Three Rivers Race 2025 – Saltash

Write up by Jenny Bousfield, Ladies Captain

Traditionally used as the race that teams measure their winter training against and select their world championships teams from, the race hosted by Caradon gig club did not disappoint.

Under the double bridges designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, over 96 boats raced, with some of the bigger teams fielding as many as 6 crews with the help of some borrowed boats.

The wind was an easterly, which required a bit of effort in some of the more open parts of the race and the tide was both a blessing and a curse at different stages of the race.

The ladies set off first in a strong heat in which we were joined by a fellow Jurassic league club in the shape of Lyme Regis. Falmouth also had a crew in our heat, but our ladies put in a valiant shift and finished in 53rd place with a time of 1:1:04 which was slightly faster than their time of last year. As for the men, they had an equally strong heat finishing in 50th place with a time of 54:18. The two results combined meant Portland finished in 51st place with a combined time of 1:55:21.

A massive thank you goes to our cox for the day, Darren Howard. Darren spent virtually the whole day on water coxing both the men and ladies crews with very little time in between races.

For some of our crew it was their first time taking part in this unique event, so a big well done to them.

And finally thank you to Kirsty and Nigel for towing the boat down to Saltash.

Three Rivers…..see you again in 2026!