Like all good ideas, Cattewater was conceived in a pub. Somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd pint, sat at the Boringdon Arms in Turnchapel in 1997, the founders came up with the idea for forming a Plymouth club after having seen Rame rowing their gigs at Cawsands. For a short time afterwards and whilst raising money for our own gig, we used to borrow Spirit of Rame to hone our technique. Our first gig was named “Catalina” (Mashfords) after the WWII flying boats – connected with our current ex-RAF launch site through Lord Louis Mountbatten. The Club’s first race was in September 1998 at Salcombe Regatta. Our first Isles of Scillies followed in 1999. The original Catalina is still being rowed today, now named “Any Shaw” and owned by Portreath. She’s been superceded at Cattewater by: a giglet called “Lucy”, a gig “Pilgrim” (B. Pomeroy), a mahogany training boat called “Odessa”, and our current racing gigs “Drake” (P.Williams) and new “Catalina” (B.Nobbs). Meanwhile, our birthplace – the Boringdon Arms – is open, serves a good pint of Sea Fury, and sits 1400 steps (according to Garmin) from where we now row.
If you’d asked us about our future goals in the first 2 months of 2020, we’d probably suggested something along the lines of “world domination”; but given where we find ourselves & our sport today, I think we’d currently settle for something simple like.. “To be able to offer our members rowing sessions free of H&S restrictions, followed by a few pints & some rubbish stories in a pub afterwards”
In terms of achievements Scillies always springs to mind in terms of achievements, and in recent memory 2 are certainly worthy of note:
2015 – Our ladies A, B and C crews all won their respective groups
2018 – Mens & Ladies vets crews both finished 2nd in their races
Oh, and..
2019 – Drew a ‘GPS Penis’ in Plymouth Sound
In terms of making the club bigger:
Waistlines? Already there.
In terms of membership we’d certainly like to be able to accept more members, but in reality with the resources we have available we’re probably always going to have to work with a limit somewhere close to our current membership (50-ish) numbers
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