Meeting your crew on the start line: Mixed Quad seat entries at the British Rowing Beach Sprint Championships

Whilst the GB Beach Sprint Team celebrate success overseas, we look back what it was like to race the inaugural Mixed Challenge Quads at the British Rowing

Ben Curtis of Coastal Barbarians raced beach sprints for the first time at the Championships, entering a seat in the Mixed Challenge Quads to extend his racing weekend past the Men’s Solos. Part of the competition for the first time this year, the Quads were introduced as part of British Rowing’s mission to make it more accessible (and fun!) for people to take part in the sport. Seat entries were to be drawn into boats on the day of competition, racing in knockout rounds and giving more people the opportunity to experience the excitement of beach sprint rowing first hand.

“I really enjoyed it. The weather wasn’t necessarily on our side on Saturday afternoon, but it was good fun! Because I don’t really train with a club, it was a great opportunity to row in a crew and get more experience.”

Ben met his crew shortly before the race started – coxing them was World Rowing Beach Sprint Champion coxswain Ryan Glymond.

“Everyone was in a really good mood when we came together as a crew. It was the end of the day; I think everyone had mixed success racing earlier in the day, so it was another opportunity to have a crack at it. We galvanised quite quickly as a group against some of the more practiced crews!”

“I’ve raced quads before at offshore competitions, they’re really big beasts, and quite hard to get going for Sprints! But we had a camaraderie, even if it was raining. Having all the equipment there made it easy.”

Ben was in a crew with Ollie Owen, a Yorkshire GB Performance Development Academy athlete representing the University of Leeds BC.

“To be fair, I didn’t actually expect it to be as fun as it was,” said Ollie. “I didn’t know anyone going into it, but each race we did, it just got more and more fun. We gelled really well. It was really cool to be coxed by a World Champion, and to be in a boat with people with a lot of different rowing experiences!”

From his time racing at the Championships Ollie is now looking to see how he can get more involved in Beach Sprints, possibly aiming for international representation. “I’ve emailed my closest Beach Sprint Performance Development Academy to see what I can do. Racing in the Quad was definitely the highlight of my day – especially after capsizing in the Solo!”

Erin Shippey of Dart Totnes RC raced on the Sunday of the competition in fairer weather.

“I come from Devon, so we do a lot of rowing on the sea, but all in fine boats. For a few years now I’ve wanted to try beach sprints, but I’ve never been, never had the opportunity to be in a coastal boat. So when this came up, I had to try it!”

“I was racing with three junior boys from Wallingford, so they’d never done any coastal rowing at all. They’d never been on the sea! But I’d tried the Women’s Solos in the morning.  We put me in bow, because I had experience getting in and out of the boat.”

“Racing in the quad felt quicker than the solos, which was nice. A fun thing with scratch crews is adapting to a rhythm with someone that you’ve never rowed with before. The turning was interesting, that was where we kind of had our downfall, we didn’t get round as quick as the other crew.”

With boats and blades already provided, Erin didn’t need anything more than herself to compete at the Sprints. “It really encourages people to get involved and just do it. Like, it doesn’t hurt me to just go and do it and just go and try it.”

Erin is keen to race the Mixed Challenge Quads again, potentially with a crew. “There was a crew that at least three of the four of them were all from Shanklin. I think they did quite well and I feel like that looks really fun. It’s really fun being a scratch crew, with people you’ve never met before; I feel like doing it with friends would be good as well.”

Catch up on results for the British Rowing Beach Sprint Championships 2025