Young Guns at Collaroy
The Collaroy International Young Guns Surfboat carnival was held last weekend; this carnival is for male surfboat rowers in the U/19’s & U/23’s divisions and female rowers in the U/23’s. Bulli were represented with one crew in each of the three divisions and displayed great surfboat speed throughout the day. With very flat conditions all day and very little wind, there was no room for error and all racing came down to boat speed.
With all crews qualifying through the three round, round robin formatt, the U/19s progressed straight through to the semi-final. The U/23 men and U/23 women contested the quarter-final with the women progressing to the semi. After a great row by the 23 men’s crew on a very uneven course and being eliminated, officials decide to run a repecharge round due to the uneven course which our boys won convincingly.
The 23 women’s campaign ended in the Semi-final after a “not so great start” but the crew showed great boat speed and proved they are definitely a threat this season and they would like to thank Allana Roscoe for filling in for them again this season. Both the boys crews qualified through the semi-final with a 1st place from the 19’s and a 3rd place from the 23’s to get a start in the final.
With ally two being the worst ally of the day, funny enough both Bulli crews drew…… ally two. The 23’s lead the final and turned first, to watch four crews skip away on runs on the return leg finishing in 5th place. The crew would like to thank Curtis Allnutt for filling for this carnival who produced a huge effort over the 8 races on the day. The U/19’s, being in the same ally as the 23’s had the same story; turning a very close second, again there were no runs in ally two, and they too watched other crews skip away on runs coming home. The boys dug deep to finish a very respectable 4th.
With the flat conditions and the best crews attending, this carnival did show that all three crews are up there with the best in each division. There is still work to be done, but we’re looking good heading into the business end of the season.
All the rowers would like to thank fellow members that assisted with patrol swaps on this particular Sunday.