The crew was made up of four women novices who were still in training. The cox was an experienced member of Argo, but his vision was impaired by the low sun. He had therefore steered the boat towards the middle of the Rhine to avoid breakwaters, and noticed too late that the rowing boat was in the course of an oncoming Rhine barge. The Argonauts missed the metal bow of the barge by a hair’s breadth, but the rowing boat did capsize in the larger vessel’s wake. All the crew ended up in the water. An Argo coach’s boat that was nearby picked up the unfortunate five and the boat was rescued from the river undamaged. ‘Really bad luck,’ says Argo chair Mylene van Doorn. Such incidents are extremely rare, she says. ‘All our new rowers get a compulsory safety course in which they learn that they have to watch out on the Rhine. This was nobody’s fault really.’As a gesture of concern, the four novices and their cox were offered lunch on Friday the 13th by the committee in charge of the training of novices. ‘It did give them quite a shock but they have said it wasn’t going to put them off going out on the river.’
Argo boat in near collision on Rhine
A group of aspiring rowers at Argo rowing club narrowly escaped a collision with Rhine barge recently. Nobody was hurt but everyone in the boat got soaked.
