UK clubs attend the 45th Vogalonga in Italy

At least two clubs from the UK attended the 45th Vogalonga regatta. The two clubs we know about is Flushing and Mylor Pilot Gig Club and Clifton Pilot Gig Club. These guys had a fantastic time and really enjoyed the festivities as well as the rowing.

This regatta is a 30km course mainly rowing around canals and was started as a protest towards boats with engines. It is a fantastic regatta and last year 8350 rowers attended this event with 5051 of these rowers not from Italy. The course starts at Bacino S.Marco and finishes in Punta della Dogana, Venice.

Did your club attend this regatta???

Here is what Clifton Pilot Gig Club (a special thanks to Stephen Burnside) had to say about the experience of this regatta:

Mike Gilbert from Langstone Adventure Rowers towed Laura Jane from her home in the South of England across to Venice. He was accompanied by Terry and her amazing ginger cake and also Donnee Wright from Canada who would be taking part in the 45th Vogalonga row.

The event this year had 2,000 boats of all shapes and sizes taking part. It’s not a race but it is an amazing spectacle.

Others taking part in Laura Jane were rowers from Clifton Gig Club: Nina Bastin, Rosie Gloyns, Steve Burnside, Sean Franks, Iain Keith-Smith and Jerry Boaden. We also had Lucy in the Pilot seat for the ride and much fending off duties.

The Clifton Gig Club members flew from Bristol on Friday. The weekend got off to a fabulous start with a high speed water taxi from the airport getting us into Venice City in time to go straight out for some food and drinks. What an amazing City! Simply beauty around every corner!

Saturday saw us meet Mike, Terry and Donnee for our practice run into the Grand Canal. The narrow canals and lots of water traffic means that at times the oars can’t be used so we needed to quickly perfect the technique of stowing oars down the middle of the gig, turning around 180 degrees on the seat and picking up a paddle to continue on our way dragon boat style. We parked Laura Jane in a local canal ready for the early start on Sunday.

After another fabulous night out in town it was a short stroll to our lovely gig to get in position for the start. Mike had judged it perfectly getting into the main stream of the 2,000 boats at the end of the Grand Canal ready for the off.

With the sun beating down the cannon fired and we were off.

Thanks to our in-boat speaker we had a sing along to Dean Martin’s Amore and later to Dolly Parton’s Jolene amongst many others. It was well under 4 hours of solid rowing that took us all around the lagoon taking in the islands of Lido, Burano and Murano amongst others.

Having made fantastic time we arrived at the North end of the Grand Canal in such good time we missed all the queues to enter. Mike, having done this six time before was amazed as he had always had to queue for an hour to get into the entrance. Under the Rialto Bridge once again where the crowds were cheering this time, an oar salute and onto the South end of the Grand Canal took us to the finish line were they throw you medals and certificates into the boat as you pass. We were elated and seemingly the first Gig to finish. We rowed Laura Jane back to our exit point, had a few very well earned refreshments and finished the amazing weekend with a special meal out.

This is without doubt one of the most amazing events to take part in; a complete privilege to see Venice from this perspective, witness the fabulous spectacle of 2,000 craft of all shapes and sizes and to row alongside the famous gondolas. We will be going back for sure. Do it, do it, do it!

If you would like more information on this regatta go to:

http://www.vogalonga.com/en/

Here are some photos taken at the regatta from Flushing and Mylor and Clifton.