Newport Rowing Club

As coastal fours go, Helen Jane has been a great work horse for Ryde Rowing club over the last 30 years. She now has a new lease of life with us at Newport after a refurb courtesy of Nick Salter. Feedback from her first go on the river was that she's still a fast boat, so maybe her racing days are not quite over.........

The final regatta of the year brought home the Hants & Dorset Junior-Senior Championship for Newport. Going into this final race Newport had a 5-4 lead over rivals Southampton. Southampton could still pull the score back to 5-5 and force a row off if they won the last race of the season. Newport went hard off the start, and were in a good position at the halfway point. Southampton, however, put in everything they had coming out of the buoy turn, challenging Newport to respond again. Newport had the composure to push on once more, and keep both Southampton and the eventual second place crew from BTC at bay. A great crew performance on the day, and from the whole squad over the season. The squad are now looking forward to representing the association at the South Coast Champioships at Deal (Kent) in September.

Newport took three crews to Coalporters Regatta on Saturday. The regatta takes place on the River Itchen in Southampton, starting at Northam Bridge.
The Open Novice crew, rowing in a composite with Ryde RC rowed well, just missing out on a fastest losers place to progress to the semi final. A similar fate befell the Open Junior crew. The Open Junior Senior crew fared better though. Ollie Coulson, Matt Swiss, Jake Garner, Alex Barnes and coxed Fin Gorbutt went to a straight final against Coalporters and Southampton. They came out winners taking the race by approx three lengths. This gives them a one point lead in the championship, going into the final regatta next Saturday.

Newport travelled to Woolston on Saturday for the latest round of the Hants & Dorset regatta season.

The races started in relative calm conditions for the early final for the Open Junior-Senior crew of Ollie Coulson, Matt Swiss, Jake Garner, Jude Williams and coxed by Mariana Hare. Due to the late withdrawal of their opposition they completed a "row over" to take the race.
By the time the finals for the other crews came along, the wind had picked up, leading to challenging conditions. The Women's Novice crew finished a creditable third. The Open Junior crew had to row their final twice due to one of the crews being unfairly impeded, and finished sixth in both races from eight crews. The Junior Pair were fifth, and the mixed crew including Mariana Hare and Fiona Brookes, Newport's two young coxswains, finished fourth.

Great weather for the British Rowing coach education event at Newport yesterday. 11 candidates taking part, with some coming over from the north island. Great to see BR coming to the island.

Newport took seven crews to Poole regatta on Saturday. Father and son, Roly and Magnus Wilson made their debut in the single sculls, with Magnus rowing up three years above his age group.
Chris Clarke and Huseyin Yolcu rowed well in the Junior Pair after a bad start, but finished outside the top three.
The Open Junior crew rowed well in their heat to make the final, but finished outside of the top three.
The women's Novice crew, rowing in a composite crew with Ryde had an encouraging performance, finishing second in the final.
Newport showed their strength in depth at Junior -Senior status, fielding two crews in the final, with Riv Szawiel stepping up from the Junior crew to join newcomer Hal Collins alongside regulars Boris Hare and Jude Williams in the 'B' crew. In a close race they were just beaten into 4th place by Lymington. The 'A' crew however, pulled back a second win in a row over rivals Southampton, to bring the championship standings to 4-3 in Southampton's favour. With three regattas left in the season, the championship is hanging in the balance.

Newport took three crews to Swanage Regatta on Saturday. The Junior-Senior crew of Ollie Coulson, Boris Hare, Jake Garner, Alex Barnes and coxed by Mariana Hare renewed their rivalry with championship leaders Southampton. As ever, the racing was close throughout the race. Newport were able to stretch out a lead following the halfway turn. Knowing that Southampton would fight back in the final 200 metres, they dug deep, and managed to hold them off to win by a canvas.
The Women's Novice crew, joining with Ryde to make a composite crew, rowed well to finish 4th in their final, and the Open Junior crew finished 4th in their heat.

Newport took four crews to Southsea regatta on Saturday. An unusually calm day for this event produced some excellent racing with Hants & Dorset and CARA crews competing alongside each other. The Women's Novice crew of Grace Garner, Julia Coulson, Hannah Turberville, Helen Hopper, coxed by Fin Gorbutt, qualified comfortably in 2nd place in their heat for their final. In the final they lost ground at the turn, when another crew took their buoy, but rowed through the offending crew and overtook them to finish 6th.
The senior pair of Toby Batchelor and Jake Garner, who had not rowed together before put in an excellent performance to take second place in their final.
The Junior Senior crew of Alex Barnes, Toby Batchelor, Jake Garner, Jude Williams, and coxed by Mariana Hare rowed down arch rivals Southampton following the turn, but Southampton had more in their tank to put on a final sprint to overtake Newport, who finished 3rd.
The Junior crew of Freddie Hollis, Huseyin Yolcu, Ed Hopper and Riv Swazeil were 5th in their heat from 10 crews.

We are really looking forward to seeing Vectis Viewfinder's full edition of our 2026 regatta

https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ6qlemDDyf/?igsh=MjFnbzQ3OHh2am5r

Continuing the sport coverage in the forthcoming Vectis Viewfinder Journal January-June 2026 edition is an article on the Newport Rowing Club Regatta 2026. I had the pleasure of photographing the two days of the regatta, back in May, to provide extensive photographic coverage for the forthcoming feature of 24+ pages in this edition. It was a great weekend and atmosphere, with a good crowd enjoying the races. It was particularly special to meet and chat with Gordon, Vice President, who was the cox at the time when my Dad was rowing at the club in the 1950s. My thanks to all at the club for making me feel welcome and special thanks to Amber (Chair), Nick (Captain), Julie (Treasurer and Membership) for helping me with this article. The article design is coming together, and looking great, with the images covering many aspects of the weekend. The January-June 2026 edition of the Vectis Viewfinder Journal is due to go to print in mid July 2026, for publication in late July/early August. The edition can be pre-ordered via the shop link in the bio, or at vectisviewfinder.com

The weekend saw the island double header of Shanklin and Ryde regattas. After a disappointing day at Shanklin regatta on Saturday, Newport bounced back on Sunday at Ryde. The performance of the day came from the Womens' Novice crew of Grace Garner, Julia Coulson, Hannah Turberville, Helen Hopper and cox Fin Gorbutt. Newport were just a length down at the halfway point to Southampton. They pushed the Southampton crew who had won convincingly the day before, all the way to the finish, to take second place.
The Junior Open crew rowed well to take fourth place out of eight crews. The Junior- Senior crew had another close race against arch rivals Southampton, reaching the turning buoy in the lead, but couldn't hold on to Southampton's pace in the final third of the race, and finished second.