Nevertheless he made a successful impression as Wauchope-Bonny Hills’ open men’s crew claimed silver at Kingscliff last weekend.

It was one step better than their bronze-medal performance last year.

However, there was a tinge of sadness that accompanied the result after regular sweep Steve Monaghan’s father passed away late last week.

It meant Monaghan along with his two daughters Grace and Lucy were late withdrawals for the event, meaning the club’s under-19 girls crew were unable to compete.

Kee had to step up and fill in the vacant sweep’s position left by Monaghan for the men’s open crew and if not for some bad luck, they would have claimed gold.

A countback between Wauchope-Bonny Hills and Yamba determined the winner after both crews finished with two race wins each.

Yamba were awarded the gold medal as they won the first two races but it was the second race that ultimately determined the overall result.

“If there was a final I believe we would have won because the confidence was really high,” Kee said.

In the second race, a buoy came loose from the accompanying surf life saving country championships which were being held at the same beach.

It saw the marker float into the boat area, forcing swimmers off course.

“The beach threw everything at us; in one of the races I was literally dodging buoys and nippers,” Kee said.

“In the second race we both finished on the line and that was after I had to steer off course to avoid carnage, but that’s surfboats.

“The surf was bigger and there was a tricky rip through the boat area so they had to move us a little further down the beach.”

After dodging nippers, buoys and being forced to wear helmets as the surf hazard rating was upgraded to 14, there was one last sting in the tail on the day.

“In the last race we were wondering what else would they throw at us and we looked down and there was a swarm of bluebottles,” Kee said.

“We’re disappointed not to win gold, but to sweep at my first country championships and claim silver in the open men’s was a great effort.

Kee admitted the passing of Pat Monaghan provided some added motivation to get the job done.

“That’s the spirit of everyone involved with the club,” he said.

“I’m absolutely over the moon.”

The club’s reserve grade crew also claimed bronze with under-19 girls’ crew member Jesse Willis filling in for the reserve grade crew on the day.

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