CPGA World Championships - Scillies 2025

Rowing gigs on the Isles of Scillies at the World Championships is always a special experience, but 2025 will go down as a particularly memorable one…

On Friday, with no vets, super vets or masters crews entered for this year, members of the London Cornish contingent were left to spectate the racing in perfect sea conditions and prepare for the action on Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday morning saw the running of the age category finals and it quickly became apparent that racing conditions would be ‘challenging’ to put it mildly. For the St Agnes long race, we would need to battle waves, a 30 mph headwind and the flow of the tide. I heard from several people that these conditions were some of the worst they’d seen at this event and that even a crew of grizzled Scillonians would have most likely called things off if it was a training row… Two participating crews had to be towed back to shore by the RNLI because they were unable to make progress due to the sea conditions.

Both London Cornish crews coped admirably, crossing the line with respectable placings despite returning from the ordeal a little shell shocked at the challenging sea conditions with tales of caught crabs and Phoenix sloshing with half the Atlantic ocean aboard…

In the first of the shorter Nut Rock races, the sun was out but with the waves and wind approaching from the side, there was some serious rudder wrestling required by coxes Clare and Tim. Both men’s and women’s crews held their places in groups J and H respectively and finished the day proud of having ‘survived’ a tough days racing and, in Tom’s case, sporting a blister so gruesome it elicited a wince from the medic whom I visited for a patch up. A proud moment indeed.

Sunday saw much calmer conditions but no let up in the drama.

The men put in a strong showing, finishing towards the top of their group. Alas, a missed buoy on the finish line meant relegation to group K, after a tense wait to understand whether we’d be allowed to take part in our last race at all…

Every cloud and all that, as their enforced relegation to Group K meant the men were significantly stronger than the surrounding pack and stormed to victory in their final race, boat lengths ahead of their nearest competitors. A podium visit and trophy the reward for a weekend of highs and lows, literally and figuratively!

In their third Nut Rock race, the ladies held off Cockleshell RM and Kober to improve their position in Group H, finishing 92^nd, no doubt motivated by Abby’s playlist on the row out to the starting line.  In the final race, the ladies left nothing in the tank, crossing the line 10^th in Heat H and in 94^th place overall.

The raft up celebrations were amazing fun, sharing fizz, rum and port with over 120 other crews in fancy dress (the ladies shared their red sparkly baseball caps with the men’s crew) and standing our oars to cheer the Helford ladies and Looe men’s crew over the line as worthy winners of Heat A.

Once Phoenix was safely loaded on to the trailer, the celebrations continued at The Atlantic and The Mermaid well in to the night (for some) and back at Longstone Lodge for the rest of us.

Thank you to everyone who made the weekend what it was. A particular shout out goes to Tim and Clare, our coxes, and Steve who generously towed Phoenix all the way down to Penzance. As ever, a special weekend that I would recommend to anyone who wants to compete in that the pinnacle event for our sport!  There really is nothing else quite like it.