The second of this years Safety Cover events, took place on Fathers Day, again!!! – seems to happen every year.
Location was, funnily enough, at Sandbanks. This involved a 03:45am alarm call to muster at the beach for 04:30hrs to start getting boats, kayak and crew ready, as well as inflating all the race marker buoys and getting them onto the shore line ready for the boats to collect them, enabling them to set/lay the course. This all needed to be set up and all crews ready for 05:50hrs for the ‘swimmers’ warm up, well ok – as the race organiser referred to it “a 5 minute climatisation”, I dont reckon any of them would have warmed up in that cold water. The official measured temperature was 15°C – which is usually the temp for mid May not mid June 🙁
63 swimmers took to the water and 59 completed the 750m course, leaving us with 4 swimmers who struggled from the very start, with cold water shock, hyperventilating and taking in sea water. It was a good job we were on hand with two of them, as they could have become very poorly, very quickly.
After all swimmers were out of the water and accounted for, the crews and equipment retuned to our garages in the compound, washed and put away, ready for the big event the following weekend – Brownsea Island Swim.
Special thanks to the following x17 club members who ventured out of thier beds, really early, to assist the club with this Safety Cover event. You all did extremely well and yet again did the club proud!! – Well done and thank you!!
Sit On Top Kayaks
#1 Tim Harris
#2 Emma Travers
#3 Felix Morton
#4 David Cooper
#5 Oliver Heckford
#6 Tim Travers
#7 Scarlett-Lily Williams
#8 Mark Shakles
Legacy
#1: Andy Kennedy
#2: Tom McMahon
#3: Riley Hayes
Apollo
#1: David Perch
#2: Ellen Shakles
Shore Walkers
#1 Amanda Wise-Hall
#2 Sam Travers
#3 Darren Morton
#4 Lynne Perch
