"Fourteen teams entered for the Celtic Challenge this year but only twelve teams were able to make it to Arklow for the event.

Three of the teams were first time entries; Arklow Ladies, this is the first time that the Arklow Rowing Club have entered a Ladies team. The other teams were the Llanion Warriors Mixed team from Pembrokeshire and the Egremont1 Men's team from London.

The other entrants were Aberaeron Veterans, Aberdyfi Men's, Aberystwyth Ladies, Aberystwyth Mixed, Aberystwyth Men's, and Arklow Men's, Llangwm Mixed, Neyland Mixed and Tenby Mixed teams.

The teams assembled in Arklow on Friday 2 May hoping to start the race on the Saturday. Unfortunately the weather conditions were not favourable for a Saturday start with strong winds forecast.

Weather forecasts were scanned anxiously for a suitable weather window with lighter winds for a Sunday start to the Race. The Race Committee decided after consulting a number of weather sites that the Race would be held on the Sunday with the Ladies, Mixed, Veteran and the London team starting at 14.00 and the main Men's teams would start at 16.00.

It would be a hard row from Arklow down the channel to the southern end of the Arklow Bank with a Southerly wind right on the nose and then the wind would be on the beam.

The Arklow lifeboat started the race at 13.56 and escorted the first set of teams down to the turning point at the southern end of the bank and then returned to Arklow to start the Men's teams off at 16.00. The Safety boat Mikatcha, with a Doctor on board, then took up the role as escort vessel to the small armada of Rowing boats, Ribs and Support boats.

Arklow Ladies team put in a good start and were competing with the Tenby mixed team for the lead position with Aberaeron veterans, Aberystwyth mixed, Llangwm, Neyland, Llanion mixed teams and the Egremont1 men's team all keeping pace with each other with Aberystwyth ladies at the rear of the fleet.

The Men's teams started their race at 15.54 and again the Arklow Lifeboat escorted the Rowing boats down the channel to the south of the bank and out into the Irish Sea with the Safety boat Ma Chipe with a doctor in attendance on board.

After about five hours the choppy sea started to take its toll and both Doctors were called to give aid to seasick rowers. The Aberystwyth Mixed team were the first team to pull out of the race at 18.08 as half of the rowers were suffering from seasickness; they were followed by the Aberystwyth Ladies team at 19.30 returning to Arklow.

The Llangwm team called for assistance, from the doctor on board Mikatcha, as one of their team had been injured; the doctor attended to two casualties on board the Support boat Secret and advised that one casualty be evacuated by lifeboat as he needed hospital treatment. Arklow lifeboat attended the scene and took the casualty back to Arklow where a waiting ambulance transferred him to hospital. The Llangwm team subsequently retired and returned to Arklow.

The Tenby Mixed team retired from the race at 21.07 and the Neyland team retired at 21.25 as over half of each team had been incapacitated by seasickness and there were insufficient fit rowers left to continue.

The Aberaeron Veterans stuck it out until 23.10 before they retired. There were now only six teams still in the race, Arklow Ladies well out in front followed by the Egremont1 Men's and Llanion Mixed teams. These three teams were seven miles ahead of the Men's teams who had started the race two hours later.

Sea conditions had now calmed down and it was a bright starry night with the navigation lights of the support boats reflecting on the surface of the sea.

The fleet then ran into a Fog bank and the visibility dropped to about 50 metres but the fog thinned out by sunrise. By the time the Arklow Ladies team reached the Patches Buoy 7 miles outside of Aberystwyth they were still 6 miles ahead of the three main Men's teams who were battling it out for position.

Arklow Ladies crossed the Finishing line at 08.53 on Monday morning having an elapsed time of 18 hours 57minutes and 22 seconds. The Arklow Ladies had put in a marvellous effort and had averaged a speed of over five knots.

There was a tremendous battle between the Arklow and Aberystwyth Men's teams with Arklow just beating Aberystwyth by 1 minute 20 seconds in a time of 17 hours 37 minutes 45 seconds. Aberdyfi Men finished in 18 hours 4 minutes and 10 seconds. The London Egremont1 team finished in 22 hours 24 minutes 48 seconds and the Llanion Warriors Mixed team finished in 23 hours 43 minutes 55 seconds.

It had been the toughest Celtic Challenge since 1997 when similar weather conditions had occurred."

Article written by David Jenkins