Borth Rowing Club

Borth Rowing Club are entering the 2010 Celtic Challenge.

The Celtic Challenge is a rowing race from Arklow, Ireland to Aberystwyth, Wales, a distance of about 90 nautical miles.

Borth set off at 2pm on Friday 30th April with the Mixed and Ladies teams, but unfortunately had an issue with the Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB), which is used to transfer crews from the support boats to the Rowing boat. The RIB's outboard engine failed to start when we tried to initiate our first transfer. Whilst the first crew continued to row efforts were made to fix the boat, and we also came up with a stop-gap method for transferring using the boat tethered to the Support Boats. We eventually made a crew change after a valiant two hour effort from the first crew. The next crew rowed for one and a half hours, whilst a mechanic came to look at the outboard.

After  three and a half hours the Mechanic told us that there was nothing he could do whilst at sea. Reluctantly, we made a decision that in the increasing swell and with an overnight row ahead we couldn't continue to transfer safely without a fully functioning RIB.

Our attempt was therefore called off and the second crew was taken with some difficulty onto the support boats. 

We continued on to Aberystwyth in the support boats towing the RIB and our Celtic Longboat.