100th Anniversary of Round the Island Row

The 25th August, 2001 will mark the one hundredth anniversary of what is believed to be one of the earliest ever rows around the Isle of Wight and the first fully documented round the Island row by a crew from Ryde Rowing Club. While there is some evidence of an earlier row around the Island in 1880 the 1901 row is the first where a full record or the row exists.

The distance around the Island if a crew keeps exactly to course is 48.7 sea miles - 56.05 statute miles but variations in course probably bring this nearer to sixty miles. St Catherines point and the Needles are considered to be the most dangerous points on the row and "threading" the Needles is not regarded as acceptable - even if its possible - as this is not regarded as rowing completely round the Island.

In 1901 the five man crew, rowing a four oared fixed seat galley, left the Ryde Rowing Boathouse on Ryde Pier, for the fifty-six mile row, at 5.30am rowing clockwise around the Island reaching Ventnor after two hours twenty minutes at 7.50am. Here the crew took a brake, presumably going ashore, leaving Ventnor at 9.30am. They passed the Needles at 12.50pm and arrived at Yarmouth at 1.45pm where they took a second brake for an hour and a half - again presumably going ashore. They resumed the row at 3.15pm, passed Cowes at 4.40pm arriving back at the Ryde Boathouse at 6.00pm - a total rowing time of nine hours twenty minutes.

The Crew, all Ryde Rowing Club members was E. Weeks, H. P. Chiverton, H. A. Coombs, L. C. Woods and C. Copeland the cox. The specific mention of a coxswain leads us to believe that this crew probably maintained its positions in the boat and was steered by the same crew member for the complete row unlike subsequent fours rows where a five man, and in one case a six man crew, crew swapped positions, giving each crew member a "rest" for a period while coxing. This may also partly explain the two rest periods, totaling over three hours, where we believe the crew went ashore although this could equally be explained by the tidal conditions - where at certain states of the tide it would be almost impossible to row against the prevailing current forcing a stop. Subsequent successful rows around the Island by Ryde Crews have always been anticlockwise and have been based on careful calculations relating to tide times and tidal flow with the intention of reaching the Needles as the tidal flow changes so you can run with the tide to the Needles and then on to St. Catherines point.

Since the 1901 row there has been a further seven successful round the Island rows by crews from Ryde Rowing Club. In 1928 a crew of 6 men, four rowing, 1 coxing and one "resting" lowered the time to 9hours 15 minutes. and in 1932 a five-man crew (4 rowing, 1 coxing, but swapping over) lowered the record again to 8 hours 40 minutes. Four years later, in 1936, R. F. Austin and G. L. Jaye completed a remarkable fixed seat pair oared row in 10 hours 43 minutes. Following a gap for the war years a five-man crew of I. Honess, R Stafford, J. Bell, R. Howe and R. Fountaine succeeded in knocking the record down to 8 hours 21 minutes. A second crew completed the row in 9 hours 58 minutes on the same day. This record stood for sixteen years in spite of a brave attempt in 1964 when a crew of J, Webber, D. Sexton, V. New, M. Tucker and J. Dear completed the row in 8 hours 38 minutes. In 1965, four of the same crew, with R. Terry replacing M. Tucker lowered the time to 8 hours 6 minutes. In 1979 after another break of fourteen years the first crew to attempt the row in a Sliding Seat Coastal four, consisting of S. Bull, J. Adams, P. Young, R. Haward and Cox G. Reeve completed the row in 8 hours 17 minutes. A second row in a sliding seat boat in 1995 with a crew of S. Cook, S. Dear (son of J. Dear from the 1964 and 1965 crew), T. Hayles and J. Grundy, with H. Dear as Cox lowered the record to 7 hours 57 minutes and this remains the current record time. Finally in 1999 the first all Ladies Crew, back in a fixed seat galley, consisting of 4 Ladies rowing and one resting - J. Hanks, T. Hersey-Page, K. West, N. Orchard, and S. Woods - and S. Hickman coxing completed the row in a time of 10 hours 20 minutes.

Steve Bull