Dear Cutters,
The club will be organising another trip to the Semaine du Golfe festival which will take place from Monday 3rd to Sunday 9th of May 2027. For those who haven’t heard about this before it is an excellent adventure. The best way to find out all about it is on the event website here:
https://www.semainedugolfe.com/Having been to the event three times before we have learned that it’s best to take a maximum of three boats as this allows us to keep the boats in sight of each other and makes a manageable number of people to organise into crews each day.
This is a traditional boating festival and we need to be able to lift the boats up beaches so we are planning to take Langstone Lady, Sallyport and SWeare Deep.
There are 6 days of rowing, which – allowing for two days off for each person – means we will be able to take about 24 people.
There will be a small group who will do the selection for this event to ensure we have safe crews. Liz as Chairperson will oversee this.
The things we will be considering are:
Strong rowers. The waters are challenging and the rowing days are long so you should be able to row a return trip to the Ferry boat without swapping, or have taken part in the Tudor Challenge, Cockleshell Challenge or Round Hayling and be confident in rough water.
Competent coxes. We will need plenty of these. A good guide is that you are able to cox competently through the bridges.
Mobility You need to be able to move about in the boats confidently and safely as we often need to climb across other boats to get into launches or onto pontoons.
Teamwork. You should be happy to row with anyone as we swap the crews around each day and you must be prepared to follow the cox’s instructions without question in an emergency.
Towing. We will need two tow cars and drivers and at least one tower/ tow vehicle.
French speakers. Ideally, we would have one person in each boat who can speak French. If this isn’t possible then one person who can help at the briefings each day is very useful.
First Aiders. It would be good to have some of these too.
Past experience of the event. It would be very helpful to have at least three people who have previous experience of coxing and captaining crews at this event.
You certainly don’t need to tick every box. What we need is a group which, collectively, has the right balance of rowing ability, coxing, practical skills and previous experience to make the week safe and enjoyable for everyone.
If you’d like to be considered for the 2027 trip, please post a reply below to let us know you’re interested.
Once we know who is interested, we can start putting together a well-balanced group for what should be another memorable Cutters adventure.
Rachel and Vernon
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