A masters rowing club’s three-year plan for “world domination”

Amongst the 3700-plus competitors at the 2025 World Rowing Masters Regatta in Banyoles, Spain was a rich abundance of stories expounding the reasons for being there.

Take Scottish rower and coach Gary Bain. His Aberdeen Boat Club ended up storming the regatta with 52 athletes, purple kilts and a third place in the women’s Club Trophy and a sixth-place finish overall. And all of this started with a near-fatal car accident.

Bain began rowing at 14 in Aberdeen. His older brother was rowing at University, and Bain tagged along to the boathouse one day. He was tall, keen and got hooked immediately. Within weeks he’d found a like-sized partner in another 6’4” teenager, and the pair won their first race. He instantly caught the Rowing bug.

Bain raced as a junior and senior, then continued through University. But at 21, while driving home from a regatta, Bain was thrown from a car in an accident that seriously damaged his back. His competitive Rowing career stopped overnight. He couldn’t row but he could, however, still contribute. Bain started coaching, then umpiring, then travelling the world doing both. He has been part of the World Rowing Masters Commission since 2011.

Bain gave up coaching when his two sons were young. Then three years ago, a group of women at Aberdeen Boat Club approached him with one request: “Would you coach us for Henley Masters?”

“I said yes,” Bain says, “and suddenly I was hooked again. I’d missed it more than I realised.”

What began as coaching one crew quickly grew into what Bain describes as a “three-year plan for world domination.” The goal was clear: build a large, competitive masters squad and take them to Banyoles.

He started by creating a steady pipeline of new rowers using corporate rowing programmes (introducing about 100 new rowers to the sport every year), coaxing former rowers back and simple enthusiasm. Crews were constantly mixed and remixed so everyone could learn from each other and row to a shared rhythm. “We went out in as many eights as possible,” he says. “At one stage we boated four women’s masters eights at once.”

Over three seasons, the squad grew to more than 60 masters women, with increasing numbers of men returning as well. What had started as a small women’s project became a club movement.

In Banyoles, Aberdeen Boat Club entered 101 crews. In a field of 745 clubs, Aberdeen was the third-largest entry. And the results? Third in the Women’s Club Trophy, 17th in the Men’s Club Trophy and sixth overall. Plans are already in place for more masters racing, including the next editions of the World Rowing Masters Regattas in Bled (in 2026) and in Varese (in 2027).  Not bad for what Bain calls “a wee tiny club.”

Bain himself raced a few events after getting back into rowing. He jokes that he was “consistently last every time” but adds that simply being back on the start line was a victory. “I just have to be careful with my back,” he says. “Luckily, I married a physio.”

To celebrate their Banyoles success, the club organised a Catalan-themed reunion party to remember the three-year journey from a small group of women to a club-wide movement. For Bain however, the real win isn’t medals, it’s creating a great club ethos. “It’s about bringing a lovely mix of people through in a truly home-grown club. That’s what matters.”