Around 70 members of Salcombe Estuary Rowing Club made the trip to the World Pilot Gig Championships, held annually in the Isles of Scilly over the May day bank holiday weekend.

This is the highlight of the gig rowing calendar. Four thousand rowers and 140 boats participated in three days of intensely competitive sprint races and Salcombe achieved what was probably their best set of results to date, with all areas of the club improving on last year's performance.

The club fielded a total of 11 crews in the various events.

The first race on Friday was the ladies' veterans (over 40) and they set the tone for the weekend by putting in the best result the vets have ever achieved.

Two crews competed and the crew rowing in Wolf came a very close third place out of 53 boats, losing out on second place to Helford by just six inches after 1.6 miles of rowing.

The other crew, in Bolt, were placed 23rd, having been trapped on the outside of the field and aggravated by wash from spectator boats.

The crews give special thanks to Martin Fletcher for organising their weekly circuit training sessions to improve their fitness for the event.

The Wolf crew's achievement was outstanding given that they were rowing in a 15-year-old training boat but managed to finish high in a field of former champions racing in brand new boats preserved for the purpose of racing.

The men's veterans also rowed two crews, finishing 15th and 27th in a field of 48.

Saturday and Sunday are the men's and ladies' open races, the first of which are the greatest spectacle of the weekend.

The crews race over the same 1.6-mile course as the veterans did the previous day, but this time the starting line-up is nearly 130 boats spread across a mile of sea, all aiming for a finish line 100 yards wide.

The finish is a deafening sound of oars against pins, the screaming of coxes and the cheering of spectators.

The Salcombe ladies' A crew finished in 11th place, putting them in the prestigious group A for the following heats and exceeding even their own expectations.

This crew featured a mother-and-daughter pairing of Phillipa Howitt-Wotton and Dani Howitt. Mother Phillipa rowed in the Salcombe crew that finished in third place in 2003! By the Sunday afternoon they had dropped a group and then regained their place to finish 11th in the group A final.

Like the ladies' veterans before them, they were competing at the very top of the sport among a field of outstanding clubs that have dedicated racing boats and a wealth of off-water support such as nutritionists, sports therapists and indoor rowing coaches.

The men's crews suffered a blow just before the championships when an A crew member was trapped on Alderney in the Channel Islands because of work commitments and couldn't make it to the competition on time.

The crews were rejigged to fill his space at the last minute but adjusted well, with the A team dropping a few places in the heats to finish 30th, the best finish in recent years for a Salcombe men's crew in an increasingly competitive environment.

The Sunday racing saw some of the calmest conditions in recent years and meant flat-out exhausting races for all the crews involved.

There were some excellent performances all round, the men's B crew rowing Wolf improved as the weekend progressed, won their group F heat and jumped up to group E to finish 58th overall.

The ladies B crew finished 36th. The Ladies C crew also jumped up from group H to G to finish 78th and the Ladies D crew won Group I to finish in group H. The men's C crew finished 92nd.

Salcombe now have to wait for their gigs to be shipped back from the Isles of Scilly before they can return to their schedule of summer regattas and training.