Crusader Rowing: Spring Fling Regatta Report

We competed in our second regatta of the season on Lake Whitehurst at the Garden venue. It was a warm breezy day, with a SSW wind of 15-25 knots causing the referees to resort to floating starts (and not use the start platform.) A significant result was our MN8 crew winning their event, finishing first ahead of Williamsburg Boat Club, Norfolk Academy, Hickory and Cox High School. The pic above shows the guys checking it down after crossing ahead of WBC in second (out of the shot on the left) and NA in orange nipping Hickory for third. Cox High School is a distant 5th. Well done, guys!

Their performance is significant because WBC, a composite program drawing from several high schools, was the dominate team, winning ten of the fifteen events they entered and most of the events the didn't win were taken by either First Colonial or Hickory, public school programs that started rowing in August.

The MN8 crew preparing to leave the launch dock

Their start sequence was captured from the ref launch by Sean's dad and is shown below. Pretty sloppy rowing for the first two or three strokes and settled down nicely. NA in orange shot out front pretty quickly (as did Hickory in green) but our guys reeled them in and finished first. The whole crew showed a relaxed controlled slide with good length. The rate is about 28 spm - a little high for this novice crew. It seems that most of the time, most of the crew is dropping in late. Jake's oar is loading up first.

The mast-mounted GoPro recorded the whole race. I especially like the enthusiasm at the finish!

Four other of our crews won ribbons in their events: the WV8 crew (below) who finished ahead of First Colonial, the WV4 crew who finished ahead of Princess Anne, the M2V4 crew who scrambled to make the start and still finished ahead of Norfolk Collegiate, and the MV4 crew who finished ahead of Cape Henry.

The WV8 crew at finish

The WV8 crew at launch

More pics and some edited video to come. Results are below. Because of the shortened course length (floating starts) I have not included the absolute time of finish. The relative times from the first place crews are interesting, when comparing to the delta-ts from the first regatta:

Event delta t Season Opener delta t Spring Fling

WV8 0:22.2 0:33.6

MN8 0:59.5 -0:10.6

WV4 0:19.9 0:36.4

M2V4 1:11.6 0:44.7

W2V4 0:34.3 1:13.9

MV4 0:34.7 0:41.0

All of our crews in this regatta finished further behind the first place crew in the above events (delta t increased), except for the MN8 and the M2V4 crews which decreased the delta t from the first regatta. The M2V4 crew deserves both a scolding and some kudos. I had decided to have the stern four of the MN8 crew row up to the second varsity. These guys launched only 30 minutes after winning that event. Maybe they were basking in adulation or maybe they were just tired, but at first call for the M2V4 event their hull (Four Mile Run) was still strapped to the trailer! We had an all-hands evolution to get the boat rigged while the event had a second call. The guys launched at last call and had to almost race down the course to make their start. I'm sure they would have done much better had the boat been rigged and they could have had a relaxing paddle to the start. Lesson to be learned: all team members need to be aware of the schedule and each crew needs to be "ready to launch 40 minutes before the event time."

The M2V4 crew

Their start sequence is below. The NoCo crew in the adjacent lane caused some headaches, to be sure.

We were hampered by a number of our varsity folks missing the regatta due to injury (Sean), family commitments (Sabrina, Rolando, Maddie) or school related functions (Noah, Mikaela, J.P., Eleni). The two Charlies did not compete in a varsity sweep event, instead they focused on their still evolving sculling. I note they still have a ways to go to get competitive (90 seconds behind the winning times from M2X events in the season opener.)

Charlie squared

The video below shows some of their rowing. It appears that the leg drive is not as strong as it should be and the recovery is a bit rushed.

Our juniors and seniors may also have been preoccupied with thoughts of going to the prom (even though they did clean up nicely - see the pic taken by Mrs. Baker!)