Dart Gig Club
Some time after Waterloo, Wellington was asked to describe the course of the battle; he was reputed to have replied that he may as well describe the course of a ball. The point being that to pick out individual actions within a large event may be futile.
The same applies to the World Pilot Gig Champion-ships of 2018. The regatta, which was held over three days around the May bank holiday on the Scillies, almost defeats dissection. It is a gesamkunstwerk, a totally immersive experience combining prolonged expectation, athletic endeavor, intoxicating and sublime landscape, superb chilli and for some intense refreshment.
Dart Gig Club attended in force this year, bringing crews of all descriptions comprising more than 50 competitors.
These were treated to benign racing conditions of light swell and, against
the forecast expectation, delectable sunshine.
The curtain-raisers to this feast of the senses on Friday evening are the vets’ and supervets’ races, to which Dart presented four crews manning Volante and Smudger.
After the dust had settled, the club emerged with the ladies supervets fifth, vets 15th, the men supervets 17th and vets sixth. These were all worthy positions, hard fought for, placing the club firmly in the middle of the competitive section of the gig fleet.
Saturday’s racing was freighted with great expectation – had the intense winter training shifted the established hierarchy of the gig world in Dartmouth’s favour, or would the old pattern persist?
Four races of focused hurly-burly ensued on the sun-kissed Scillies roads, at the end of which, the ladies’ A crew had lodged themselves in 19th, the B crew 66th and Lightning 115th.
The men were 17th, 24th, 101st and 116th. The men’s C team, rowing Ajax, on loan from Britannia Royal Naval College, were relieved to
be both afloat and to have some clear blue water between themselves and the supervets, who were keen to take a scalp.
The challenge on Sunday morning, after a pensive night’s sleep, was for all of
the crews to smash the glass ceilings above them and
climb to higher categories, as clearly overall victory or top three placements were improbable.
Unfortunately, all were denied this dash for glory by the cancellation of the placing race, as low-lying cloud shrouded the isles.
Afternoon brought the intervention of the weather gods and dazzling sunlight burnt through the murk. Cheering gig crews rushed to their brightly coloured boats and slashed the whale road with well-balanced oars.
After extreme exertions, however, the overall positions were altered little: men’s A down one, B up three, Ajax 116, Lightning 120. The top women’s crew went to 23, the B to 71 and C 131. But mere statistics paint the shallowest of images – the picture that remains is of a vast and beautiful canvas, good times and good fellowship.