About
A Little History On The Club
The River Teign Rowing Club was formed in the autumn of 1994. There have been fiercely contested rowing races on the Teign for about 200 years and the formation of a club was well overdue. Most of the racing prior to the formation of the club was in the one- or two-man Shaldon Regatta dinghy, with a “work boat race” held once a year as part of the regatta.
The boats used for this event were the original seine boats. Crews would arrange the loan of the working fishing boats for the day and modify them for the race. Extra seats had to be put in to accommodate four rowers. Blocks of wood would have holes drilled into them and then be clamped to the gunwales to hold rowlocks in place. The cox would sit either on the transom or on a beach chair fitted precariously to the stern.
By 1994 the Shaldon Regatta Committee had commissioned the building of two glass fibre copies of the wooden boats and the seeds of the rowing club were sown.
Each year since its inception the club has organised a series of about nine races for men, ladies and juniors. Each crew is awarded points for its place in each race and the winning teams are those with the least points at the end of the season.
In August 1998 the Cornish pilot gig Jeannie was added to the club fleet, on long term loan from Teignmothian in exile (across the Tamar!), George Payne. She was built in Mevagissey in 1990 and originally called the Sally, raced by the Mounts Bay Gig Club. In the summer of 2000, the club launched a new gig Teign Spirit, commissioned and generously loaned to the club by Bert & Lisa Blank. In 2001 Bert and Lisa also loaned us another new gig Double Dutch which now gave us three boats to represent our club. These boats took the club took us from strength to strength and in subesqent years we have had notable success in the County and World Championships.
In 2008 we applied to the Sports for All Lottery Funding to obtain a new Gig, we were granted the award and then had to fundraise to attain our goal of a New Gig which we have named “Morgan”. She was launched on 1st March in Teignmouth around the town by proud members and the Teignmouth Community Choir who sang a song especially composed by David Haines. She was built in Dartmouth by B & A Pomeroy and we have a blog following the progress of her build from start to finish.