Continuing Education claims first boat-race triumph

Continuing Education history students Tom Piper, Rob Lang and Rob Clarke (pictured above) competed in the ‘Round the Island Race’ at the Isle of Wight on 1st July 2017. The trio sailed Clarke’s boat ‘Manatee of Cowes’ – and graciously christened themselves ‘Team Conted’.

Clarke wrote earlier this summer to Christine Jackson, who is Director of the Certificate in History (with Tom Buchanan), the Postgraduate Certificate in Historical Studies (with Elizabeth Gemmill and Cathy Oakes) and the MSt in Historical Studies.

‘We successfully completed the race, despite challenging conditions of rain, followed by calm, then sun and finally a very strong blow,’ wrote Clarke. ‘You'll be thrilled to learn that we were the first-ever Oxford Continuing Education boat to finish – and so we claimed the special prize (kindly donated by Rob Lang) of a bottle of fine champagne.’

The ‘Round the Island Race’ is an annual event. This year over 1300 boats took part. Most take between seven and ten hours to complete the 50-odd mile circumnavigation of the Isle of Wight.

‘Please don’t ask what place we finished in’, said Rob Clarke, ‘but the record set this year by a high-tech, professionally-crewed multihull was an eye-watering 2 hours 22 minutes 23 seconds - one minute faster than the 2016 record’.

Working left to right in the Official Team Portrait, above: Tom Piper was a Foundation Course in History 2014 student now reading International History at the London School of Economics; Rob Lang finished the Postgraduate Certificate in Historical Studies and is talking a year out before embarking on the MSt in Historical Studies; Rob Clarke completed the Foundation Certificate in History in 2014, the Postgraduate Certificate in Historical Studies in 2017, and currently follows the MSt in Historical Studies.

Christine Jackson said, 'It's always a pleasure to hear about students' extracurricular achievements and to see them successfully combining study with  sporting and other leisure interests. An enthusiasm for history brings many like-minded people together and each year we see students making new and long-lasting friendships. Many congratulations to the two Robs and Tom on taking part in the competition - a great end to the academic year.'

Said Clarke, ‘We all met through Continuing Education, and despite spending a long day together bobbing up and down off the South Coast we are still speaking to each other.’

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As the Department for Continuing Education's 140th birthday approaches (in September 2018) we’re collecting student stories like this one. Do you have a story to tell about friendships made on our courses? Let us know!

Published 15 September 2017