After a gruelling week with strong southerly winds, rowers in the Navy George Bass Surfboat Marathon have now completed day five, the longest and toughest stage, in fine fashion.
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The Canberra Vikings continued their dominant form, taking out both the male and female divisions.
In the veterans class, Sydney Northern Beaches club North Steyne also remain undefeated in the marathon.
Yesterday’s 36-kilometre leg from Bermagui to Tathra proved a great challenge for many of the rowers, with one rower from Moruya suffering hypothermia.
“We got lucky with the conditions, and fortunately the southerly wasn’t as strong as predicted,” marathon director Bert Hunt said.
Leg-winning sweep for the Vikings crew, Gavin Hunt, said he was proud of his crew today.
“The guys put in a decent effort,” he said.
“We had a great day and the boys rowed exceptionally well.”
Mr Hunt said his crew essentially sprinted for the first half of the race.
“We had a couple of really good stints; the guys dug in and created a nice gap. (So) we really controlled the race.”
While the Vikings completed the race in a fast time, it took some crews well over four hours to complete it.
“Full credit to all the crews who completed today; it’s a long and tough time to row,” Hunt said.
“Just to finish today is what the Bass is all about.”
Sydney crew Avalon Beach, and Victorian crew Anglesea, were down on rowers, with only six in the crew today, but persevered in the harsh conditions.
Tomorrow, Woolamai women’s crew are hoping to dethrone the Canberra Vikings/ Caloundra crew.
“Conditions tomorrow will be good for us,” sweep Stephen Blewett said.
“We’ve managed to keep within a few boat lengths of the Vikings to date, so I hope we can cause a little upset tomorrow.”
While the Canberra Vikings men’s team is on the verge of history, with only two legs before they become the only team to twice remain undefeated for the week long event, marathon director Bert Hunt said the race was far from over.
“We have a couple of teams that are still capable of pulling the Vikings back and taking a place off them,” he said.
“Woolamai and Bulli have superb athletes in their team, but the Vikings at the moment continue to dominate proceedings.”
Mr Hunt said that conditions today would favour rival crews.
“The Vikings are great in tough weather, but we’re anticipating north-easterly winds which will help push rival crews closer to the Vikings so we could get an interesting outcome.”
