clyde 3 Heads – Race Report

Race Date: Saturday, 4th November 2023

Crew: Racing Snakes

How many people does it take to change a trailer wheel? At least 3 Racing Snakes and a support man and his dog. Luckily, one of the TRC Facilities fairies had left 3 brand new wheels in the container for us, and Rachel had the other tools in her car to do the job. A quick detour to pick up the number plate and a check of the boats & straps and the mechanic-approved ‘tyre kick’ to make sure it was all sound, and we were on our way after a fairly leisurely start. (I felt confident enough in the manoeuvrability of the trailer as we pulled away that I didn’t need to mention the fact that everyone had kicked the wrong tyre).

Given that it was raining at the club, and elsewhere in the country, as we loaded the boat on Saturday morning, it seems unbelievable that it was a nice sunny day in Glasgow of all places! The water was as flat on the Clyde as it had been on the Tay and the canal path was abuzz with trailers, rowers, dog walkers and weekend strollers. A super speedy set up thanks to the quick release riggers on the boat allowed us to take our time admiring Clyde ARCs club house and to boat well ahead of our scheduled time. We had the river to ourselves as we warmed up and waited for the other boats in our division to join us beyond the fallen tree just over 3 km upstream. We realised that it was down to our chief steerer in bow (Heather-8 tries-McKenzie) that we had managed to avoid the tree and other obstacles as we witnessed other crews getting tangled up. This reassurance gave us the clarity we needed to focus on the race ahead and stick to Paige’s race plan of ‘Start hard. Go a bit harder in the middle. Finish hard’. After exactly 10 minutes of solid, fairly uneventful rowing, pushing off the bridges and fighting for as long as possible to keep the Clydesdale crew from overtaking us, we eventually conceded to allow them to have the final winning line and very proudly took 3rd place in our first head race of the season.

Thank you to Clyde ARC for providing the weather and introducing us to coffee bags, as well as a brilliantly organised event.

North of England Head – Royal Chester Rowing Club

Members of Tay Rowing Club headed down to Chester at the weekend to compete in the North of England Head, 23rd March 2019.

The last of the Head races for the winter, three TRC crews took part over the course of the day. Everyone was made very welcome by the hosts from REX rowing club and the location was simply stunning! What a great place to end our first major series of winter Head races.

Members of REX invited us along to a social evening with superb food and a social row the following morning.

We hope to be able to make them as welcome on TRC turf!

Aberdeen 8’s Head

Tay Rowing Club headed to Aberdeen on Saturday 9th March to compete in the Aderdeen 8’s Head. With two entries; an Open Masters 8 in Division 1 made up of a mixed TRC crew, and a Women’s Masters 8 in Division 2 made up of 6 TRC rowers and 2 from St Andrew Boat Club in Edinburgh.

The weather was bright & sunny but with strong gusts over the River Dee. At times the cross winds made it challenging but both crews faired well and put in a good show. Unfortunately there were no medals to be had by TRC on this occasion but it was great day overall.