A ladies' crew from Dartmouth sponsored by Noss Marina took part in the first seine boat race of the 2012 series in Teignmouth, last Saturday evening.

The 'seine boats' used for the races are a fibreglass copy of the traditional 17ft-long, clinker-built wooden rowing boats that have been used for several hundreds of years to catch shellfish from the Teign Estuary using salmon seine nets.

They are rowed by a crew of four with a coxswain. Since 1994 the River Teign Rowing Club has organised a race series using these seine boats.

This now is a hotly contested but very friendly competition between local crews, comprising nine events held between April and August.

Last Saturday's race, the first in this year's series, was held from the back beach at Teignmouth.

After the coxswains' meeting at 5pm the crews rowed round to the start line in the sea off the end of the pier.

The course took the boats out along the seafront in the direction of Dawlish to turn three marks then back in towards the estuary, turning in to the mouth of the river Teign and finishing off the back beach.

The Noss Ladies crew of Tracy Sharam, Alison Bland, Halina Brown and Cindy John, cox'd by Colin Brown, started well and were in a group of boats contesting third place for much of the first leg of the course.

They dug deep and caught up with the leading boat, pulling slightly ahead by the first buoy, gaining water and the advantage to turn.

They rowed well in the tricky conditions with a strong wind causing an awkward choppy sea.

They held position around the other turns and extended their lead with a good stroke rate as they rowed back into the river with the incoming tide.

The crew were well pleased with their win over the field of 20 crews and it puts them in a good position for the summer's racing.