On August 9th several members of the Club participated in a cutter race organised by the Thames Traditional Rowing Association. This is an account of how things went for the women’s crew rowing for The Water Conservatory and integrated by Andrea, Phoebe, Amy, Nathalie, Bernarda, Bev, Johnny Dwan as a cox and Bernarda´s nephew Mariano as passenger.
When I was invited to this race I did some googling and found out that a cutter is a wooden rowing boat with fixed seats whose design was based on drawings of boats used by the watermen of London in the 1700. It can be rigged for up to six oarsmen either rowing or sculling and has space for passengers and a cox. The race started at Temple Pier and finished at Chelsea Harbour. It seemed like a great opportunity to paddle along some of the most iconic landmarks of London and also to get as close as I think I will ever be to knowing what it feels to do Doggetts, a race with so much history at the Club. I therefore gladly grabbed this opportunity and did not regret it. There was pain, mostly self-inflicted, but also a lot of laughs and good times.
We raced another three boats. The race began around 06:35 PM. We had a good start and were gaining on the other crews until – shame on me – I caught a massive crab. The crew had to stop as I could not figure out how to get the damn oar out of the water. So clearly not a rower! I eventually managed to do so and working at the solid pace stroked by Andrea we were able to make up for the time lost.
Things were looking pretty good as we gradually gained distance from our nearest competitor until Johnny, in all his steering wisdom decided to take us under the first arch of Victoria Bridge only to find our way blocked by a couple of barges, surprise surprise! Fortunately he spotted them just in time to have us do a tight turn and steer the boat into the second arch. Crisis averted, the crew closest to us gained some distance but we still remained in a comfortable first place.
No rest for the wicked as shortly afterwards disaster struck and we ran aground at Battersea Reach. Where that sandbank came from nobody knows, the water hid it really well! Johnny promptly jumped off, pushed us back into the water but then, as the boat started moving away from him the tiller fell. What to do, grab the tiller, jump on the boat? Doing both seemed impossible but somehow Johnny managed. It wasn’t pretty, but it sure was effective! While all this happened we sat there, laughing a bit but also feeling helpless as we watched the second place pass us and row away.
It was time to summon the Poplar fighting spirit! With about two kms to go we figured we still had a chance to win the race, that is of no other mishaps happened. Andrea upped the rate, we counted the strokes, Johnny yelled encouragement at us, we yelled at him when he didn’t, we all pushed as hard as we cold and we eventually caught the boat and won our race.
After the race we met with George and Ben who had also raced on a men’s crew, and also met with Joelle who raced on a mixed crew. We all came aboard a beautiful wooden pleasure boat where drinks, food and a lovely ride back to Blackfriars’ awaited. A wonderful ending for a memorable afternoon.
