28/05/2026
The Carnage of Venice’ Vogalonga 50th Celebration🇮🇹
Just shy of 3,000 crews entered the vogalonga. A sight to see, utter mayhem. Lots of coxed quads and fours, the odd double or pair, Lots of dragon boats , kayaks , Venetian rowing boats, you name it , anything that floats was there , all waiting for the start cannon.
Off we all set, in what can only be described as a wacky races of waving in and out of each other to funnel down into a narrow stream of boats in a procession around the lagoon.
As soon as we all got going it was a strong pace to try to get to the front of the pack, so as to not get stuck in traffic getting back into the grand canal right at the end of the 32k race. We had a strong crew and overtook somewhere between three hundred and four hundred boats. Many of which had started before the cannon! As we got to thelast 6k there was very little in front of us, the last 1k it was just us and a couple of other boats in sight!
Coming back into the grand canal our prirate themed boats got lots of cheers and pirate comments which were warmly welcome as everything ached by now. We ended up with a sprint over the last five hundred from a strong all male German quad. Our on the bank spectators group had said we had arrived about fifth over the line which we were pretty pleased about. To then finally collapse as we got over the line.
Followed by Lots and lots of beers to quench the heat of the hot sun.
Thoroughly enjoyable - If you ever get the chance to do the Vogalonga in Venice , I would strongly say deffo do it. Some great lifetime memories you will make as well as friends.
