Penny Chuter: a new chapter in a storied career

There was lots of experience among the 2022 World Rowing Coastal Championships competitors.

But arguably nobody brought as much as 80-year-old Penny Chuter, who quietly rocked up as the coxswain of Carrick Rowing Club’s coastal women’s quadruple sculls (GBR06) and steered them to 13th place overall.

Chuter’s role as a coastal coxswain and coach is just the latest stage in a rowing life which stretches back more than 60 years. After starting out punting and skiffing as a child, Chuter first sat in a sliding-seat single scull in 1959 and the following year she was fourth at the 1960 Women’s European Rowing Championships.

She went on to have a ground-breaking coaching career, starting out as the first female coach for the Amateur Rowing Association (now British Rowing) in 1973 and eventually retiring in 2002 from a role at sports governing body Sport England.

“I suppose I retired early at 60, but it was good because I’m a sailor. So I came down to south Cornwall, because sailing down there is much better than up in the Solent and further east,” Chuter said, adding that she wanted to move away from the Thames “to be incognito and get away from ‘Penny Chuter the rowing coach’.”

When Chuter had to sell her yacht she switched to gig rowing to fill the gap.

“I had a great time rowing gigs until my back finally gave up,” she said. After that she switched to coaching, taking Falmouth’s women to victory in the 2019 World Pilot Gig Championships.

In early 2020, Chuter got involved with Carrick RC, which was in the process of being founded by Falmouth local Emma Nunn. Carrick was almost ready to open its doors just before the Covid-19 lockdown imposed by the UK government in March 2020.

When Carrick finally did get up and running Chuter, who owns a small coaching boat, thought she would be keen to do some coastal coaching, filling the last gap in her rowing CV. She started coaching Carrick’s masters group – initially from her coaching boat, and then, when the winter weather was too bad to use that, from the coxswain’s seat.

“The variation of people that we had was such that I was actually better at getting them going to start with from the cox’s seat,” said Chuter.

“Because I’m a yachtie, I can steer a transit, I know about tides and crosswinds and all of that which is half of it. Then they said we don’t mind that you’re not the weight for a cox, our boats are so heavy that it doesn’t matter, we just need your skill.

“I don’t always get it perfect, no-one does, but often if there’s an opportunity to sneak inside someone that goes wide, I know how and when to do it,” she added.

Chuter accepted the group’s invitation to cox them in Saundersfoot with enthusiasm.

“I’m loving it. It’s a small group and it’s fun,” she said.

Chuter has clearly wholeheartedly embraced her new lease of rowing life – and it is certain that her crew were lucky to have her on board in Saundersfoot’s challenging conditions.