A CASUAL chat with local fishermen could be the unlikely key to Wollongong City’s George Bass Marathon success next week.
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After months of training, pushing into stiff nor-easterly winds off Fairy Meadow, Bellambi and Austinmer, sweep Brett Dingwall knows the crew is ready to race.
Now he’ll be chasing some inside knowledge about the conditions when he makes his seventh trek from Bateman’s Bay to Eden.
"Anything to help along the way, looking for currents or runners on the swell,” he said.
“Hopefully a nor-easter will help out as well.
“They’re pretty hard to find, but if you talk to the local fishermen along the way, you can usually get a few pointers of how the conditions have been.”
Five of the eight women in the Wollongong City crew are making their George Bass Marathon debuts when racing starts on Sunday.
It’s a diverse group, with 21-year-old university students Sophie Counsell and Karri Ryan rowing shoulder-to-shoulder with 60-year-old grandmother Gina Crick.
Physiotherapist Leia Sakari-Nati, 50 and police officers Vida Oakes, 32 and Rani Hulme, 33, will provide the experience, having previously handled the marathon race’s demands.
New Zealander Sakari-Nati has experience as a single sculls rower and outrigger canoe paddler with Five Islands Club.
Kim Gray and Emma Prowse make up the eight-woman crew. Victory would end a 16-year drought, after Wollongong City last won the women’s title in 1999.
Four women will row at a time, with a support boat nearby providing a much-needed break to complete the 190-kilometre, seven-day course.
Dingwall, who has previously been a sweep in a winning George Bass women’s crew, has also rowed in one trip south.
He warned of falling into the trap of chasing an early lead, only to fail to row the distance.
“You see the crews shoot off at 100 miles an hour,” he said.
“They’re racing to get out in front, but as a sweep you’ve got to monitor how the girls are going.
“An hour or so later you end up going past those crews if they’ve gone out too hard in front.”
The Wollongong City crew is bracing for south-easterly winds of up to 25-kilometres, with rain also predicted when racing begins on Sunday.
However, Dingwall is prepared for the worst.
“One year I swept the women’s crew and a had stiff southerly on the 35km leg (from Bermagui to Tathra),” he said.
“It took us six-and-a-half hours of rowing, just plugging away, so it can be a battle out there.
“Really it’s all about backing up each day for seven days.”
In its 40th year, the George Bass Marathon has attracted crews from Sydney and Queensland.
Bulli’s open men’s crew will defend the club’s crown from last year.