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2024 was another good year of Coastal Racing in Sussex and Kent. 8 of 10 regattas were held, with the only Dover and Hastings were cancelled due to weather.

It was a successful year for the rowers at Shoreham, who took both the big prizes – The Grand Aggregate and the CARA League. But they certainly didn’t have it all their own way, as some of the biggest wins and best results went to other clubs, and we must mention Deal men’s long awaited, hard fought and thoroughly deserved victory in the South Coast Championships as the stand out moment moment of the year.

In the men’s events, Deal were were the senior club to beat, taking 18 wins out of a possible 21 in Men’s senior events. With only their ‘B’ crew challenging them in Senior Fours and Herne Bay taking just a single win in pairs in single sculls. Shout out to Shoreham for taking a token, but significant for them, first men’s senior pairs victory in over 15years. Deal also won the men’s Junior Single Sculls championship to further strengthen their challenge in the men’s senior event (which they won for another consecutive season) next year.

Elsewhere in the Men’s rowing events Shoreham dominated J/S Fours, and Bexhill and Folkestone had some great racing for Junior Fours, the title going to Bexhill 3-2 in the end. Though Folkstone proved their prowess in Pairs, taking a clean sweep of all 8 possible wins. Men’s double sculls was a welcome addition to the calendar at a number of regattas this year, but was not held as a ‘status’ event (with a championship outcome).

On the Women’s side, 2025 saw some really close races and some very close calls in championship events too. With only one championship (Junior Fours – Shoreham) looking one sided. In the Women’s Senior rowing events, Deal took the Fours Championship 5-2 against Shoreham, with many races were close run and entertaining to watch and Shoreham took the Pairs Championship, despite it looking like Worthing’s to lose all year.

Women’s sculling events grew this year with Women’s Junior Singles a status event available at all regattas, and it was great to see rowers from all clubs support both the Novice and Junior events. The Novice event, was a three way tie between Bexhill, Worthing and Hastings, which bodes well for participation next year in the Junior event. Women’s Masters racing took a more prominent place this year with Masters 40+ a Championship Event for the first time, the inaugural win going to Shoreham 3-2 in a close battle with Herne Bay.

Here’s to lots more close racing in 2025.

The COVID-19 pandemic which has blighted so many lives, finally appears to be lessening its grip on the UK, and for us that means a return of rowing regattas on the South Coast. No regattas were held during 2020 and the first half of the 2021 season was also cancelled. However, as of the 11th of July 2021, we are back up and running!

Folkestone had the honour of being the first post-COVID race, after Worthing lost out owing to the lockdown extension.

We’re so pleased to be back and are looking forward to many more races to come this year and beyond.

Thomas Barwell and Victoria Ward of Deal Rowing Club have broken the world record for the longest tandem ergometer row (Heavyweight Mixed 19 and Under). They together kept a single rowing machine running for 37 Hours straight, which is incredible!

The 2019 calendar is now on the website, go to ‘Competition’ -> 2019 Race calendar to see or click here 2019 Calendar

The last time Hastings rowing club held Hastings Regatta was back in 2012. This year the club triumphantly held the regatta again in celebration of their 150th anniversary.

A number of CARA clubs sent representatives to take part in the second British Rowing Indoor Championships on Sat 12th December 2015  – with some excellent results for the coast against rowers from across the UK.

The coast’s top result came early in the day, with Shoreham’s Charlotte Pigg taking home the British Champion title, cruising to gold in the women’s 30-39 2k category in a time of 7mins 17secs, significantly ahead of the other competitors in her field.

Shoreham’s Charlotte Pigg taking the Gold Medal at the British Rowing Indoor Championships 2015 – credit Naomi Baker

Shoreham also produced two other medal winners, with bronzes from Sarah Faith in the women’s 30-39 lightweight category and from Max Huxtable in the open men’s lightweight competition. The latter had a storming start, matching the eventual winner GB rower Richard Chambers stroke for stroke over the first 500m.However, unable to maintain the pace set by the full-time GB athlete, Max would eventually take the bronze medal;  an impressive performance against one of the nation’s best lightweight rowers.

Max Huxtable’s storming start in the open men’s lightweight competition

Eastbourne’s Steve Turner took home CARA’s final medal – a bronze in the men’s 50-54 category with an impressive 6:32.6.

Alongside the CARA competitors there were impressive sights as the GB mens eight battled it out in the open 2k event – a huge time from Moe Sbihi as he took Matthew Pinsent’s long-standing British record.

A huge congratulations to CARA’s medal winners, and to everyone who took part in the event. Other times were impressive against stiff national competition and show the strength of the coastal rowers.

Full results from the CARA competitors below:

Medal winners in bold

Congratulations to Reece, Owen and Luke Mullaney from Deal Rowing Club who this weekend completed an epic sponsored cycle ride from Southsea to Herne Bay in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust.

The ‘CARA Unites Against Cancer’ event was dreamt up by the trio, and saw them stop at every CARA rowing club across the two days, being joined on each leg by one or two members of each club.

The boys’ efforts to unite the association in fundraising has been fantastic – to donate to their cause click here.

We’ve got a new website! So we at CARA have finally succumbed to pressure from members to update the website and bring a more up to date experience to current and potential rowers from the South East.

We think our new website is a great step forward and will allow anyone to understand what we do, why we do it and to see how our clubs are progressing both in the league and via posting event on our news page.

Please bear with us while we finalise this new design and get to grips with the site, while we do this we will gratefully receive all constructive feedback.

WE NEED YOU!

Whilst we have a new website to shout about we need help from our members to maintain and update it, please get in touch (using the contact page) if you are willing to help!