That was until Monday when the club's Firebirds women's crew secured silver in the masters 180 female surf boat race at the 2021 edition of The Aussies on the Sunshine Coast.

The Firebirds scored two seconds and a fourth in their three rounds of racing, which gave them enough points for the silver.

The medal, the first in the club's history, concluded a strong season by the crew of Megan Titmus, Nicole Dwyer, Leonie Boyd, Brooke Green and sweep Greg Dalton.

Earlier this year they won their fourth consecutive Victorian Masters title in February before adding a silver in the Victorian Open Championships three weeks ago.

"It was amazing and great to follow up (the state medals) as we were on a bit of a high," boat captain Brooke Green said. "We took that into the national titles and rowing back in our age group we came away with silver, which was amazing. We put in a lot of hard work and it all paid off. It was a great finale to the season.

"It was the first ever national rowing medal for Port Fairy as we have never won any medal so that was exciting for us and the club as well."

Green credited the crew's training and the experience of sweep Greg Dalton for another strong season.

"We train really hard. We do cross training, sessions in the boat and we also do our own," she said. "As we get older we try to look after our bodies a bit better so we do cross training so we're not so punishing on our bodies.

"We train smart. We do runs, get on the ergo machines or do bike rides and then we have two sessions in the boat.

"Greg Dalton is a inspiration to us all and he has got such good ocean sense and makes our job easier when we've got him steering us. He just tells us what to do as we row and he guides us through it."

The Shearwaters men's crew of Paul Buchanan (sweep), Greg Dalton, Dean Dwyer, Adam McCosh and Scott Hetherington made the semi-final in the masters and didn't advance in the tough reserve male division.

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