A team from our local open-water swimming club, “Grimsby and Cleethorpes Water Rats” will be heading down to Dover this summer to swim the English Channel in support of Women’s Aid.
The Grimsby and Cleethorpes Water Rats have been running for over 5 years now since their formation as a community amateur sports club.
Club Chairman Alex Martinelli said that the Water Rats have over 200 members now and that “the beauty of the Water Rats is that we have people just doing it for all sorts of reasons. Health reasons, physical or mental.
“It’s such a friendly club and such a massive mix of people doing it for different reasons.”
One particular team within the club is tasking themselves with a momentous challenge: swimming the English Channel.
Gi Grimsby News spoke with Team Captain of the Channel Swim Team, Denise Cant, who explained how: “We raise money for a charity throughout the year. We have a main charity event for “dipper day”, where any members of the club can come along and get together as we all swim every day in December from the first of the month to New Year’s Day. Last year, we supported SANDS.
“This year, we are doing the charity event in the form of the channel swim, and we are doing it for North East Lincolnshire Women’s Aid.
“Normally, we have a 24-hour swim event, but this year, with the channel swim, they’ve both fallen on the same weekend, so we’ve decided to just do the channel swim.”
When asked when this decision was made to swim the channel, Denise said: “The channel swim has been in the making for 2 years, and basically, I wanted to have a go at swimming the channel, and then I got a team of 6 Water Rats ladies together, and we’ve been training for the last year and a half; that’s building up distance, acclimatising to the water, and also to withstand the temperature because you have a 2-hour qualifier you have to do before you swim the channel.”
Denise and the team have a slot of time in which they can complete the trip, which can take up to 18 hours to swim.
(Left to right: Victoria Jacklin, Alison Boardman, Lou Tyler, Katheryn Pinder, Tracey Wilkinson, Denise Cant)
The team will be heading down to Dover in a few weeks to be ready for the slot from the 21st of June to the 28th, where they could receive the call to go swimming at any point.
The reason behind the unpredictability is that channel swimming is not an easy task. Variables like the tide, weather, and wind all come into account when deciding whether to go or not.
Also in that mix is a pilot who owns the support boat, which accompanies the team while they swim. Denise explained that they have had their support boat booked for 2 years because of the demand and how they are “basically there to guide you as they are experienced people to help you and keep you safe.”
When asked why she wanted to undertake this particular swim, Denise explained that it was the challenge that motivated her and how the club has had other members swim it solo, but this time it was special as they were to complete it as a 6-person relay team.
Denise said: “It’s exciting as it’s something different too. I’ve been swimming here for 8 years, and we’ve done stuff like swimming Buttermere; some of us have done Coniston, Windermere Lake, and the Humber swim too.”
“But what it is is that we have an experienced crew of members on this team, so we wanted to progress onto swimming the channel. I turned around to the guys one day and said: ‘How’d you fancy coming over to France?’ and when they said yes, I said, ‘By the way, we’re swimming it!’”
Gi Grimsby News will be providing updates as to the progress of the team and their challenge once they partake in the swim and, if anyone wishes to donate to the cause, they can use the link below.
https://www.peoplesfundraising.com/fundraising/grimsbycleethorpeswaterratschannelswim?sfnsn=scwspmo
Reporter.
Part of the Gi Grimsby News team since 2024.