Thanks to Alistair Gibson of Yarmouth Gig Rowing Club for sharing his account of this 9 mile endurance event.
The Cockleshell Challenge is an annual open rowing event in the Solent, run by the Eastney Cruising Association. It celebrates the famous Cockleshell Heroes from WW2 and the course covers some of the area where much of the training for Operation Franklin was carried out. The race itself is an open sea race for fixed seat rowing boats and covers approximately 9 miles, starting at the Eastney Cruising Association heading out to Horse Sands Fort and back again.On Saturday 19th July, 28 boats in total took to the waters of the Solent, 11 of which were Cornish Pilot Gigs, including Yarmouth Gig Rowing Club’s ‘Sea Spirit’.
In a phased start with different classes beginning at three-minute intervals, Yarmouth started twenty-fourth out of twenty-eight entries. By the end of the course they were fourth, having overhauled twenty boats, a really brilliant performance. When the final results were worked out taking into account the handicaps for the various classes Yarmouth Gig Rowing Club had achieved the following –
- Fifth fastest overall (out of twenty-eight) and second overall on handicap (by seven seconds)
- First in class (out of seven GRP Cornish Gigs)
- First crew in the open/men’s category (out of thirteen)
- First super-vets (over fifty) crew (out of twelve)
Bill Freshwater, Yarmouth Cox said “This was a very competitive field and so for us this was a tremendous effort from the entire crew today. It was one of those days when all the hard work we put in on training rows just came together. This is such a growing sport and it’s nice to see the Isle of Wight making its mark against some of the bigger clubs the other side of the Solent”.
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