Spanish Adventure For Penryn Rowing Club

Guest contributor, Lyn Wills, shares her adventures in Spain, with Penryn Rowing Club:

In October 2023, members of Penryn Rowing Club participated in the European Fixed Seat Championships in Genoa, Italy. After a chance conversation at the event, led  a group of intrepid rowers decided to travel to the Galician Coast in January 2024 to row in a boat race they knew nothing about, in boats they had never seen, alongside rowers they didn’t know.

We set off from Gatwick to Santiago de Compostella, travelled onto Boiro, then down to Cabo de Cruz as guests of the Club Remo Cabo de Cruz Rowing Club, for their local regatta on January 27th.

The club at Cabo has fabulous facilities, almost entirely funded by their local government and councils. Their new state-of-the-art facility wouldn’t look out of place  as a boathouse and training centre on the banks of the Thames..

“Club de Remo Cabo da Cruz is an inspiration. We received such a warm welcome from everyone and were treated as very special guests from the minute we arrived. It was great to meet the rowers and learn about the history of their boats and have the opportunity to train and race in them.”  Alison Robinson

 

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One feature that stood out for our group was the involvement of children and young people, with no grey hair to be seen, our more stately group of rowers were something of an anomaly.

We arrived for a practice session at the club the evening before the race with some of us experiencing training in a static rowing tank for the first time. 

“They had amazing club and facilities which gave us the opportunity to try the indoor water training system.” Clare

 

Their boats, Traineras, are 13 oared fibreglass boats which cost approximately 40,000 euros each. There were smaller eight and six oared boats racing too.

Similarly to the Cornish Flashboat, they were not easy to balance.

The rowing position involves  wedging yourself between a padded bar and the footrest; no fancy cushions for these guys.

You row either in flip flops or barefoot and the oar is placed through a rope loop and dropped over a thole type pin which is fixed to the gunwales. Rowers sit  in pairs, apart from the bow rower who has two oars and swaps sides to turn tightly around the single buoy turn in the race. The boat moves quickly powered by  so many rowers. It is steered by a boat captain who stands, using a sculling oar, similar to that used by surfboats to steer. We found that stroke length and timing were essential to move the boat through the water and we settled into a rhythm set by our host stroke rowers Loli and Carolina.

 

 

“They were great boats to row, but  padding in shorts is needed! Buoy turns were an absolute blast for stroke side and tricky for bowside.”  Bev Davies

 

Pablo, our Captain was very impressed by our practice session andwe went into the race day optimistic and encouraged.

“The ‘club’ spirit was evident throughout the event, I loved the motivational crew warm ups before the races!” Alison Robinson

We did well. The row was a wonderful and enlightening experience; we won the best international crew but finished down the field.

The most lasting impression of the whole trip was the love and respect shown to us as we disembarked onto the slipway, supportive and encouraging applause was given by all the clubs rowing there – it was quite moving. They really appreciated us getting involved and it didn’t make any difference that we were older than our competition.

 

 

“Bev [Davies] got us all together, with some Spanish girls and Pablo the Cox/ Coach we went from beginners in the Traineiras on the Friday night to racing a 4K course on the Saturday. It was lovely joining rowers from different clubs and going on adventures in foreign parts.” Helen Nance

The Galician coast is an area of Northern Spain that is definitely worth a visit. The coastal villages are not overdeveloped and beaches not overcrowded. The Galician people are very friendly, helpful and so generous with their time. 

“Santiago de Compostela was just beautiful and you can see why so many pilgrims over the millennia have travelled  there to see its wonders and especially the Cathedral. Loved every moment!” Liz 

We had an amazing time, thanks to Club Remo Cabo da Cruz. Have a look at their Facebook page for more information.

If you’re interest in taking part in a Traineras event, take a look at the Santander Bay Mar de Jubilo Regatta. Contact navigatio@navigatio.es or a.bents@btinternet.com for more details.