Sunday, October 20, 2019

Charlie T. at the Head of the Charles Regatta®


    On October 20th, Charlie T. represented Catholic High School on an international stage at the Head of the Charles Regatta® in Boston. Catholic High was one of 762 rowing teams, clubs, and organizations from around the world to participate in the ultimate two-day rowing extravaganza. Over 11,000 athletes competed in 66 different events. The course was a 5000 meter race down the Charles River, featuring seven major turns and six bridges. Charlie rowed as one of 41 entries in the Men's youth singles event that included the current US Rowing U19 national champion, the US Rowing  U17 national champion, and a rower from Ireland that recently finished 2nd in the World Rowing junior championships held in Japan. 

Charlie and his dad on the banks of the Charles River two days before the race
   
 The conditions were cool but with light winds. The head race format is for rowers to start sequentially with a 15 second interval between rowers. The total elapsed time from crossing the starting line to the finish line determines the winner. Because competitors move at different speeds, faster rowers can catch up with those who started before them and any rower can be passed by a faster rower that started behind him.  So Charlie had to negotiate the turns, the bridges, and the traffic - yielding to those that were coming up from behind and passing those he caught.


    Charlie finished 30th of 41, with a personal best time of 20:46, besting guys from Washington State, Detroit, California, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New York, Seattle, Minnesota and Rhode Island. We're proud of you Charlie!


         The event was live streamed at two points along the course and Charlie appears at the 57:00 mark of this video and at 1:50:57 of this video
®Head Of The Charles is a registered trademark of the Cambridge Boat Club, Gerry’s Landing Road, Cambridge, MA. 

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Scullers at Learn-to-Row

Saturday's calm conditions proved ideal for learning to scull. Sweep rowers Olivia, Eileen, Ashley and Christian took out singles under the watchful eye of Coach O'Brien. All stayed dry and might be racing in the M1X, M2X, W1X or W2X events in the spring sprint season. Maybe a quad is needed in the future?


Monday, October 14, 2019

Charlie T at the Head of the James



The venue at James River High School at dawn. This year they have new docks and two ramps! We should make a trip there in the spring.


Charlie at the finish.

Charlie T. made the trip to the Head of the James as a final prep before his trip to Boston and the Head of the Charles. He finished  3rd of 7, but that was after rowing nine miles. Great Bridge had asked him to fill a seat in their eight, so he rowed 3 miles to the start of the course, then raced three miles downstream in the eight, then rowed our single three miles back to the start before racing in his event. A little fatigue was evident as he took one of the final turns quite a bit wide (see below).


The results of his event are below. Of the 119 entries, he rowed the course faster than 74 of them.


Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Charlie T. wins event in the Oyster Reef Regatta

On Sunday October 6th, Charlie rowed in the Oyster Reef Regatta head race in preparation for his trip to the Head of the Charles River.


Charlie started behind the entry from Williamsburg Boat Club and handedly beat him. Enroute to his blue ribbon finish time of 25:13 for the 5000m course he passed a 1MX and four W4+ crews while negotiating the two bridges. Next up for Charlie is the Head of the James River the weekend of Oct 12/13.

Below are the times for the three racing sessions. In the second session (when Charlie rowed the course) the wind had picked up quite a bit as compared to the first session. During the second session his elapsed time was lower than all other entries except for the top two men's junior 8+s from WBC. Well done, Charlie!