Former Shanklinite Brian Silsbury, who now lives in California, rowed for Shanklin Sandown Club in the 1950s. Here he shares more of his memories from that time. Ed
‘Time and tide wait for no man’, goes the hackneyed phrase. Clearly, time and tides had not waited for me or the rest of the crews of the Shanklin Sandown Rowing Club.
By 1964 the original 1958 crew had returned from national service and, along with new members who made a second crew, regularly attended races on the Island and Mainland.
The Novices
Now in our mid twenties, both crews still rowed as novices. Rowing in seat three in Pat Glover’s crew, I was asked to substitute for Bowman Dick Hale in the other crew stroked by Alan Wigmore. Alan had entered the crew in the forthcoming Poole ARA Regatta.
This would be the final Hants and Dorset ARA points’ regatta of the season and the last chance for either crew to win junior status.
Not having the ability to get our coastal four to Poole, we contacted Poole Rowing Club and secured a boat and blades for the event.
A distant relative
Well before the race start, we met the Poole vice captain at the club house. “Here is the ancient coastal four I mentioned; I think she is seaworthy. It is several years since she’d seen the light of day or been afloat,” he said with a grin. We mumbled our thanks and got to work.
A thick layer of dust hid the surface of the hull. After washing her down, we could see the surface was sound. We spun her over and were excited to see it was an old centre seat configuration.
Ironically, she was identical to our own coastal four, Westover 8 and was probably built by the same boat builder. We checked our rowing positions and were relieved that the seats, straps and outriggers were in good condition.
Aboard and strapped in, we rowed slowly out and practiced starting.
Second place was not good enough
We were comfortable with the boat, winning all our heats and reaching the Novice finals along with five other crews. Normally boisterous, we were quiet and focused because we simply had to win; second place was not good enough.
We had raced for over ten years and still felt nervous at the start. We fidgeted in our seats, re-checked the foot-straps, re-checked the lock nuts on the gates and rechecked the sliding motion of our seats.
High on anticipation
Tension mounted as the last finalist joined us at the starting line. The atmosphere was electric as the coxes fussily shouted last minute instructions to get their boats straightened up. Our cox raised his arm to signal we were not ready, “touch it up Bow – gently now.” His arm came down as we gently drifted straight.
Immediately the Starter called out the starting sequence as he raised his flag. “I shall ask you once. Are you ready? Row.”
Find out what happened next in Part Two.
