Signing up
When are the upcoming events taking place? Portsmouth Pull events have been on hold due to restrictions around Covid. We are relaunching the event on 30 April 2022.
How many people to we need for a team? You will need a minimum of four people - Oarsome Chance will provide a cox for your team, unless you would like to provide your own, making a team of five. The registration fee and fundraising target is per boat, so will be unaffected by the number of rowers in your team.
Do I need to have a team to take part? No, you can register as an individual rower. We will put together teams from individual participants, so you'll need to be prepared to join a team of fellow rowers on the day (either other individual particpants and/or OC staff).
How much does it cost to take part? We ask you to pay a registration fee to take part - £200 for a team (4-5 rowers) or £50 for an individual participant. We also ask you to raise sponsorship for Oarsome Chance (this is a fundraising challenge after all!) and we suggest a target of £400 for a team or £100 for an individual participant.
How do we secure our place? Send us an email to [email protected] and if there are spaces available, we will send you a registration form. If you are registering a team, you will need to nominate a team leader (who doesn't have to be one of the rowers) and details of all the team members. Once you have sent us the completed form and paid your registration fee your place in the event is secured.
Can anyone take part? You must be aged 16 or over on the day of the event and must also be sufficiently fit and healthy to be able to participate safely. No prior rowing experience is required. There is no upper age limit.
Before the race
How much money do we need to raise? We ask that your team raises a minimum of £400, or individual participants £100 - but of course the more the better! And we’ll have a special prize for whoever raises the most. As your deposit covers event costs, all the sponsorship money you raise will go towards running our programmes for disadvantaged young people.
How do we set up an online fundraising page? You can set up a page on Just Giving and link it to the Oarsome Chance Portsmouth Pull event page. Have a look at our fundraising tips here to get some ideas on setting up your page and how you can hit your fundraising target - remember, if each rower gets just 10 friends and family to sponsor them by £10, you'll reach your goal... and if you smash your target, you may be in the running for the top fundraiser prize!
Do we need to have training? Yes. We’ll provide you with training tips and all participants will have the opportunity to take part in a training session prior to the event, at our Gosport centre. When you register we will let you know what dates training sessions are available - you will need to contact us to let us know which session you would like to attend and we will make arrangements. (Note, these are not drop in sessions, they are dates when we are able to provide training - training sessions will only take place if registered competitiors have booked the date.)
Race Day
How will the race run? On race day we ask teams to arrive for registration an hour and a half prior to race start, so that they can be fully briefed, get warmed up and kitted out ready for the race start. Teams will start the race at 2-3 minute intervals.
What boats will we be rowing? The skiffs are 23-ft wooden rowing boats propelled by four three-metre long oars. Each boat accommodates a maximum of six people - 4 x oarsmen, a reserve (optional) and a cox.
What is the course of the race? The route is a 10km lap of Portsmouth harbour starting at St Vincent College on the Gosport peninsula and passing under the Millennium Bridge before crossing the mouth of the harbour and proceeding to Portchester Lake round a mark off Portchester Castle then continue past Hardway back towards St Vincent College for the finish.
What is the safety cover? There will be three safety boats accompanying the rowing boats throughout the course.
What happens after the race? We celebrate! Once all the teams are back on dry land we will hold a prize giving barbecue at the Boathouse (where the race starts and ends). There will be a prize giving ceremony where the fastest team will be awarded a trophy and the special prize awarded to whoever raised the most sponsorship.