South Coast Rowing Championships

Dartmouth Amateur Rowing Club has been successful in its bid to stage the South Coast Rowing Championships in 2019 as part of the celebrations to mark the club’s sesquicentennial.

The Dartmouth club previously staged the Championships in 1959, 1969 and 2006 and a ‘last minute’ transfer to Dartmouth in 2002 when conditions in Torbay proved to be too rough. The Port of Dartmouth Royal Regatta also staged the Championships on its sesquicentennial in 1984 and to mark its 150th Regatta in 1994.

The Championships which are to be held on 14th September, 2019, are the culmination of the rowing season for crews of the West of England ARA from Devon, Cornwall and Somerset; the Hants & Dorset ARA and the Coast ARA which covers Kent and Sussex. Rowing clubs along the south coast from Herne Bay in the east to Falmouth in the west will compete at Dartmouth.

To compete in a Championship event, competitors are normally winners or runners-up in their respective status within their Association and it is every South Coast rower's ambition to be a South Coast Championship winner. Open, Invitation and Junior races are also held at the Championships in all status for the other crews of the three Associations.

Dartmouth’s oldest club was established on Monday, 22nd March, 1869, and has a proud history. Rowing races had been held on the river Dart for half a century prior to the Rowing Club being formed and the first recorded races were held in the 1820’s which led to Dartmouth Regatta being established in 1834.

The amalgamation of the national associations to form the ARA also saw the inception of the South Coast Championship Regatta in 1957 with Dartmouth hosting the third Championship Regatta in 1959.