Almost surfing at Shanklin! In what were the worst conditions that had been seen so far in the season, Shanklin regatta kicked off. The day proved to be packed with adrenalin and excitement; there were countless swamping and capsizes, not just from Southsea crews but from every club!

It was the day after Ryde regatta, and after a fun night camping we headed down to Shanklin seafront, bleary eyed but full of anticipation for the day ahead.

The day started off slowly, as the organisers agonised over the water conditions, finally deciding the water was safe giving the go ahead. Launching the boats was quite hard. It was the first time some of the novices had had to do proper bow launches, but once out, the waves were slightly easier for the hardy Southsea rowers, as it was less choppy and instead had larger rolling waves that the boats were able to just surf over. Both the Men’s Novice Four and the two Ladies Novice Fours cruised through to their respective finals.

The Men’s Novice Fours eventually finished fifth in what proved to be a very gruelling race. Unfortunately, the women’s novice final had to be cancelled as the conditions got tougher and launching the boats became impossible. The Ladies Junior Four (Patricia, Belle Clare, Ginta, Becky) finished an amazing 2nd place.

Despite the ridiculous water conditions and the pouring rain, Shanklin turned out to be a very entertaining regatta, although hope is for slightly smaller waves next time.

Rough racing at Ryde The winds had been strong in the build up to Ryde Regatta, strong enough to cancel Lymington Regatta the week before and reduce the outings at the club to a single rough outing before the regatta. Despite this the course was rowable although rough and the lack of practice outings didn't seem to affect the performance of the Southsea crews.

An early start due to a mix up with the ferry bookings meant that when the club arrived at Ryde there was plenty of beach but no water to row on. This only changed just before the first race, the course filling with water in minutes as the tide came in.

Ryde was full of close races for Southsea crews. The WJ4+ (Patricia, Belle, Clare, Ginta, Becky) were second by half a length at Poole, at Ryde they were closer coming second by a nat'ss whisker. Disappointing but also encouraging. We hope that in future regattas they will be able to reverse the positions.

Two Southsea WN4+ crews were entered, with one of them (Jeff, Claire, Clare, Anya, Fiona) providing the surprise performance of the day, finishing in second place less than half a length behind the winners. Great performance, and with a bit more training we can expect wins from them this season.

The win that eluded the MJ2- (Andy, Ben) at Poole came at Ryde. After starting slowly and letting the Southampton crew get a clear water lead, they reeled them back in on the return leg. They were neck and neck with 300m to go, Southsea started moving through, then the pressure got to the Southampton crew and they capsized, leaving the Southsea pair to finish the race comfortably as winners. Thoughts now turn to seeing how many more wins they can get in the season!

Emily had the opposite to the pairs situation in that she was in second place trying to catch the leader in the final sprint when she capsized. Luckily all that was damaged was a bit of pride.

Southsea put in a number of other good performances that day, cheered on by a large number of members who came to spectate.

• MJ2-: 1st
• WJ4+: 2nd
• WN4+ (A): 2nd

No pots, but a promising start to the season...The opening regatta of 2011 was held by Poole, in a new location by the Marina. A 1,700 metre course, with very strong side on winds brought some interesting conditions to kick off the season.

The first Southsea crew to take on the competition were the ladies novice four (Anya, Fiona, Kathryn & Clare - coxed by Emily), finishing 3rd in their heat and narrowly missing out on a place in the final. A really good row for a debut regatta! Simon Fancourt was next on the water, putting in a great performance in his novice scull heat, coming in 2nd, and booking a place in the final for later in the day. The mens novice IV (Connor, John, James & Peter - coxed by Jeff) followed, putting in a good performance finishing 4th in their heat, a mere boat length or two off the winners. This was also Connor and Peter's first regattas. A great start with plenty more to come from them over the summer

Following on after were the ladies junior crew (Belle, Becky, Ginta & Julia - coxed by Patricia), coming in 2nd after a fantastic race that went right down to the wire. Next up was Jeff in the senior sculls, putting in a good row and coming in 4th in his heat, missing out on a place in the final, the only one complaining the water wasn't rough enough! Emily was competing in the first straight final of the day, the Ladies junior sculls. A full compliment of 6 sculls entered, and Emily came in 2nd after a fantastic row, where she was gaining on the leader all the way back, and very narrowly missed out on taking the pot.

Late on into the day was the Men's Junior pairs (Ben & Andy). An interesting race, with an unexpected result. Southsea were comfortably first over the line, but three out of the four boats got disqualified for going the wrong side of the boating buoy, so it was left to the crew a good 10 lengths off to row through and take the point, though themselves just missing the small buoy.

The last race of the day for Southsea was Simon in the novice sculls final. A great start saw him flying off with the leaders, and only a spot of trouble at the buoy slowed him down, but he recovered and came in 3rd after a strong row back.

All in all, a good days racing, showing plenty of promise for the season ahead. Another day with a bit more luck and we could have left with three or four trophy's. Heads held high, its off to Millford next week with some real confidence on getting some results! Many thanks to Jesse for driving the bus, and great support through the day.

• Buoy turn of the day - Jeff coxing the novice four
• Sunburn victim of the day - Alice
• Dog of the day - Lucky for supporting the crews with his bark
• Rower of the day - Emily
• Villain of the day - The wind...

• WJ1x - 2nd (Final)
• WJ4+ - 2nd (Final)
• MN1x - 3rd (Final)
• WN4+ - 3rd (Heat)
• MS1x - 4th (Heat)
• MN4+ - 4th (Heat)
• MJ2- - DQ

A beautifully sunny day on the Itchen bought some tough competition in this IV's only race. A long flat course of just over 5,000m was the last head race before the regattas begin, and showed some good improvement in the IV's against some tough H&D competition.

The first division saw two novice IV's men's crews (Andy, John, Ben and James & Peter, Toby, Ze and Connor) competing in a busy category, with both crews putting in good performances on the flat, long course.

The second division saw the Junior girls IV (Belle, Ginta, Becky and Patricia) putting in a very strong performance, coming in 2nd a mere nine seconds off the winners. It also allowed the women's novice IV of Sarah, Catherine, Kathryn and Steph to build on their win at the Adur with a very good performance coming in 4th, just 20 seconds off the winning (and much more experienced!) Southampton Crew. The second novice ladies IV (Clare, Anya, Nikki and Fiona) also put in a good performance.

With just over a month until Poole open up regatta season, better get practising those starts and buoy turns!

• WJ4+ - 2nd
• WN4+ (A) - 4th
• MN4+ (A) - 8th
• WN4+ (B) - 10th
• MN4+ (B) - 13th

A day of unsettled weather brought some very settled victories. The head of the Adur was the first race of the season to test our crews against the C.A.R.A competition. Bringing a strong contingent of crews along, hopes were high about leaving with some pots.

Arriving in some thick mist, it soon departed to reveal the 3km long course along the Adur. The water was flat, the sun was out, and a good day of racing was ahead.

The Junior status girls crew of Belle, Becky, Ginta, Julia and coxed by Jeff were the first, and only boat to race in Division 1, and promptly set the standard by winning their category.

Division 2 brought more success in the girls novice IV and the Mens Junior Pair. Southsea entered two novice women's crews, and the race was close between both of them, but it was the crew of Sarah, Catherine, Kathryn and Steph, coxed by Ginta that took the trophy, beating the other novice IV of Fiona, Nicky, Becky and Anya, coxed by Belle by 20 seconds, who subsequently came in 4th. Extra congratulations are in order as Catherine, Steph and Sarah are all J16! Following on in Division 2, the Mens Junior Pair of Andy and Ben continued the success from Christchurch claiming their second head race win in a row, beating the 2nd place boat by well over a minute, and even beating the Southsea senior pair of Alex and Jessie by 50 seconds, who finished fourth in the Senior Pairs race.

Also racing in Division 2 was Emily in the women's Junior scull and the mens novice IV of Connor, John Mc, Peter and Crispin, both finishing in 2nd place. Thanks go to Bexhill for lending us a cox for the mens novice IV.

Jeff and James also raced in the senior double, but were the only entry in the category.

All in all, a good days racing, and enjoyed by all, setting high hopes for the coming Regatta season. Back to the ergos everyone!

• WJ4+ - 1st
• WN4+ (A) - 1st
• MJ2- - 1st
• MN4+ - 2nd
• WJ1 = 2nd
• MS2- - 4th
• WN4+ (B) - 4th
• MS2x - Only entry

A case of New and Old at Southampton Small Boats Head. The Southampton Small Boats Head is the longest heads race in the region (a little under 5km). It certainly feels a long way and was not helped by a slight head wind; although luckily the conditions were much better than last year when crews were fortunate not to sink - this time crews only had to deal with a small bit of swell.

Once again Southsea RC sent a contingent covering many categories. The novice men, novice women and J16 crews who had their first taste of racing two weeks ago all entered again. There were line-up changes to these crews, including a change from sweep to sculling for the J16 crew who entered as a quad (with a BTC J16 girl subbing in bow this time!) - a fantastic achievement given they had only had started sculling the weekend before the race. Again there was a large entry in novice fours with Southsea crews rowing well, both bettering their results from the last race.

Despite all these new combinations, it was down to an existing crew to grab a win for Southsea. Emily Harrison won in her single - having started behind her opponent, she overtook, then rowed away to record a win by a healthy margin. Congratulations to Emily for a great performance and continuing the winning start to the season for Southsea RC.

• WJ1x 1st
• River MS1x 2nd
• WN4+ 4th
• MS2- 5th
• MS1x 6th
• MN4+ 10th
• Wj16 4x only entrant

Promising Start for Southsea RC at Christchurch Head of the Stour. The conditions weren't ideal for the first race of the season, there was a strong wind and it was bitterly cold. The wind had whipped normally calm water at the Head of the Stour into white horses, providing a much more challenging event and resulting in many boats having to bailout at the start. Despite these conditions Southsea Rowing Club performed well, starting the season promisingly. Andy and Ben won the Men's Junior Pairs (despite crashing into the crew that started in front of them) and Sam won River Open Single (despite running onto a sandbank). The win for the MJ2- being more special to Andy as it was his first ever win. Luckily, we retained the trophy for fastest sculler of the day since we had forgotten to take it back after winning it last year!

Southsea sent a large contingent to Christchurch, eight crews in a wide variety of categories, including two novice men's fours. The novice fours competition was once against fierce, with an extremely large number of entrants. Congratulations to all who competed for their first time - members of both novice men's fours, women's novice four and women's J16 four - particularly to the women's J16 four, who despite having to pull along Jesse in the bow seat and John Mc in the coxes seat, finished within a minute of the women's novice four. Thanks to Jesse and John for filling in, but you could say they are not the ideal build for cox and Wj16 bow seat :o) Hopefully the first taste of racing will inspire for the future.

Particular thanks should be given to Mike G who didn't race but towed the trailer and provided support on the day.