Club member Patrick Boomer did not get the opportunity to finish his beach sprint or race the long distance event at the European Coastal Championships due to a weather cancellation. He managed to race the heat of the beach sprint but not the subsequent races or the endurance event. Sadly an unsatisfactory weekend. Patrick was disappointed of course but philisophical about the situation, "it was good to get some fresh air and be in the competitive environment again."

Patrick heading out in the beach sprints

The FISA website reported as follows.

Saturday was all about the Beach Sprints – a one-on-one race format where rowers start on land, sprint to their boats, row 250m out to a buoy and back, then out of their boats for a final sprint up the beach to hit the finish line buzzer.

Saturday racing was delayed in the afternoon due to an oncoming electrical storm. Once the storm had passed, the winds had picked up and rowing was once again delayed. The waves became too big for the safety boats to make it out onto the water to supervise. Multiple afternoon races had to be cancelled so that the Sunday racing and finals could still take place. 

Then on Sunday morning the Beach Sprint finals had to be cancelled due to heavy winds. A final decision on the endurance race finals was to take place after the Junior Beach Sprint medals, a local category, were handed out. Unfortunately, the winds had picked up making it once again impossible to send out the safety boats to supervise. Medals would have to be determined based on the previous days’ heats.