LUCY Monaghan originally took her place in the Wauchope-Bonny Hills Surf Life Saving Club’s under-19 girls crew as someone to balance out the boat.
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Then the teenager never left.
On Saturday at Coffs Harbour, she joined sister Grace, along with Emma Eggins and Jesse Willis to register a top-four finish at the Coffs Boaty Bash.
It was her first competitive race and dad Steve – who doubled as the boat’s sweep – said she surprised everyone.
“Lucy was originally just filling in for us,” he said.
“I did get some strange ‘what are you doing, dad’ looks from her (to start with), but now she’s there full time.”
In all but one of the crew’s seven races over the weekend, they finished within sight of victory, ultimately just falling short.
“The girls were on the pace and the first goal (for the weekend) was to row consistently,” Monaghan said.
“We were up there with the leaders in every race, so we had good boat speed.”
The Bonny Hills crew have a couple of new faces this year with half of last year’s crew moving on, but Monaghan is excited about what they can do in the upcoming North Coast Surfboat Series.
“We had really good conditions and the girls rowed really well,” he said.
Their open men’s counterparts also performed strongly, finishing in the top five.
“They fared fairly well and finished fifth or sixth overall,” Monaghan said.
Palm Beach and Caves Beach led the way along with the semi-professional crews including Newcastle and Tugun.
“Palm Beach and Caves Beach were the pacesetters, but there is going to be a real ding-dong battle with us and some of those other crews this season,” Monaghan said.
The North Coast Surfboat Series starts on November 10 and 11 at Woolgoolga.
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