TAMAR and Tavy Gig Club took a ladies crew to the Newquay Pilot Gig Championships at the weekend.

This is the last event of the gig season and the final of the Tribute Series.

All 92 crews taking part had to row in boats belonging to other clubs and the T and T ladies coxed by Tricia Stewart with Viv Barnes in stroke, Julie Rendle, Katie Turner, Lyne Renton, Wendy Maclean and Sandra Anstey, were drawn to row in Shearwater in the first round.

Fighting against a huge swell the T and T ladies rowed to third place going around the first buoy. They maintained this position and finished with a good time which was qualified them for the next round.

However, high drama soon ensued. The swell got so big that the lifeboat had to be launched to help the some boats get back into the harbour.

While a few boats did make it the situation got worse and the remaining gigs had to be moored out in the bay with the lifeboat ferrying crews back to the harbour. The RNLI did a fantastic job and were given a huge round of applause as they came up the beach.

Round two was postponed until Sunday. The Tamar and Tavy crew were drawn in a heat with Falmouth, the current world champions and eventual winners of this event.

The ladies put in a really good performance but narrowly missed out on going through to the quarter finals.

Their final position of 38 out of 92 boats was excellent and one to be proud of.