CPGA Vets Championships 2026 – Brixham
Write up by Becky Matthews
On Saturday 18th July it was an early start for Amy, Shelley, Becky, Karen, Heather & Jenny (ladies captain); the Portland ladies rowing at Brixham CPGA (Cornish Pilot Gig Association) Vets (rowers over 40 years old) National Championships. Brixham is a quaint coastal town in the borough of Torbay in the county of Devon. Brixham town is built around a natural harbour which is now one of England’s largest commercial fishing fleets. We made the 84 mile journey to Brixham arriving in plenty of time for the 09:15 coxes meeting. Our friendly & always willing race cox was Allard who is affiliated with many of our local neighbouring clubs.
The race course was a marked out area around a kite shaped approximately 2.5 km. The 1st races were organised into 4 timed heats. Then following the heats were placed accordingly into groups A,B,C & D. Our 1st race we were in heat 3 & randomly selected from a collection of loan boats to row in a gig called Nipper. Nipper is a gig from Barnstable.
We sat & watched the 2 heat races before us. The nerves & angst were growing… not from the rowing… we can definitely DO that… not from the sea conditions (it was a little choppy… but nothing compared to what we have rowed… & survived in… before!) but from the organised, seemingly utter carnage & chaos of the logistics of rowers getting in & out of the whilst holding their own club oars, spare pins & water bottles from the beach, at high tide, with 2 marshalls in the sea up to their waist desperately holding on to the boats to stop them clashing together & to try to steady them to allow the rowers to change over with the high tide waves crashing! We even saw a couple of rowers go “overboard”… YIKES! (they were absolutely OK & appeared to welcome the refreshingness of falling in especially after racing in this heatwave weather!)
Unfortunately, Nipper became un-sea worthy (big hole apparently… water up past ankles!) during / following the previous 2 heats. So we breathed out our HUGE relief that we didn’t have to row a potential submarine & followed the extremely helpful Brixham members to another loan boat waiting ready & raring to go in the harbour. This gig was aptly called Harbour Spirit (a loan boat from Boscastle). We were SO grateful to have avoided the beach change over chaos & for the warm up row out of the harbour round to the start line as we were now racing in heat 4. It was a great race with a good time that positioned us into our 2nd & final race in Group C! Whoop Whoop… we weren’t last!
Luckily by the time of our 2nd race in Group C the tide had gone out so the beach change overs were serene, seamless & relaxed due to there being more room on the beach & no crashing waves! We were drawn to row in a gig called Bedehaven, a loan boat from Bude. We had another good start, but the group was competitive! At the first turn we were battling NOT to be last with a crew in Pegasus. Pegasus took the inside line which forced us out wide on the turn. We kept with them coming out of the turn all the way to the second turn, which the same happened. By this time PGRC ladies had the fire in our bellies to get past them once & for all & to keep them behind us! So coming out of the second turn we went HARD at them! We battled past them! We kept hold of that racing fire & continued HARD on the last leg towards the finishing line… during which we overtook another 3 boats!
PGRC ALWAYS finishes strong! We came 9th in Group C!
Overall PGRC Ladies represented Brixham Vets Championships achieving 33rd out of 47. That’s a definite win in my eyes!
Well Done us! We love & thrive from the race fire feeling! Bring on the next!
