This season’s coastal rowing regattas opened with five Westcountry clubs descending on Exmouth to battle for line honours.

Conditions were perfect and Club Captain Jon Houghton sent no less than 36 local rowers into the thick of the action.

Preparatory training has filled evening after evening over the winter, with a heavy emphasis on stamina, technique, and careful warm-ups to avoid injury. “The key”, Jon said, “is to keep the enthusiasm bubbling while trying to create the competitive rowing spirit on a bunch of Ergos. There’s a limit to what you can achieve on a rowing machine, and mercifully all those warm-ups paid off. The result? We’re as fit and ready as we can ever be.”

Racing kicked off with a mix of quads, doubles and singles heading down the course towards the Fairway buoy. By mid-afternoon, the last boats were coming off the water with a victorious Exmouth Rowing Club chalking up the season’s first victory as regatta winners, with a three-point lead over Teign Scullers.

Competing in two of the races was novice Lian Knight. A mum in her mid-thirties, she’d never rowed in her life before watching ERC boats from a barbeque on Exmouth beach. She joined the club last May and has never looked back.

She said: “I wasn’t sure what to expect but it’s been absolutely brilliant. They teach you on and off the water and the social side has been fantastic. I did my first race down at Plymouth, which was a bit scary in the rougher water but rowing has opened doors I never knew existed.”

Jon Houghton has been with the club for 12 busy years. Prior immersion in soccer and rugby gave him a lifelong addiction to crushing the opposition, and he’s very happy to confirm that racing afloat offers the same raw kick of adrenalin.

“ERC caters for rowers of all ages and all tastes” he said, “but competitive offshore rowing is exploding just now and by building a core of fit, eager, dedicated athletes we need to stay ahead of the curve. Our Coastal League has been a real blessing. Different people, different locations, different water. We have to get out of our comfort zone and start competing with the very best.”

Saturday’s regatta was the first of eight scheduled head-to-heads across the summer.