Cool Rowings crew just hold off fast-finishers
THE second handicap race of 2019 brought another novice victory as Cool Rowings just about held off a challenge from the fast-closing Swoffers duo.
Racing around the 9.8km Lower Heads course in lumpy conditions and battling some chop around the signature buoy, mixed quad Cool Rowings made use of their early start to take the first finish horn at 1hr 13min. 31sec. on the race clock.
Their start-to-finish time for the course was 1-04-31 off a nine-minute handicap.
They did have to put a shift on, though, to hold off Pierre Mahy and Chris Markham as the later-starting duo also surpassed their seeding and came in just 7sec. behind.
Men’s doubles Pipe and Mosley completed the podium after a solid performance.
In terms of speed in the water, no one could match the ‘Tim and Trav’ men’s double – even with a not insignificant change to the crew.
James Travers continued to impress, providing the stroke behind a crew that claimed the fastest time of the day by nearly two minutes, although with a different racing partner this time around.
With usual suspect Tim Nicolle absent, he instead called upon Tom de Kooker to cover the course in 47-14 on a day where Briggs and Pearce also rowed faster than quad championship leader Just Stroke It.
James Tipper, who normally races ‘Sexy and We Row It’ alongside Rob Hall, produced a respectable solo row within a good-sized fleet of 24 boats.
