9 May 2022

By Göran R Buckhorn

Two visiting crews from Great Britain and the Netherlands beat University of Washington crews to take the Windermere Cups.

Crowds had lined up along the Montlake Cut shores in Seattle on Saturday for the Opening Day/Windermere Cup Regatta. In 2020, the regatta was cancelled and in 2021 only college crews were allowed to race, but without any spectators present, due to the pandemic. But now the event was back to normal with races also for masters and juniors. The Seattle Yacht Club boat parade rounded up the event.

In one of the two feature events, the women’s Windermere Cup, the Great Britain eight held off two University of Washington crews from start to finish to win by half a boat length.

The GB eight finished in 6:15.918, with the UW “Purple” eight in 6:17.833 and the UW “Gold” crew in 6:28.936.

“The British crew is packed with racing experience, with a mixture of returning Olympians, World Cup and U23 Medallists, and Henley Royal Regatta winners,” the GB cox Morgan Baynham-Williams said in a statement before the crew left England for the USA.

The British so-called development crew is coached by Lauren Fisher.

All the other women’s races were won by UW crews.

In the men’s Windermere Cup, the Husky varsity crew led much of the race, but at the 1,500-metre mark, the Dutch eight (KNRB) caught up and passed the UW crew and went on to win by half a length. The visitors’ winning time was 5:37.208. The UW varsity crew finished in 5:39.290 and the second varsity finished in 5:48.116.

The UW men won the other three collegiate races, including the Erickson Cascade Cup.

All the results are here.