Two crews set out for Newburn on a lovely sunny Sunday morning to take part in the Great Tyne Row 2026.
Hexappeal our ladies crew with Daisy from Tyne coxing and Hexpress with Pam coxing were all ready to go in good time. Hexapppeal heading off first in glorious sunshine with Hexpress not far behind. The conditions at Newburn were perfect.
Hexappeal had a good steady row overtaking some crews on the way. Their crew thought the second half felt longer than the first with Daisy doing a great job of keeping the whole crew calm until the end!
Hexpress was going well at a good steady pace having overtaken a few crews when our rudder rope broke. Having caught the attention of one of the launches we were soon sorted and back in the race with their help. We managed to catch up with a number of crews who had overtaken us during our technical stop thanks to encouragement from Pam .
It was great to have family and friends supporting both boats at the millennium bridge and spurring us on.
Both crews had to contend with choppy and at times extremely challenging conditions as we approached the last quarter of the race. Some crew members in both boats getting quite wet as the waves came over the stern of the boats. Navigation being somewhat unclear at times coming into Tynemouth Rowing club along with the very difficult conditions caused some concern within the crews.
However both made it safely into Tynemouth with a few sore bums, aches and blisters to contend with. What a great achievement! Type1 or type 2 depending on your view point.
A big thank you to Pam for trailering and to Daisy and Pam for the excellent coxing. Also to Dave who made 8 temporary stretchers for the boats which made for a much more comfortable row and to Andrew helping at Tynemouth end. Finally thank you all for making the logistics work like clockwork allowing for a successful day!
