Herne Bay regatta fell on the hottest day of the year and apart from the heat, conditions were perfect, with a slight offshore breeze.

After some success at Eastbourne the previous day, with wins in Novice Ladies, Junior Ladies and J16 Quad Sculls and second places in Men’s Senior Fours and J14 Quad Sculls, HBARC started their home regatta well with a first and second in the Under-16s Quad Sculls event. Lucas Potterton, Joe Wareham, Adam Taylor and James Dawkins, coxed by Sam Epps, took first place, with Amanda Waters, Danielle Geeves, Lauren Geeves and Lydia Potterton, coxed by Phoebe Shilling, coming a close second. Geeves, Geeves and Potterton were joined by Sarah Harvery and went on to win the Ladies Novice Fours event later in the day.

William Campbell, Leyton Potterton, Lawrence Cox and Dave Stevens, coxed by Lucas Potterton, won the Men’s Novice Fours event and won their novice medals and promotion to Junior status. They were, however, disqualified in the Mens’ Junior Fours event for having the wrong number on their boat.

Bexhill continue to dominate in the hotly contested Men’s Senior Fours category. Herne Bay’s A crew of Ryan Hosking, Tom Glynn, Ben Smissen and Daniel Ritchie came second, with the B crew of Andy Cooper, Ashley Epps, Darren Ingram and Mark Simmonds coming fourth. Smissen and Glynn were also to come second to Bexhill in the Men’s Senior Pairs event and Ritchie went on to win Men’s Junior Sculls.

Herne Bay’s Ladies Junior Four continue to do well, with a second place at their home regatta. With one of the regular crew injured and one absent Samantha Epps and Phoebe Shilling were joined by Amanda Waters and Lydia Potterton.

Ashley Epps won Men’s Novice sculls event and was presented with the Andy Giles Memorial Trophy, in memory of the popular HBARC member who sadly passed away earlier this year.

At the end of the regatta HBARC had scored enough points across the board to come second in all four aggregate trophies (Ladies, Junior, Senior and Grand). The next CARA regatta is at Worthing on 3rd July.

Report thanks to Helen Kelly

Additional Results