Friday, September 2, 2016

Hermine scrubs LTR on the 3rd


With rain, lots of wind and moderate to major flooding at 11:00 am, we scrubed the Learn-to-Row session for Saturday the 3rd.

Enjoy the replay of rowing highlights from our crews at Rio.


Saturday, August 27, 2016

Learn-to-Row sessions continue


We had a nice group on Saturday the 27th -- almost enough to boat two eights (we actually rowed one eight as a seven, with an empty bow seat.) Thanks to Noah and Jess we had a couple of experienced coxswains. Thanks to the varsity that came and allowed us to get out to the larger part of the creek. I got some video with the go-pro. The edited footage is below. I hope to see you all next week!








Sunday, August 7, 2016

Learn to Row sessions start August 13th

from 10:00-12:00 at Lakewood Park.


Try a new sport!
The BSCHS
crew team is
recruiting new
members.





Rowing (aka crew) at Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School is a varsity sport with competition among 17 area high school teams, both private and public, during the spring season. Because there is no organized “youth rowing” programs all high school students enter the sport as equals. If you’re intrigued with a new sport and you want to start even with everyone else, rowing may be the ticket.


Coach Bousquet, a math teacher and math department head at Bishop Sullivan Catholic, will offer free learn-to-row sessions on Saturday mornings this summer and fall for students planning on attending Catholic. Rising eighth graders from our feeder schools may also be eligible. The sessions will be held at the Robinson Rowing Center at Lakewood Park  in Norfolk 
(see the googlemap on the sidebar to the right). Monitor the team blog: catholiccrew.blogspot.com for dates and times. Feel free to e-mail coach Bousquet at bousquej@chsvb.org for more information.

So what might being on the crew team be like? Below are a few quotes from last year’s novices.


        This was my first year doing crew and I didn't know what to expect but I ended up finding a sport that I really like. I have learned what it's like to rely on teammates and how much my team mates rely on me. I really enjoyed being out on the water and becoming stronger at a new sport. -Katie O'Brien

    I enjoyed learning how to crew for my first year and work as a team with my fellow rowers. I attended "How to Crew" sessions over the summer and developed skills that I used on the racecourse. I have had so much fun this year, and I am planning to row again next season. Go Crusaders! -Gabby Kayal

    My experience on the crew team has been extremely memorable and exciting. I loved being out on the water in nature, being able to forget about the troubles and stresses of school, and row with kids. I formed a bond with everyone on the team, and that is what I enjoyed most about crew. -Noah Lee

    I had a great time this Crew season! The "Learn-How-to-Row" sessions this past summer really helped me prepare and develop the rowing skills needed for the upcoming season. Crew is a worthwhile experience where you can have fun working as a team, as well as developing great relationships and friendships with your teammates! Go Crew and CRU! -Christy Kayal

    During the fall session, it helped me prepare for the upcoming crew season. Once the crew season started, I already knew the basics of rowing and rigging and de-rigging a boat. Another plus was that I had established relationships with the some of the crew team. During the crew season, winning first place in the men's novice 4 boat at the end of the season made me realize that working together as a team was a great accomplishment. I built not only physical strength but also friendships. -Rolando Banaag

    I really enjoyed crew this year and look forward to next year! I met so many new friends and learned great rowing technique that I will be able to use for the crew seasons ahead of me. Go Crusaders! -Hali Elliott


So we can get an idea on numbers and who might be attending, please e-mail coach Bousquet with your name and grade before Saturday morning. Sessions are weather dependent and if the weather conditions are not suitable he will inform everyone late Friday night that the session will be cancelled. 

Thanks!

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Summer Projects

Since I've been given the go-ahead from my oncologist to "resume normal activity," for me that means summer crew projects! Here is a listing of what I've been playing with:

Summer project #1 - the Joan Francis double

At the end of the season we purchased the Joan Francis, a 1989 vintage Vespoli double, from HRRC for $400. The boat needed some work, especially removing the red deck chevron and repainting it with the Bishop Sullivan Green. The frames were also crushed due to previous users tightening the rigger bolts too much and I had to rebuild them. New track risers were also bought and installed. The hull, too, received a complete re-paint. Below is the before and after.










The boat is ready to go, and Coach O'Brien is eager to start sculling training soon. Dates and times to be announced. I suppose we should rename it -- how about Joan of Arc/St. Francis???

Summer Project #2 - More slings

I built two more sets of slings so we can safely rig four boats instead of just two. This project just cost a hundred dollars worth of material and a couple of days cutting, gluing and screwing. The only problem is the storage space in the boathouse is getting a bit tight!




Summer Project #3 - Additional oar racks

This was just a quick project to install two more oars racks, primarily to keep our tulip blades from hitting the floor, but also to provides future storage space for another set of eight sweep oars.




Summer Project #4 - Re-design of Out to Launch

I made two minor and one major modification to the launch to improve its performance and usefulness. The leaky deck hatches were removed and sealed and replaced with watertight inspection ports. New bow spray shields were made and installed. The biggest change was removing the old engine sponson (which created lots of drag and spray) and replacing it with a modified WinTech sponson. The relative difference can be seen in the two videos below, one shot a couple of years ago with the old sponson and the second shot just last week with the new WinTech sponson.




It's hard to tell the speed difference but the lack of spray at the engine in the second video shows how much cleaner the boat moves through the water, resulting in greater speed.

Summer Project #5 - A second coach's launch

The WinTech launch we got from Bishop Ireton is just about ready to go.  As you may recall from this post last October Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria gave us an old WinTech wakeless launch in deplorable condition (the rowing coach at Bishop Ireton was about to take a chainsaw to the boat and throw the pieces into a dumpster!) Since then the boat has been completely repaired, including a new engine and just needs the registration transferred from DC to Virginia to make it legal. Hopefully it will be in use for our fall training.


Summer Project #6 - A new logo

I liked the ODU rowing logo on their coach's launch and decided display something similar for our team.  With help from Allison Davis and Ryan Powell we now have the Crusader in front of crossed oars. The logo was unveiled at the Boys of '36 showing last night and will be on our launches and a new banner at the boathouse.




Summer Project #7 - A camera mast for the double

    I made a carbon fiber camera mast for the Joan Francis. Another one will be in the works for Wildcat. When finished we'll be able to record any crew in any boat. Additional GoPro camera will make it possible to record events that are near each other in the regatta event schedule since we won't have to wait for a boat to come ashore to move the camera...)




Thursday, July 7, 2016

Advance screening of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: The Boys of '36

 


    Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School, in conjunction with US Rowing and WHRO-15, the local PBS affiliate, will host an advance screening of  AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: The Boys of '36 on Tuesday, July 19th at 7:00 p.m. in the Barry Robinson Theater at 4552 Princess Anne Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23462. The one hour documentary is inspired by Dan Brown's best selling book The Boys in the Boat and tells the story of the US men's eight and their path to winning gold over Germany and Italy at Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympics.  

    

Sunday, May 15, 2016

VASRA Championships Regatta Report


We sent two crews to compete in the state championships. A full report will be coming soon but here are the highlights:


Our two crews (the WV4 and the W2V4) failed to make it out of their heat, a fate shared by half of all the sweep crews competing. Of the 25 EVSRA sweep crews (fours and eights,) the region's performance was even worse (only 6 out of 25 crews advanced.) For example, NA sent seven crews and six failed to get out of their heats. Our girls represented Bishop Sullivan Catholic well. 

It was heartening to see our W-JR-4 girls (Clare, Nicole, Anna, Reilly with Jess driving) beat Georgetown Visitation (my mother's alma mater) across the line by 0.2 seconds for 4th place. These girls also had better finish times than Yorktown, Briar Woods and Mount Vernon who raced in the previous heat. This crew included Reilly Schindler, a true novice.

Our W-JR-4 crew nipping Georgetown Visitation at the finish.

Our W-1-4 crew (Gabby, Christy, Erynn, Hali, with Maria driving) finished 6th in their heat and failed to advance, as did Norfolk Academy in the same heat and Granby and 1st Colonial in their heats (the top tier events are tough!)

The girls were able to pack up early and beat the rain, which shortened the competition (none of the V8 finals were completed.) I thank Mr Miller who acted as coach and the Kayals who drove and chaperoned. Since we sent no seniors, next year we can build on the experience and try again (and, God willing, I'll be able to join you!) 

Monday, May 9, 2016

ISR regatta report

Content coming soon. Please send me any pictures you may have.






Sunday, May 1, 2016

EVSRA Championship Regatta report

Content coming soon. If you have pictures, send them to me.




Saturday, April 23, 2016

Mathews Regatta report

   

    On Saturday April 23rd we traveled up to Mathews for their "middle season" regatta. Due to illness and prom activities our team was short twelve members and we had to juggle seat assignments and actually scratch one entry, but we did have eleven crews race down the course. We had a much needed break in the weather compared with the early season regattas. Four of our novices finally got a chance to actually participate in a race! The day started with showers at 5:00 a.m. in the school parking lot, but by the time we arrived in Mathews at 7:00 the skies had cleared and we were gifted with calm conditions for the first few races. There was a light breeze slowly building through the morning and by the time we were finished with our last race and loaded up for the trip home, the weather deteriorated with rain showers washing the boats off for us!

Our best finish was one of our WN4 crews which finished 2nd of 6.









I'll post results when I get them. The video will be edited and added over the next few days. If you have any additional pix, send them my way and I'll add them. Meanwhile, we did get a picture of most of the crew team that attended prom that night.

Some of our team at prom 2016

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Spring Fling Regatta report


Art by day???

Looking???

    What a difference a week makes! After suffering in wind and cold at James River we were finally treated to a nice race day for our third spring regatta of the season. Conditions on Lake Whitehurst at Norfolk's Botanical Garden started a bit cool with some wind but as the day wore on the temps rose and the wind fell. We entered eleven events with almost everyone getting two trips down the lake.

The WV4 crew in the lead, which they would lose to NC (in the yellow boat)


    Our first event was The WV4 where our girls lead most of the race only falling to NC in the last 200 meters. The time sheet for the other heats shows we are competitive with NA's B-boat but still have a ways to go to match their A-boat's time. Obviously we want to race against NC again and try to hold them off in a final sprint. The edited GoPro video of the race is below.


The WV4 crew
    Our next event was the WV8 with the four girls that rowed the WV4 as the stern four of the eight. After a very long delay at the start, the race was finally started. Our girls finished ahead of James River (a large public school program that rows year-round) but out of the money in fourth. Looking at the other heat we did have a better time than NA's B-boat and the crew from First Colonial, but the delta between our finish time and that of NA's A-boat is something that we have to work on (+12.8 seconds.) A pic shortly after the start and the edited GoPro video of the race are below.

The WV8 crew
   
 Our third event was a MN4 crew that had rowed only twice together and had Noah (a coxswain) in the bow. The crew finished third, significantly behind Granby and James River, but well ahead of Cape Henry (who had rigged their boat backwards with the port riggers on the starboard side and vice-versa). No video was taken of this race.

    Our fourth crew down the lake was the girls in the WN8 event. This crew had a number of rowers participating in their first race of the season so I'm sure there was a bit of nervousness in the boat. They finished third behind Granby and James River and about 18 seconds behind NA's finish time (in the other heat.) The edited GoPro video of the race is below.



    No video was taken of the remaining races, so the story will have to be told by the score sheet.


    The other 7 crews racing were the bow four out of the WV8, competing in a W2V4 event, and finishing 3rd of 4; the MV8 crew finishing 4th of 4; the first of two WN4 crews finishing 5th of 5 and the second of our WN4 crews finishing 4th of 4; both of our MV4 crews finishing 4th of 4; and our MxN8 crew finishing 3rd of 4.

The W2V4 crew


The MV8 at the catch
One of our WN4 crews

The MN4 crew heading down to the start

One of our MV4 crews neck and neck with NA
The other of our MV4 crews
Our Novice mixed 8 crew heading down

    Since we will be looking at the EVSRA championships in a couple of weeks, our focus at practice will be to specifically identify events in which we will compete, and keep constant a specific crew for each event. Since there is no "double rowing" in the championships it is likely that some team members will only compete in mixed events or in "exhibition" events (neither of which score points in that regatta.)

MV8 launching

The MV4 at the control commission

Post-race de-brief