Weather improvement welcome relief for rowers in toughest marathon ever

At last rowers in the Navy George Bass managed to row in favourable conditions a welcomed relief in what has been a chaotic week.

North Steyne women’s boat crew, moments before the sweep was flung from the boat.

Conditions at sea were perfect for surf boat rowing; unfortunately the day wasn’t without casualties.

20 Rowers ended up in the water after the Canberra Vikings ladies crew suffered a broken sweep oar rolling their boat.

Pambula rolled their boat when taking on two metre waves at Tathra.

North Steyne ladies again came to grief when their sweep fell overboard losing his sweep oar. Their boat was then hit by a solid wave and the boat careered out of control overturning in the wave break area.

Tathra rowers lost control on their return to shore at Pambula where conditions at the beach were a massive improvement to what rowers experienced earlier this week.
Three Inflatable rescue boats overturned in the conditions at Tathra throwing a total of six water safety personnel into the water.

Despite the causalities at Tathra and Pambula, conditions at sea were by far the best of the week.

It started off quite rough but things smoothed off very in the final stages of the race.

Batemans Bay men all but guaranteed first place overall with a solid win over the Canberra Vikings, Bulli and Burnie.

Bulli, Burnie and Canberra are now all left to fight for the final two places with only three points separating the crews. The closeness will make for very interesting racing tomorrow.

Woolamai continued their dominating form defeating the Canberra Vikings, Moruya and Bermagui.

With first place well and truly in the bag they will be looking to finish the Navy George Bass undefeated.

Batemans Bay Ski paddler Kurt Jones has also all but guaranteed first position with four wins so far.

All rowers have bounced back well from their hypothermia symptoms yesterday and were able to complete the race.

Race organiser Bert Hunt said by far this has been the most challenging and toughest marathon he had ever seen.

“Everyone has been challenged both physically and mentally all week,” he said.

“The conditions would have had to have been the most extreme we have faced.

“Bringing the event inland on Tuesday I believe was the right thing to do, we would have had a dangerous and difficult time coping with conditions.”

“On Wednesday our water safety guys were really stretched to the limit as were our medical team yesterday dealing with the hypothermia cases.”

“Today unfortunately wasn’t without incident we had a couple of people injured and several boats go over throwing rowers into the water but that is the nature of surf boat rowing.”

“When the rowers enter they know it is going to be the longest and toughest thing they will probably ever do and it would be a massive cop out to run the event inland it is an ocean event so we need to get them out in the water.”

Mr Hunt said every single day had been challenging for everyone involved not just the rowers.

“And the fact now we are nearing the end of the marathon is a testament to everyone we haven’t had any major injuries or damage.”

Results Day Five Navy George Bass

Open Men’s

First: Batemans Bay 2 hours 12 minutes 12 seconds

Second: Bulli 2 hours 13 minutes 47 seconds

Third: Canberra Vikings 2 hours 14 minutes 07 seconds

Fourth: Burnie 2 hours 14 minutes 53 seconds

Fifth: North Steyne2 hours 17 minutes 03 seconds

Sixth: Narooma 2 hours 18 minutes 09 seconds

Seventh: Bulli Vets 2 hours 20 minutes 41 seconds

Eighth: Tathra 2 hours 28 minutes 04 seconds

Ninth: Pambula 2 hours 37 minutes 24 seconds

Tenth: Port Kembla 2 hours 42 minutes 08 seconds

Open Women’s

First: Woolamai 2 hours 28 minutes 07 seconds

Second: Canberra Vikings 2 hours 30 minutes 24 seconds

Third: Moruya ladies 2 hours 36 minutes 55 seconds

Fourth: Bermagui 2 hours 42 minutes 28 seconds

Fifth: Broulee 2 hours 51 minutes 43 seconds

Sixth: North Steyne 3 hours 01 minutes 42 seconds