Rowing & Sculling Boats

Used TurboSkiff for sale

6 months old, hardly used TurboSkiff rowing boat in blue is being offered for sale for £1,499 (list price is currently £1,865 so this is excellent value), including TurboTrolley and a pair of carbon fibre racing oars.

The owner, a former Yole owner, is off travelling abroad and may not decide to come back. So although he likes the boat he cannot take it with him.

Call me if you are interested on 0870 770 2728.

Henley Royal Regatta

Anybody looking out for me rowing up and down the course in a Yole this year will have been disappointed. With Manchester University getting through their first round in the Temple Challenge Cup I was understandably preoccupied the first couple of days. Then there was the weather. I cannot remember a henley when the head wind blew so strongly for the whole regatta. And of course there were the heavy showers. No way I was going to risk being on the water in my best bib & tucker.

But what an eventful regatta. Manchester Uni continue to make steady progress each year. This is the first time that MUBC have entered two eights in the regatta. It is also the first time in my memory that we have won a race at the regatta though I am willing to stand corrected by some old boy who knows better on the condition that he stumps up a large sum of money and joins the alumni. We beat and Imperial College crew in which Helen Mangan's son, Olly, was rowing at 6. Helen is an ex-lightweight international and still active. In fact she was sculling in the Princess Grace Challenge Cup at the regatta. This is the first time that a mother and son have both been rowing in the same Henley Royal Regatta.

Next year MUBC will still have six of this year's 1st eight and 6 or 7 of this year's 2nd eight 5 of whom were in the winning BUSA novice eight. And with Manchester Uni and UMIST merging we will have 50,000 students to choose from so we stand a good chance of being good enough to become one of the selected crews. This should make reaching the 1/4 final easier and the semifinal or even the final a distinct possibility.

Watch this space.

Other noteworthy events at the regatta included the bowman of the Harvard crew in our event jumping overboard after his sliding seat got stuck. Good series of photos of this catastrophe on BigBlade.

Then there was the disqualification of Mitsubishi Rowing Club from the Thames Cup. It was a shame for these boys as they were a good crew. Too good it turned out for the event. The rules preclude the use of internationals in Thames Cup crews and guess what...

What you might not have guessed is that the Empress of Japan was the guest of honour the day of the disqualification. She never got to see her excellent crew race.