Ryde Rowing Club host the 3rd Hants & Dorset ARA Championship Regatta of the season this Saturday (4th June) with Shanklin’s Championship Regatta taking place on Sunday (5th June).
This year’s Regatta marks the 45th Anniversary of a Hants and Dorset ARA Championships Regatta being held off Ryde’s Appley Beach. Due to the pandemic and the work on the collapsed sewer in and around Appley Park, this will be the first Ryde Regatta for 3 years – the last being in 2019.
The inaugural Ryde Regatta was held in June 1977 as part of the club’s Centenary Celebrations. This followed the successful introduction of a Hants & Dorset Championship Regatta, organized jointly by Shanklin and Ryde Rowing Clubs, which was held at Yaverland in 1972.
The joint organizing committee and the Hants & Dorset ARA agreed to stage the 1977 Regatta at Ryde in what was expected to be a one-off change of venue in recognition of the club’s centenary. But such was the success of the event that these 2 Island Rowing Clubs and the association agreed that the Island should host 2 Championship Regattas each year: 1 at Ryde and 1 at Shanklin.
The Isle of Wight Rowing Weekend was established with both clubs staging their own regattas since 1978. This led to the introduction on the 3rd H&D ARA Regatta on the Island run by Newport Rowing Club.
Ryde Regatta has received a slightly smaller entry than in 2019 – 91 Crews and Scullers – due to the clash with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Celebrations the same weekend and ongoing concerns regarding Covid-19. However, the numbers competing are likely to exceed 100 when late entries are considered.
The regatta has a programme of 19 races to be completed in just over 4-and-a-half hours over a 1,820m course from Appley Beach towards Ryde Pier and return.
Races will be held for Senior, Junior/Senior, and Junior and Novice men in coxed 4s; Senior and Junior men in coxless pairs; and Senior, Junior, and Novice Men in Single Sculls. For ladies, there are Senior, Junior and Novice coxed 4s; Ladies’ Junior, Senior, and Pairs; and Ladies Senior, Junior, and Novice sculling events. There is also a Masters – formerly known as Veteran – 4s event for mixed 40+. The last race of the day – raced back from the turns – will be a J16 Coxed 4s.
The regatta is scheduled to start at 12:30 with a race every 10 to 15 minutes. The prize giving will take place at the clubhouse in Appley Park at around 18:00.
Some very close racing is expected, and the public are most welcome to view this free event: the best vantage point being from the sea wall by the Canoe Lake.
What a shame Newport RC does very little these days, they were once a great club