Visiting rowers Alex Steinbrich and Katarina Pechtor proved that they have made a smooth transition from long boats to racing skiffs at the annual Wilson Memorial rowing regatta on Saturday.
They played a key role for the host club at the regatta at Henley on the Taieri River with some impressive performances for the Otago club.
Steinbrich added power to the Otago crew of Russell Garbutt, Mike Jones and Dan Winton that took the lead after 100m and won the men's masters quadruple sculls by a distance on the 1500m river course.
Pechtor was in the Otago masters women's quadruple sculls that finished runner-up to Port United by just half-a-length.
The other crew members were Michelle Johnston, Larna Jensen and Jodi Rodda.
Steinbrich (49), who hails from Cologne in Germany, and Pechtor (48), from the Czech Republic, are spending a year working at the Dunedin Hospital.
They started long boat rowing when they were living in Wales 12 years ago and enjoyed open water racing on the Irish Sea.
"I like the rowing skiffs," Steinbrich said.
"They are fast and light and move smoothly."
The married couple had their best performance of the regatta when they teamed together in the men's masters double sculls and were only beaten into second place by the fast-finishing sprint of the experienced Otago club pair of Russell Garbutt and Tim Gardner.
But Gardner (49), the doctor at Outram, had the edge over his medical colleague when he won the masters men's singe sculls by two lengths.
Gardner, who took up rowing for fitness 13 years ago, won a bronze medal in the club double sculls with Richard Wilden at the national championships at Lake Ruataniwha four years ago.
The pair teamed with promising John McGlashan schoolboys Sam Grant (18) and Tom Stott (17) to win the men's club quadruple sculls from North End by 1.5 lengths.
They took half a length at the start and increased the margin during the race.
Stott and Grant also proved their class by winning the men's under-18 double sculls.
The best woman's crew from the host club was the double sculls combination of Renee Perrie, who comes from Seattle in the United States, and Gretchen Brownstein who upset the pundits by beating the strong Otago University combination of Elyse Fraser and Amy Grundy in the women's open double sculls.
They pulled away after 500m to gain their hard-fought win.
They also won the women's club double sculls from the Port United crew of Jessica Gould and Hazel Dawson.
The prestige men's open double sculls was won by the North End combination of Curtis Bush and Michael Nisbet when they went out strongly from the start to beat Michael Goldsmith and Alex Sims (Port United).
Nisbet had a busy day and also won the men's club coxless pair when he teamed with Robert Mears to beat Port United.
Nisbet was also in the North End crew with Bush, Matt Smaill and Alistair Bond that won the men's open coxless four.
Bond is the younger brother of former world champion Hamish Bond and is relishing the chance to be coached by New Zealand rowing guru Fred Strachan who is the mentor for his brother.
North End remained the top club in the province when it comfortably won the regatta with 132 points and was followed by Otago 76, Port United 35, Otago University 25, Queens High School and Dunstan Arm 2.
