Twickenham's Masters Men Successful at Roseninsel Eights

Following in the footsteps of Twickenham’s 1991 master’s men squad the class of 2025 decided to dispatch a crew to Germany to compete in the annual Roseninsel-8er challenge in Starnberg. The race, now in its 39th year, is a gruelling12km ‘there and back’ dash across the beautiful Lake Starnberg with over 90 boats competing in the event. The Roseninsel-8er draws crews from across Germany with additional strong representations from clubs from in Austria, Italy and Switzerland.

Being somewhat unfamiliar with the ‘German Gig’ class of boat that we would be competing in our new friends and hosts at ‘Münchener Ruder- und Segelverein’ rowing club kindly loaned us one of their boats the day before the race so we could have a practice outing and get a feel for the equipment and conditions. German gig boats are slightly wider in design and have a higher saxboard then the ‘fine’ boats we use back home and although more stable and forgiving that comes at the expense of additional weight. Lake Starnberg has a notorious reputation for strong winds and choppy conditions and boats sinking mid race is not unheard of but thankfully we were greeted on race day with near perfect conditions.

(from left to right) - David Lyon, Axel Juhre, Richard Lloyd, Danny Fitzgerald, James Easton, Tim Hirst, James Watson, Phil Banagee, Adi Pierce.

Unlike head races in the UK that involve staggered starts the Roseninsel favours mass side by side starts of up to twenty boats being dispatched in mass waves. After several minutes of race umpires herding numerous crews into something resembling an aligned start we waited for the long count down of the town church bells to sounds elven times before the start gun sounded and we were on our way. After a chaotic start it did not take long for the field to fragment into smaller groups and for various mini battles to develop between crews. We found ourselves side by side with the German crew 'Rudergesellschaft Speyer 1883' who were also in our race category and for the first few kilometres neither boat gained the upper hand. Not wanting to be jostling with them on the first turn at Rose Island Tim Hirst put in a call for a sustained burst and we managed to push away from them and create clear water between us which allowed us to pick a competitive line around the marker buoys. The gap increased substantially on the return leg as we relaxed into a firm rhythm as we passed the various millionaire lakeside villas. Sensing the finish only a few kilometers away we upped the rate and emptied the tanks for a final push, crossing the line in a respectable 52mins 34 seconds, a full four minutes ahead of the second placed Rudergesellschaft Speyer 1883 and also squeaking past the Twickenham 1991 race time by 48 seconds.

Twickenham Masters Men 1991 - G Nemeczek, K Baldwin, C Hunt, R Scott, J Kenny, D Ross, L Peters, R Hurles and H Fischer.

Twickenham Masters Men 2025 - more or less in the same spot 34 years later!

Our hosts ‘Münchener Ruder’ laid on a great post race party with award ceremonies, music and a beer tent. Completing the ‘treble’ of achievements was the somewhat dubious award to the crew that had travelled the furthest distance to the event to which Twickenham were the clear ‘winners’. Curiously the trophy for this award seemed to be the largest bit of silverware on offer but we were happy to be recipients.