DURING the Napoleonic wars, massive, barnacle-encrusted Men O’ War, ancient but powerful and bristling with firepower, would shelter in Tor Bay.

On Saturday August 17, another strong fleet met in the same location: the Masters over 60s Gig rowing championship. The participants in this case, gathered from across the South West being of an entirely different nature, honed athletes of an age indeed but still sleek and effective.

Dart have proven successful over the season in the veteran's categories and the Masters in particular have had a busy and successful year built on a determined training programme.

They arrived, therefore men and women, on Paignton’s Goodrington Sands, with high expectations. Surely honours could be won pushing the maroon gigs Volante and Lightning, prows surging through the turquoise waters of the bay - to victory?

Sadly for the men, fate intervened. After powering to first place in their opening heat and laying down a decisive marker, a snarl-up on the starting line of the final gifted Caradon aboard Govenek a length’s rolling start.

The Men of Dart in borrowed gig Star of Northey could not rectify this unfair advantage and had to settle for fifth place overall. The women having had a successful heat coming second, achieved a podium finish in a fair fight in the final, they were third aboard Concorde.

Many of the participants of the Masters’ competition returned on Sunday to the same golden sands to take part in the final round of the Summer Series, a movable rowing feast which having shifted around Cornwall for summer, had eventually reached Devon.

Conditions were delightful with sun and a gentle breeze and races took place at a regular clip as opposed to the somewhat turgid pace the day before. Dart brought two women’s and one “open” men’s crew.

In the seeding race, this time rowing their own boats, the women crossed the line in eighth and 22nd, the seascape was kittenishly benign but the uninterrupted straight 2.5km course was psychologically wearing with no turns to provide respite from physical endeavour.

Subsequently, these crews battled through two more demanding heats to eventually finish twelfth and twentieth.

The men in an ad hoc mix-and-match crew, achieved mid-table respectability in their first race though they were disconcerted to be closely followed over the line by five-man Teignmouth. Eventually, they finished eighteenth overall.