A perennial summer favourite, Wolfson entered an IM1.4+ and IM3.8+ into Oxford City Royal Regatta, an 800 metre race downstream on the Isis. In the first race of the day, the IM1.4+ of Lucian Purvis (str), Thomas Aarholt, Jasper Barth, Freddie Hamilton (bow) and Stefany Wragg (cox) faced off against a strong crew of Cambridge 99’s, the same club at which Wolfson M1 Torpids coach Siggi Martinson usually competes. After losing a bit of ground to the 99’s tidy start, Wolfson set up a rapid second half and were gaining steadily on the light blue Tabs, until two strokes from the line, at top speed, the rudder snapped off, careening the bow of Weapon X into a tree. Even with evasive actions before the line, the verdict was a mere canvas, and after a bit of maneuvering, the crew extricated the bow from the tree in a disappointing start to the day.
The IM3.8+, a combination of Wolfson M1, M2 and M3 rowers from Summer Eights, saw their first action in the lunchtime quart pot sprint eights. Wolfson drew Sudbury first, a mixed crew, for the 300m sprint from just below Univ Boat House to Long Bridges, defeating them soundly. They drew the home club’s only VIII in the next round, who were not competing in any other event, and in a very close race, rating 40 consistently, threw it all in but lost by an extremely narrow margin. City of Oxford went on to defeat Green Templeton in the Final to take home the quart pots.
However, not to be denied a third time, Wolfson’s VIII, Lucian Purvis (str), Thomas Aarholt, Jasper Barth, Freddie Hamilton, James Simpson, Chris Vaas, Philipp Schafer, Zach Alfred (bow) and Stefany Wragg faced a close race in the IM3.8+ semifinal against an extremely strong Curlew crew, holding despite several blade clashes as the crafty Curlew cox pressed out of her water and into the better stream, before powering through them in the second half for a victory margin of a canvas. Despite a slightly quicker start, their opposition in the final, Jesus College, Cambridge, could not respond to the speed and power of the first half of the race, and Wolfson held them at 1 length from Univ Boat house to the finish, extending the lead to 1 ½ lengths at the finish. After ten hours down at the river, the crew eagerly collected their prize pots, christening them and chucking their cox in to the shallow waters outside City of Oxford RC in celebration.
