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