The Monkton Bluefriars Small Boats Head Race celebrated its 38th year in October 2008 with a record entry and beautiful weather.
Some of the numbers which are attached to the front of the boats have survived for all these years. In 1971 there was no shop in town where cheap numbers could be bought, so ours were made out of boat skin ply. Templates were made for each of the digits 0-9. There was no easy supplier of digits the right size, but some roadsigns had numbers of the size we were looking for, so there were expeditions, late at night, armed with torches, thick tracing paper and pencils, to various roads. The A36 and A46 supplied 3,4 and 6. I forget where the other digits came from.
In recent years, two members of Bluefriars, Andy Griffiths and Nigel Gould-Smith has been start marshals. They don't live very close, so they must have to start out at the crack of dawn to be on parade by about 0830. Marshalling distances are strung up on trees above the start to give crews a hint about where they have to wait to race. This year, these two faithful marshals celebrated important birthdays by rowing in the race under Bluefriars colours -- the first OM crew to row for some time. They had a few practice outings, and did remarkably well to come 97th out of 150 crews had finished. Taking part in the race did not stop them from doing their duty on the start: they were marshals all morning, and then hopped in a boat to race in the afternoon.
The record entry included 38 crews from Avon County, 22 from each of Eton and St Paul's, 17 from Winchester, and our usual visitors from Nantes.
Also on the river this year, perhaps brought out by the sunshine, were several longboats and hired boats. We cannot close the river for the event, so divisions in the early afternoon were held up. Despite delays we finished racing at the advertised time.
In the 1970s, the race used to be fairly informal. Now we have to have official safety boats, risk assessment, umpires, computers - and more than 40 people on duty. Every inch of the course has to be in view of an official 'Race Monitor', who can pass word down the line if there is a problem. These monitors are very difficult to come by, so if there are any Bluefriars out there who live reasonably near to Saltford and would like an annual outing to walk the dog (or just themselves) along the riverbank on a Saturday in October (10th October 2009), please let me know! Your help would be gratefully received.