Season Opener Regatta

We participated in the EVSRA's first regatta of the season on a cold Saturday at Botanical Garden. Even though we have had less than hoped for practice time on the water, we entered ten crews and everyone who attended managed at least one trip down the lake.

First up was our MV8 entry, but with injuries and absences we had novices sitting in the bow, two and three seats. The crew struggled off the line as evidenced with this vid from the start platform:

The crew finished less than three seconds behind Princess Anne (a school that has been rowing since August and had only varsity rowers in their boat.) Once we get the start sequence figured out and our novices in sync with the stroke, this crew has lots of potential. Thanks to Noah for coxing this thrown-together mix. Here's another video from the mast mounted GoPro:

Our second entry up was a Men's Novice Four crew who finished 2nd, beating the crew from Hickory and bettering the times of both Great Bridge and Cox High Schools in the other heat. It is notable that none of the other private schools that offer rowing as a spring-season only sport (NA, NCS or CH) even entered a crew in this event and that the crews from the large public high schools (Great Bridge, Cox, Hickory) started their novices in August. I see lots of potential in our MN4 crew as the season progresses.

Before the break in the schedule we launched the WV4 and the M2V4 crews. Both finished out of the money, probably due to lack of stamina leading to poor technique and the resulting check as the rowers rush the slide. The mast was mounted on Synchronicity for the WV4 race, but we forgot to turn on the camera!  

After the break we fielded out W2V4 entry. This crew again finished out of the money despite a solid start and a good first third of the race. Here are a couple of videos of that crew, again in Synchronicity -- the first showing the start and rowing with the leaders in the first 300 m. The second vid was taken later in the race where the check becomes prominent and the crew having dropped back.  

Our MV4 crew finished third in their event, ahead of our boathouse rivals, NoCo. The video shows the entire race, as seen from the mast mounted GoPro.

The MN4 crew filled the last four seats in our MN8 entry. This crew earned a ribbon for finishing ahead of Cox High School.

The video clips of that crew during the race are from Mr. Suhr in a following ref launch. The most obvious flaw is the poor timing. All eight oars must drop in at the same time. The stroke rower, by definition, sets the time and all others must follow. An early or late entry, relative to the stroke, causes set problems and a greater likelihood of catching a crab or of missing the water completely. We need to work on timing with our strong novices! The name on the Men's WinTech hull is  "σùν   χρονώ  νίκζ,"  which translates, "with timing, victory."

Four of our novice coxswains (Logan, Nina, Mia, and JoMarie) steered their first race on an unfamiliar body of water, guided to the finish with a strobe light marking the center of the course. The breeze was up and down most of the day creating some problems at the start and requiring delicate steering. Kudos to Nina who deftly steered pass a NA crew who rowed right through the middle of the WV8 race course. She stopped the boat safely until the NA obstruction was cleared, then restarted her crew who still managed to beat Princess Anne's WV8 crew (another large public high school who has been rowing since August.) The following ref placed our boat third ahead of Maury due to the obstruction. Truth be told, we finished only 13 seconds behind second place Granby, even after stopping, so our actual finish could have be 2nd. This crew is eager to race again on fair terms, especially after we manage to rein in the check on the recovery (no, footboards are not supposed to be yanked off the stretchers!)

The final results are below. Red indicates 2nd, Yellow indicates 3rd, and Green indicates also-rans. Blue will indicate a 1st place finish, something we WILL achieve in the next race.