Coxes: Judith, Chris & Tahra.
Crew: Liz, Mandy & Joel.
What exactly is Monster the Loch ? Well in their words it’s to “Be the fastest Human-Powered boat on Loch Ness. In the first mass participation marathon (21 miles) Boat Race!”
So boats of all shapes and sizes from kayaks to OC6s, paddleboards to Shetland Yoals (yes there had been a pedallo the previous year), as long as it was seaworthy with no sail or motor it was allowed.
With not a lot in the way of meet-ups and regattas this year, the chance to try a long distance race on Loch Ness was quite appealing; when the Loch Awe adventure was postponed due to Covid for a second time, I joined up.
We didn’t have a lot of time to get much long-distance training before the big day; a couple of trips eastwards along the coast to Wemyss in the sunshine would have to do, and anyway, nice though they were, we wouldn’t stop for jam donuts on race day. Also, Judith and Chris had previously rowed in Castle to Crane with a crew of six. It was agreed that the best way for crew changes was to make them in their respective fore and aft bubbles so no-one was moving the length of Yolande and that we would attempt to keep moving while doing so – no problem !!
The day before the event, the weather had made the decision that the race would run from Fort Augustus to Dores. With five assorted vans and cars between the six of us and eleventy-billion WhatsApp messages, the logistics were accomplished for Yolande to be in Fort Augustus and a car in Dores, so we would be able to get Chris back down to pick up his van and the road trailer after the race (fingers crossed) and we all made it to Drumnadrochit for food.
Saturday morning was bright and fresh, the views over the Loch driving to Fort Augustus were gorgeous and calm. We got down to the launch site before the queues started in earnest for the loos. The bay was awash with boats, crews, photographers, drones and a piper. The main start was due for 9.30 with slower vessels starting an hour earlier.
By chance we ended up being one of the first to launch which meant we had time for a warm-up as well as a cool down as the organisers tried to get 70-odd vessels in a vague starting line-up. Finally the piper played, the horn sounded, the drones buzzed overhead and we were off – twenty one miles with no donuts to go.
A long distance row is just like any other really, just don’t think about how long you are actually going to be rowing for …. We had estimated around 4 hours 30 with crew swaps every 30 minutes or so. The morning got brighter and the sun came out and we rowed and rowed, swapped and rowed. Making sure we could still see some craft ahead and still had a few behind us we rowed and rowed, swapped and rowed! There were a couple of squally rain showers which cooled everyone down and made the most amazing rainbows. Joel discovered that there was a signal in the middle of the Loch and went ‘live” on his FB. We rowed and rowed, swapped and rowed. Then the white walls of the pub at Dores were on the horizon and the end was in sight. We went a bit harder determined to gain another place from the pesky kayaker on the port side and then it was done.
Twenty one miles in 4:30:05. Getting the boat up the pebbly beach was probably just as hard as the last few miles rowing. No Nessie spotted but luckily we had taken our own. T-shirts and medals were collected and we congratulated ourselves that we had achieved all three of our aims:
Not to be last.
Not to be the last St Ayles.
To enjoy ourselves!
So we set the club record with it being the first time KCRC had competed – who’s up for it next time?
https://www.monstertheloch.com
PS The winners this year was a Fine8+ in 2:31:23, The Fastest St Ayles was Coigach & Ullapool in 3:42:16 and extra brownie points to Orkney who also took one of the Row Around Scotland batons for a hurl up the Loch.
