The Club's Results

Slightly disappointing to finish 20th; however our time would have placed us third in Club fours and we were pleased with that last year so perhaps it's not too bad.
On the shortened course we started fairly close to Bates in front, meanwhile Penn AC overtook the crew behind us very quickly and started to make a move for us before Weeks. We took a very sharp Weeks Bridge corner right on Bates' tail and managed to buy a few seconds off Penn as they didn't corner as well, possibly because their cox was now concentrating on gesturing at us to move. Penn came through us and Bates fairly soon after but unfortunately we were left on the outside of Bates for the masive bowside corner which probably cost us a few seconds and a place.
We just made it through Charles Eliot Bridge and as the corner straightened up absolutely dropped Bates - which was nice, but served to heighten our frustration at being forced wide on the corner. The run-in then seemed a lot shorter than last year, but this probably reflects the shorter course. (Simon)

Defending last year's third place was always going to be tricky given that those attaining that position for BPBC were inelegible this year. Despite meeting our bowman, Dave from U. of Chicago, over 36 hours before our race was due to start, we thought it was going to be a tough race. One 'über-tower' and three outings later, and it was unfortunately fairly clear that we were unlikely to win the race but, ever-optimistic, were hoping to get a finish somewhere towards the middle of the pack and have a jolly good row.
On the morning of the race, it was announced that the course had been shortened to 2.3 miles instead of the usual 3.0 due to a slight swell in the basin. This was Good News for the legendary fitness levels of certain Black Prince members.
At the start of the race itself, the crews behind were showing that they had a faster cruising speed than our front-loaded Empacher could muster, with its mix of British and American rowing styles. Things were going fairly respectably down the opening straight, and morale seemed good in the crew, but coming into Weeks Bridge, a rather deceptive and tight boswide corner, the fates decided to show the full force of their displeasure. All was well until the apex of the corner when crew number 5, U. of Chicago, came within overtaking range. As the rules require the racing line to be conceded, with draconian time penalties for infringements, this caused the good ship 'Jake' to steer hard to the outside of the corner to avert collision. After this, we probably rowed twice as far as the rest of the field, having to cede the line on each subsequent corner as more and more crews came past. Near the end, our coxbox decided to die on us, causing spannering of our intended "Up 2" pushes and seeing crew number 17, Bosporos, come past to seal our fate (and win the race themselves).
As if this all weren't enough, we got back to MIT BH to find we'd been hit with 2 minutes of time penalties which set us firmly at the back of the field. These were later rescinded, for reasons unknown, putting us next-to-last in our category and six seconds behind the women's IV. (Matt)