The Club's Results

This guy looked vaguely competent in the warm up area, and as I am well aware that this is all it takes to beat me in a single, I knew I'd have to work hard. My start was rubbish, but it quickly became obvious that in the far worse conditions on the course we were both reduced to floundering wrecks and thus raw power would ultimately triumph. Thankfully he was a bit soft and I moved away to a couple of lengths and sat there. This state of affairs might have been preserved had I not hit a buoy (or two) somewhere near the finish and been forced to reopen the gap from just under a length.

First race of the regatta (albeit 40 mins late due to someone untying the start pontoon), and the glory of Black Prince was already beginning to unfold. (Rose the Twat)

Having waited around in the start area for 40 mins for my first race, I was less than amused to have to do so again for the second. The marshall seemed utterly clueless and couldn't raise the start umpire on his megaphone due to the wind, yet refused to try his radio as he didn't know how it worked. In the end I just ignored him and went to the start to see what the umpire wanted me to do. The race about to go off had someone else from the club of my opponent, who told me he didn't know where he was and thought he might still be asleep, so I was let through and rowed over. A nice chance to practice some UT1 in the headwind (I was bollocks). (Rose the Twat)

This guy had looked pretty nippy both in his previous races and doing his warm up. He also looked fairly small (I learned later that he was 16). The headwind had really picked up for this race and was worse than anything in which I have ever sculled before, so my tactic was to make as much shape as I could round the turn in order to try and ride over the worst of the waves. This worked to some extent, but his superior start and actual aptitude in a single took him about a length clear fairly quickly. Concentrating hard on technique as I was, I failed to notice one of the early buoys until it was too late, and dropped back a little. I understand I made up a small amount of ground over the middle of the course (remember 500m in a novice single in a headwind can take many minutes), though I wasn't looking round much. Unsurprisingly this meant I clipped another buoy close to the finish and ended up 1 2/3l down.

Pleasingly this guy went on to win, having recorded an easily verdict over all his other opponents, although it still doesn't really make up for the fact that my sculling is dire. (Rose the Twat)