The Club's Results

After our dangerous forays into over-preparation with a whole 4k of practise outing on the windy bit of Nene next to the lake, we meandered upto the start with a good few minutes to spare (in spite of discovering on boating that Sen joins other FaT boats in not having heel restraints...). However, on arriving, the umpire informed us that "the rest of your race is on the start", so we rushed to get attached, before further being informed that we had 4 minutes to go...

Anyway, onto the race. Laffan had informed me that the IC pair we were racing was going to be good, so we had to beat the Staines pair to progress. So, going off the start level with staines and a length and a half up on IC was a bit confusing. However, in the moderately choppy water I hit a wave, semi-lost control of the blade and a length disappeared. After that, IC got into their stride and powered away, just pipping Staines on the line with both finishing in 1:40s. As we guessed from the other heat times (next quickest being 1:45, 1:46, 1:49...), Staines and IC went on to win the two semis and finish first and second in the final. ah well, I seem to be good at picking bad draws this year.

Comically, when we watched the final we discovered why IC were slow off the start; the crew next to them, doing a fairly ordinary looking start, managed to get 3 draw strokes in before IC had put their blades in for the second. By about 150m in, they were rating a good 30 or so, and by the finish line they looked as if they'd just about got upto their 2k race pace and were ready to cruise, whereas the crews around them seemed to have mostly blown up with 100m to go. Had nobody told them they were coming for sprint racing? (Peter)

I did enquire afterwards and it turns out they geared the blades really hard for the tailwind and then took another pair of clams off at the start. We don't really do sprint racing at IC ;o)

Nice to see you all at the weekend though; good luck for the new season. (Erica)