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Broulee had their luck through the finals, getting through two tight semi-finals with crews all on the same wave. Sweep Rob Pollock was using his method of leaving the crew within 5m of the finish line to catapult the crew forward to edge out their rivals on the finishing line, a risky manoeuvre but one that worked on all the tight finishes.

The Chinese Cooks were swamped and their boat filled with water early in the final, while all other crews started without taking water. Broulee immediately appealed for a restart but were ignored and then set to sea seemly without hope of place. The crew knuckled down and fought back to be a boat length down in fourth place. They then got back to equal third and proceeded to gain ground coming into the wave zone.

Broulee surged at the line with commentators calling them the winners. After the judges conferred it was not to be, and Broulee had to settle for the silver.

For Pollock it was a special moment to be able to share with his stroke and son Ryan. Rob has been sweeping for nearly 30 years and to finally break the curse with his son was special.

Broulee’s under 23 women’s crew, the Lifejackets, Kiralee Ekin, Leighanna Ekin, Roxy Buchannan, Sam Desaxe and sweep/coach Rob Pollock, made it all the way to the final eight but were eliminated in the last race before the final.

The Broulee “Wild Turkeys” reserve crew, Darren Phillips, John Ivanoff, Tom Hilyear, Steve Hilyear and sweep/coach Rob Pollock, also made the finals on Sunday but were hit by illness with both the stoke and second stroke falling very ill. They were eliminated in the quarter final.

Broulee’s Gabi Phillips won a bronze medal in the Masters Open Female swim.

Phillips was competing for the first time at NSW State titles and was third in a tight race, beaten by former Olympic silver medallist Karen Phillips.

The Batemans Bay SLSC ladies masters crew won a bronze medal.

“The girls would loved to have won gold, but they’ve only been together for a year so they were happy with bronze,” sweep Neil Innes said.

The Batemans Bay open men’s crew were eliminated in the quarter finals after some close racing with the best crews in the State.

“I was disappointed because they had been racing really well,” Innes said.

The club’s under 23 crew were also eliminated in the quarter finals, after copping a boat-load of water.

Up until then they had won four of four races.

“I was really impressed with all my crews,” Innes said.

“If they get some luck they can win anything major.”

Darren Reidy’s men’s reserves crew, the Deviates, made it to the semi-finals but missed out on making the finals by one placing.

After the disappointment of not making the final subsided, they were happy to know they placed seventh in the State out of around 84 crews.

“These are fantastic results for their first year together,” Batemans Bay SLSC publicity officer Barb Van Luin said.

The Batemans Bay open women’s crew were hoping to at least make the quarter finals, and they did.

They were up against strong crews but were rowing at their best on Saturday.

The Divas found their energy levels a bit low in the quarter finals the following day, and they finished one spot out of the quarter finals.

“We were still happy with our results, coming 16th in the State out of around 50 crews,” Van Luin said.

Moruya Surf Life Saving Club’s Andy Baker was sixth in the masters swimming and also made the final of the rescue tube.

The Moruya club entered two men’s and two women’s Vikings surfboat crews.

Gavin Hunt’s men’s crew was eliminated in the semi-final after being in the lead, while Bert Hunt’s men’s crew bowed out in the second round.

Bert Hunt’s women’s crew were eliminated in the third round after performing well, and Gavin Hunt’s women’s crew went out the second round.