Bristol 2009
What an exciting day’s racing in lovely weather- Bristol only seems to deal us with extremes of blistering heat or torrential rain though.
Clashes, crashes and lost teeth
Lots of close racing, too close in fact with several clashes mid-course. We got off lightly with just the loss of a dragon’s tooth off the boat against the jetty!
Part of the problem being that it is a straight course but on a curved stretch of the harbour, so for crews in the middle lanes who didn’t have any finish buoys in the middle to aim for, it was perhaps easier to use the curve of the bank to judge your position. This problem was worse for the 500m where lane one couldn’t see the finish from the start because of a blasted catamaran so everyone has to shunt over leaving lane four to come in at an angle so that they could be parallel to the other crews involved.
These close encounters continued all morning until Thames capsized and after that every boat kept themselves to themselves; fear possibly of the worst-case scenario. This is what happened if you missed it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbs7RLRI9_c
The Black Mamba is a horrid boat to helm. It rocks in the slightest breeze, or if someone leans out too far. And once it is knocked off course (a feather would do it) you can’t get it back on line without massively dragging the helmarm in the water. I’ve no idea how it was paddled across the Channel a couple of years ago.
Several times I’ve been in it and thought it was going to tip over; so if, say, you were too close to another crew, by choice or by chance, you might get sucked into them by their undertow. If you can’t flick the boat out with the helmarm you’re going to get hit by their bow wave at close range. That close, and a bow wave as big as Kingston’s, is going to rock it. If the helm can’t get it balanced again it is going to tip, if a bow wave gets underneath a boat as unstable as the Mamba, it will tip further and if people slide along their seats it just becomes a positive feedback cycle.
Riding our luck 1
The aftermath was a mess, no-one taking charge in the water and everyone swimming for the shore en-mass. Therefore we’ll run through the buddy system and capsize drill at training just so everyone is happy with what we do in such a situation. Furthermore, if there are any juniors in the boat or any one who can’t swim they must wear a buoyancy aid. There were some people in that capsized vessel who weren’t able to swim. The procedures are in place for a reason and only in hindsight do you know that you’ve been riding your luck all along.
Riding our luck 2 or the Tortoise and the Hare
Our performances, lets be honest, weren’t great. So managing to get to 11th place in the 200m is a great result; just a shame we couldn’t say it was based on merit. This is how not to do it because it won’t work next time:
Be late loading the boat and be slow doing it; watch the race you are supposed to be in go speeding past you; get put into the next race which is the next level up; keep clear of the other boats in the race by letting them race away in front of you; watch two of the crews clash; overtake these crews and win the race; winner goes through to the next round; no-one appeals against you. Lucky lucky Wraysbury.
Timing
Please get to the boat on time. Please don’t dawdle when loading, please give yourselves plenty of time to get to the start. Easy really. Next time I don’t think we will be so lucky to get put in the next race.
Back to reality
The 500m were, I thought, better in terms of timing, pace and length, but without outside intervention we sunk to 18th overall; a bit of a comedown from Exeter. Obviously the balance was a permanent issue which we could only do so much about with what we had on board (thanks Sean) and we could do with more people in the boat so we don’t have gaps, but these are things we need to work on. The 200m seemed rather frantic which meant we didn’t get enough length and didn’t get the maximum out of each stroke. By the time the 500m came about and we’d agreed on length calls, instead of power, the rate seemed better, with people more composed and able to reach forward. We just need to keep it up throughout the day, starting with the first race. Lots to work on then starting on Thursday night. Hope the photos give us something to work with.
Prizes Galore
We didn’t win anything this time, but that is not because I didn’t try to get us anything. There were some surplus trophies at the end and I tried to gain us some (to balance the boat possibly) but the officials were having none of it. Some of the categories I conjured up included:
- Most memberships paid for in a day by any crew (seven! Well done!)
- Luckiest win of the day
- Crew least likely to leap up the final standings but does it anyway.
Oh well, better luck next time.
Thank you to those that turned up and paddled, drummed or took photos; lets make it a better one next time in terms of turnout and results, we know we are capable of it.
