Race report – Head of the East, 1st March 2026

Pete Woodford and I were entered in the second 4 km division in a double scull, and racing as Mas C/D/E, grouped together to provide competition. Conditions underfoot at Denver were soft and muddy with some minor ponds in the route from the boat park to the landing stages, but the organisers had warned us to bring wellies, so no problems there. Paddling to the start was a bit of a slog uphill and into the headwind, but Pete passed the time by noting navigation markers along the way and plotting cornering lines for the way back. I took some notice, but as that wasn’t my job in the race I left it in his capable hands.

We had a long wait before the start for latecomers, but that gave Pete time to look at the opposition; ‘That City of Cambridge mixed double is really quick’… Oh well, let’s just focus and row our own race. Finally it was time to decide how many layers to take off for racing, and turn for the start. Unfortunately, Pete’s fingers had got cold during marshalling and were numb for most of the race, but I couldn’t tell, he was sculling just as accurately as usual. With little time together in the double, we decided to work into the race over the first couple of minutes and settle from there. It was great to race with the extra speed from stream and wind, and we found a good rhythm – disrupted a little by the bends but regained on the straights. With about 400 metres to go my bowside blade was snagged by a crab in a bumpy section of water, but we recovered to finish strongly.

Congratulations to our W1 crew for a W Mas C/D/E win in their 8 (hooray!), and well done to all IoERC crews who entered. In our class, the Mas D City crew won (as predicted), and we were 3rd, 33 seconds on raw time behind a home Mas C RAF/WNO crew, but only 1.2 seconds behind them on adjusted time, racing as Mas E. Did that crab bite us? No matter, another great day with IoERC on the road, racing with immaculate vibes.

Mark Goddard