Steve goes sea-racing in Salerno

Back in February, X-Press put out a call for men “over 27, big, strong and very fit” to join them in an inaugural Vets Sprint regatta on a lagoon in the sea off Salerno, near Naples.  Steve Seaber answered the call and kindly wrote this report:

In a moment of madness I agreed to be part of an X-Press crew in the first Barone Negri Masters Championship in Salerno in April this year. Although scheduled as a Masters event no handicap allowance was given so our secret weapon, ‘age’, could not be used! The event was in two parts a 8 x 250m erg relay  and a 500m sprint regatta in sea boats. X-Press have been representing Cambridge in Masters events in Italy for a number of years along with a crew representing Oxford University BC. The Oxford crew this year included a member of the 1960 Olympic squad and three members of the 2012 Blue Boat along with other former dark blue squad members.

The erg relay was held in the local IKEA store as part of a promotional event to encourage involvement in Junior and Adaptive rowing. The only way to describe the event is mayhem. We averaged 44 second splits at a ridiculous rating and managed to finish 4th of the 8 crews taking part, Oxford finished 2nd.

On Sunday morning 12 crews raced along a two lane regatta course protected in a lagoon that ran parallel to the promenade and attracted a large crowd.

Steve preparing to row in a sea racing VIII

The ‘highlight’ was the Oxford v Cambridge race. Oxford took a short lead but then – in an experience some of the crew had experienced before – crashed. The cox steering them into the lane rope causing crabs and damage to two stretchers. Needless to say ‘Cambridge’ pressed on to the finish line. Oxford were given a rerun on ‘technical grounds and their time allowed to count which put them into the 3rd/4th place race which they won.  Unfortunately we probably didn’t push as hard as we should after the crash and were placed 6th on time. Our split at 200m was only 0.3 seconds slower so suggests we were pretty competitive.

The hospitality for the rowers and supporters was absolutely first class, good Italian cooking, very drinkable Italian wine which was only interrupted by a couple of rowing events. I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to experience rowing in different boats and a different environment. I am very grateful for those members of X-Press who didn’t want to go!!