On the 20th May Team Tay headed to their last regatta of the season- Castle Semple regatta.
There were two crews racing at the regatta in the following categories, women’s R2 double (Rogers & McKenzie) and the women’s R2 quad (Rogers, Allmand, Scott and McKenzie).
Both crews qualified for their respective finals and both finished fourth in their finals.
It was a much more leisurely start than usual with the first race not till the women’s double at 14:05. Once arrived and boats rigged it was straight to the well stocked tea tent to fuel up before our afternoon of racing.
The first race of the day was the heat of the WR2x and with the top 2 progressing to the final the crew knew what position they needed to be. After a quick warm up to the start line Rogers and McKenzie lined up on the start excited to get the fist race of the day underway. They had an excellent start keeping up with the stand out crew from George Watson’s College and then began to lengthen out over the course. Rogers set the rating well and allowed the crew to keep the pressure on for the 1000m. GWC were pulling away by the half way point and Tay responded with a push of their own. Tay finished convincingly second in their heat, knowing they had a place in the final.
It was a quick turn around for the women’s double as the final was shortly after at 15:05.
Rogers and McKenzie lined up on the start line, one of 6 crews in the final. Feeling warmed up and ready after the last race Tay got the race underway and put in a good start. The SPRC/SUBC and GWC crews took off from the pack and left Tay battling with Dundee and SABC for the third spot. Tay maintained and even put a power 10 in to overtake the SABC crew but were ultimately just short over the line and took fourth place.
For Rogers and McKenzie it was a good race, building on their previous novice win this regatta season and their first time entering the R2 category.
The next race for Team Tay was heat 1 of the women’s r2 coxless quads WR24x.
The crew had to finish in the top 3 to progress to the final. With that in mind they warmed up and did some last minute race starts to prepare.
The race started well with Tay RC keeping up with the pack and after some ‘long and strong’ calls from stroke finished second, safely securing their place in the final.
The final of the WR24x was the last race of the day for Tay. The crew were up against some strong competition from the universities and gave it everything they had for the last 1000m. They finished in 4th place, beating SABC and finishing closely behind IRC/SPRC.
Castle Semple was a very friendly and welcoming regatta, Team Tay really enjoyed their trip here and look forward to it becoming a regular feature in our regatta season.
A massive thank you to our support crew of friends, family, dogs and babies who helped rig boats, provided snacks and cheered us on from the bank!