Rowing

What we row

We row traditional Thames Waterman Cutters, traditional 18th century fixed-seat wooden rowboats built for 4 or 6 rowers and a cox.

• Jubilee Gal: 4 seater - technically a 'jolly boat' rather than a cutter, built along the lines of a historic ship-to-shore boat

• Buccaneer: 6 seater cutter

• CITO: 6 seater cutter, on loan from the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists

• Peter Waugh: 6 seater cutter-rigged gig, currently under construction by the club, and named after a long-standing GYC rowing captain.  We welcome volunteers to help with boat building

Where and when we row

We row most weekend in the season, from mid-Feb to end November, and are called an 'expedition rowing' club by some of our sister clubs as we usually row to a specific destination, rather than training just for technique and endurance.  

As the tidal flow in the Thames is strong, most of our outings are arranged around High or Low water, so the tide helps carry us to our destination then back again.  Upstream rows range from the short Bow Creek or Deptford Creek to longer outings up to Tower Bridge; downstream we row through the Thames Barrier and head towards Margaret Ness or Erith.

One of the highlights of the rowing year is the Great River Race, usually held in September, which is a 21-mile marathon up to Richmond, open to all fixed-seat rowing boats so usually very well attended by Thames Cutters

All the rowing trips are listed on the club events calendar.  

How to book

You can book a seat on a row via the events calendar on a first come, first served basis.  Each event has one of four ticket types:

• Cox.  Reserved for those who are trained and registered as a cox with the club.  Contact the rowing captain for more information if you'd like to become a cox

• Rowing - member. Available to all GYC members, and comes with a £5 contribution to the boat maintenance fund

• Rowing - non-member.  Available to guests or applying members, with a £15 contribution to maintenance.  

• Rowing voucher.  Sometimes rows are cancelled due to poor weather conditions, and the club is currently unable to refund tickets; if you have paid for a seat on a past row that was cancelled, 'buy' a free rowing voucher ticket to replace it on a later row

"Sold Out" rows: as we can't currently offer refunds, we only offer paid tickets when we know a row has enough crew to go ahead.  All rowing events on the calendar start as "sold out"; in fact they're on pre-sale, so please do click the "Notify me" button to add yourself to the waitlist for a row that's marked as sold out.  As soon as the waitlist becomes long enough to guarantee a crew we'll open up tickets for sale and you'll get an immediate email notification

When one boat is full we have the option to take out a second or third if we have enough crew, so do also add yourself to a waitlist for full rows if you like.