After a term of race cancellations due to weather conditions, this past weekend saw DUBC kick of their season racing at Rutherford Head, as well as hosting a fixture against Molesey and Edinburgh on the Tyne.
On Saturday, DUBC came out in full force to compete at Rutherford Head, which is one of the largest races in the North of England with around 300 crews racing on the day. Division 1 kicked off with the men’s first and second eights racing down the familiar 5km course between the A1 Bridge to the Newcastle boat house steps. Conditions were near perfect with very little wind and despite the sub-zero temperatures, both crews performed well, with the 1V finishing 4th overall in a strong open division and the 2V finishing 8th in their band. Division 1 also saw a women’s quad take on the course. Crews put on very strong performances with the women’s quad finishing 2nd in their division missing out on a win by just over 3 seconds.
In division 2 it was the women’s turn to take on the track in the eights. After a very quick turn around following division 1, the women’s 1V kicked off the racing, followed by the men’s fours. The women’s eight raced well and matched the men's result finishing in 4th place in a stacked field. They were followed by 3 men's fours, 2 coxed and one coxless, all three crews produced promising results with the coxed fours finishing 2nd in band 1 and 3rd in band 2 respectively. The coxless four was the last DUBC boat to race on the day, where they raced well and finished 2nd in their category missing out on 1st by less than a second.
The weekend was not done there however, with DUBC returning to the Tyne less than 24 hours later to race in a private fixture against Edinburgh and Molesey. This was an excellent opportunity for DUBC to test their speed in a multi-lane setting.
The day started with a rate capped 3km time trial from scrapyard corner to the Newcastle Steps. The main aim of this being to speed match crews for later side by side racing. However, the men’s and women’s eights raced hard with the men’s 1V finishing 1st overall out of the men, overturning the result from Rutherford, and Women’s 1V finishing 3rd out of the Women after a strong performance.
Next was the side-by-side races, where three boats would race from a standing start over a 1km course. This was the focus of the day, and all crews performed very well and produced extremely promising results. Special mention must go to Eleanor Morris who, after an injury in the Men’s 1V, subbed into the bow seat (she’s a strokesider) for the side-by-side races.
Thank you to Edinburgh and Molesey for staying an extra day and for some fun racing. The club enjoyed getting to meet you all on Saturday evening for dinner after Rutherford’s racing.
Overall, the racing crews grew in confidence throughout the weekend and are hungry for the work that needs to be done over the Christmas period. DUBC now looks forward to the new year and the remainder of the Head Race Season.