Concept2 World Erg Challenge

In these Coronavirus days we need something to encourage us to keep going. Enter the Concept2 World Erg Challenge for which we’ve formed the “Chesterton RC” team. As of our group “outing” this Sunday morning we’ve done a total of 682,066m and are #243; it’s all to play for up to April the 15th. I should add that this is the “men’s” virtual outing; the women had one on Saturday. But the WEC team is mixed.

OK, it’s now over. How did we do? Here’s our Team Meters:

1	Ralph Percival		Over	        GBR	333,333m 

2	Simon Emmings		Cambridge	GBR	220,000m 

3	Conor Burgess		Sawston	        GBR	200,002m 

4	Steve O'Row		Coton	        GBR	180,435m 

5	Paul Holland		Cambridge	GBR	168,754m 

6	David Byrne		Cambridge	GBR	139,447m 

7	William Connolley	Coton	        GBR	135,000m 

8	Joanna Raskin		Cambridge	GBR	132,958m 

9	Ian Foster		Ely	        GBR	112,210m 

10	Anne Roberts		Cambridge	GBR	104,356m 

11	Thomas Pryke		                GBR	0m

And overall? Final score was #165, with 1,726,495m, ahead of the US Marines, and quite a lot of other people. And of the "on water" teams of our (6-20) size, we were #32. Some impressive distances from the mad people at the top of the leader board, Ralph's carefully arranged 3's meshing nicely with Conor's response to Simon's 2's. And I should mention that Ralph and Paul did the "April Fool" challenge too.

Sunday Sculling School

Early January saw the sun shine down upon our ad-hoc Sculling School. It’s generally fairly quiet down by Queens’ early on, giving a chance to practice in peace and quiet before developing the skills and courage to venture further afield.

We have heavy and lightweight sculls, a double and a quad available.

Ely head

Whan that Novembbr, with his shoures soote

The droghte of Sommer hath perced to the roote

And smale fysshes maken melodye,

That slepen al the nyght with open eye-

(So Pryketh hem Nature in hir corages);

Thanne longen folk to goon on outinges

And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes

To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;

And specially from every shires ende

Of Engelond, to Ely they wende,

The hooly blisful ryvvere for to seke

That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.

Anyway, yes, where was I? It was the Ely head again, once known as the Ely Small Boats Head, but no longer. We have a ladies IV+, a Mx Quad, and a M VIII, racing in various divisions. When I got there is was weirdly empty with only our trestles to reveal our presence; the middle division with the IV+ and 4x- had ended up going off rather late, and come back rather wet, though it was not rainy just a bit grey. Ely was the usual industrial wasteland chic.

Here we see our heroic crew (if you’re wondering where the heroic 4x- or IV+ are, well, they carelessly didn’t take pix of themselves): from the bows, Ondrej, Jon, William, Sam, Steve O, Ian, Harry, Tom; Manja.

Here’s a list of all the crews, from Conor:

Richard - MasF 1x - 25:11.8 (23:54.8 adjusted)

Women’s Four - 25:58.4

Mixed Quad - 22:16.3 (21.18.3 adjusted)

Composite Quad - 12:46.5 (short course, 12:24.5 adjusted)

Men’s VIII - 19:06.1

From which I see there were boats there I didn’t even know about. Full results on RowClock. There were three Open VIII’s, in order Bedford, us and Nines. Both Bedford and Nines were tardy to the start line; Bedford started in front and stayed there; Nines slunk off and we were “chased” by Tabs, but we dropped them. The row was fine; decent quality and reasonable effort but with a slight air of unreality about it, at least for me, I’ve no idea what anyone else thought. We came second: well behind Bedford who looked Young and Fit and Rippling with Glossy Muscles; and comfortably ahead of Nines.

Bumps 2019 day 5

Last night all done. Blades for W2 (vid) and M3 (vid). Followed by an excellent night at the Waterman where I may have drunk a little more than I intended, followed by City where I definitely did.

Of M3: Congratualtions on your blades. Dave B says it's been a narrative arc from utter shite to M2.5 standard.

Of M1: a splendid powerful row-over. We were chasing Robs 2 (again! They’d failed to quite get Tabs 3 last night) and chased by Peterborough, who had got City 2 really quite quickly, so we were on our mettle (also they’d been poncing around Queens’ wearing flags prematurely…). We upped our start tempo and held it longer, resulting in Peterborough never getting more than on station, and us getting a whistle on Robs just before FP. After that we held P and chased R until we chased them onto Tabs around Ditton, which saw some exciting and good coxing by Manja to see us round the bumped-out boats and onto the reach, and home. Very satisfying and well worth the effort.

Bumps 2019, day 4

Rachel’s round-up:

W4 down :( a much better row than our first outing on Monday - the furthest so far. Let's hold 99 9 off tomorrow. Vid.

M3 up! Well done boys. Vid.

W3 - super epic gutsy row over from canvas to escaping - awesome effort ladies. Same again tomorrow? - you've got to push those pesky kids away. Vid (combo with W2)

W2 - another bump up! Nice so you're on for at least one bottle of rose (as it stands) and nine straws. Vid (combo with W3)

M2 - a row over :/ the Sharks were just a bit quicker on Xpress 2 than you were on them. Vid. [Editors comment: M2 didn’t sign on for rowing this far, but then again neither did Sharks…]

W1 - a row over - and even though I do say so myself the best row to date. Never in any real danger from city 2 we decided to make Cantabs work. Vid.

Finally M1 - a row over - the most miles rowed in the club so far. Vids: Jo, bowcam.

Here may be a good place to acknowledge Jo Crisall’s excellent videoing work for us all.

Bumps 2019, day 3

The relentless bumping action continues…

M3: rest day

M2: up. Blog. Vid (1/4 length up after 6 strokes; down to a length at 10; 1/2 length at 20; 3 whistles at 30; overlap at 46 (you’re slowing down boyz…); very late concede from City at 63 with Chris sternly telling their cox to be sensible).

M1: row-over (but a good one, you understand). Vid.

W1: down. Vid. Slowmo of start.

W2: up

W3: up (no vid :-)

Image sources: many, culled from facebook.

Of M1: another smooth row-down, a few drops of rain nothing to worry about, time to relax-aka-stress before the four-minute gun, and the one minute has gone and I remember to take my tech-top off so that usefully gets me to 45 seconds, push off, maybe we’re pointing out a bit too much but we get a smooth start anyway and the race is on again. With day one gone the stress is less (good; but also I need to remember that the “fun” of that uncertainty is only there for a day, savour it while it lasts) and City dutifully fall back (possibly they try a charge off the start but if so it comes to nothing) and it all feels good but there are no whistles… this isn’t totally unexpected as we’re not really hoping to get them before the reach, possibly this is a mistake. After Grassy it gets really bumpy for a bit, but it isn’t until we’re on the Reach that we really start trying to reel them in. By the bridge we’re down to 3/4, but that’s not quite enough… Bowriggercam vid.

Bumps 2019, day 2

The big one…

M1: Well I don’t know about you but I was a bit nervous, somewhat damped down by having a lot to do and only waking up at 18:30. At the boathouse well in time and Conor and Steve O were already there, as well as a buzz of Robs and Press and Champs and so we could rest and admire our new C*** tech tops, thank you Jonathan. Breathing helped, and we boat, and row to Stourbridge to wait, with Tom W in City 3 just ahead, and always there’s that wondering how good you are this year and how good everyone else is. A still evening, getting a bit dark, a good row down, a good practice start at the Plough, and onto station with Simon and Ralph waiting, and get out for a bit, then the 4 minute gun and arrange kit, turn on camera, last drink of water and empty the bottle, and before you know it we’re poling out and coming forward on ten and squared on seven and maybe pointing out just a tiny bit too much and we’re off. By first post the nerves are gone and it’s plain we’re faster than City two behind, have gone through a good start and are doing fine, and can hear Simon from the bank telling us we’re on station with Nines, which is where we stay until they bump out down the Reach, and so we row over, throwing in a pretend attempt at the overbump on Tabs 3 towards the end. Vid Jo; Jonathan; riggercam.

W1: row over (our new and noisy position for this year at 7. We rowed over - a long and strong row over watching City2 getting bumped behind us by Cantabs4 and chasing cantabs3 who eventually bumped Nines 1 as we headed for the railway bridge. A strong start (our fastest row to date) holding our position at 7). Vid.

M2, W2, W3: rest day

M3: up! (the mighty M3 - remaining mighty with another bump up)

W4: row over (carnage ensued on first post corner (w1 saw the slightly shortened Isle of Ely boat on the row to the start). I've been told 99 7 bumped the Isle of Ely 2 (not what the chart says) and then there was some confusing involving rowing on - rechasing, boat bending and then river blocking and stopping the race and another nines crew joining the mess and then Champs claiming technical bump on us.....but anyway (tl/dr) w4 got a technical row over). Vid.

Bumps, 2019, day 1

Gosh, is it that time already? We’ll skip the long lead-in and move straight onto…

W4 unfortunately we got bumped by 99's 8 (vid) but had a super strong start - we just need to curb the enthusiasm... tomorrow you will have a less loud position for the gun and someone who knows what they are doing coxing you.
M3 - bumped up catching champs 4 somewhere before first post corner.
W3 had a gloriously strong looking row over after the boats ahead bumped out.
W2 bumped champs 4.
And lastly and leastly M2 bumped up (vid) bumping cantabs 6 (the crew formerly known as tab 2…). To quote the immortal Paul H “tag your emotions to each stroke and trace your finger along the lines of memory that radiate from the starting gun’s roar”.

Tomorrow sees w4 and m3 racing (as above) and w1 starting at 7th on the river racing at 20:10 chasing Cantabs 3 and M1 starting at 11th racing at 20:45 chasing nines 2.

• Pix from the M3 division, by Tabs.

Winter League, 2019

We had rather a lot of boats in this year, largely thanks to the Ladies squad, but an outbreak of sculling also contributed.

Of the weather: WL3 was a beautiful day, with a mild headwind. WL2 was pretty damn windy. WL1 I forget.

Of the small boats

Conor: 00:12:04.800:12:06.9 00:11:36.5 00:35:48.2 (2/4)

Richard: 00:12:46.100:13:42.300:12:51.8 00:39:20.2 (3/6)

Steve O: 00:12:27.8 00:13:11.2 00:12:40.1 00:38:19.1 (2/5)

William: 00:13:45.8 00:14:23.2 00:13:24.2 00:41:33.2 (4/5)

Felicity: 00:14:14.2 00:15:23.5 00:14:26.5 00:44:04.2 (2/4)

Conor / Steve O: (DNS) 00:11:58.2 00:11:16.9 00:23:15.1 (2/2)

Jonathan / Dave: 00:11:36.9 00:11:56.0 00:11:16.8 00:34:49.7 (2/4)

Of the IVs and 4x’s

W 4- (Turvill): 00:12:25.3 00:12:24.4 00:11:56.7 00:36:46.4 (2/3)

W 4- (Burgess) : 00:12:15.7 00:13:30.8 00:12:32.3 00:38:18.8 (3/3)

W 4+ (Coetzee): 00:13:47.4 00:14:31.5 00:12:59.3 00:41:18.2 (1/2)

W 4x- (Coates-Holland): 00:13:07.8 00:13:20.6 00:13:22.6 00:39:51.0 (5/5)

M 4x- (Richards): 00:11:33.5 00:11:32.2 00:10:47.8 00:33:53.5 (2/3)

Of the VIIIs

M Club B: 00:10:57.8 00:10:53.2 00:10:02.8 00:31:53.8 (4/5)

M Nov: 00:12:09.8 00:11:35.7 00:11:37.1 00:35:22.6 (4/6)

W Club B (Barkes): 00:11:53.1 00:13:08.0 00:11:22.4 00:36:23.5 (2/6)

W Club B (Campbell): 00:12:05.1 00:12:53.8 00:11:52.1 00:36:51.0 (4/6)

W Nov: 00:13:06.2 00:13:07.1 00:12:46.6 00:38:59.9 (2/5)

Loch Ness; or, An antidote to the Tideway

By “Dr A”.

With the regatta season winding down, racing tends to move towards the long-distance variety. And this year, a Northern alternative to the Boston Marathon was proposed for two intrepid / foolhardy members of Chesterton Rowing Club.

Instead of a river race, this would be in the land of mythic monsters and crashing waves. Loch Ness. Fort Augustus to Dores. 22.7 miles. What was there not to like? Chasing the record set by the legendary Scot, World Champion sculler Peter Haining, but also simply as an exercise in survival and wave surfing (of which more below) and self-discovery.

So, when Jonathan suggested we do it I was quick to agree. A boat was organised (a rather fabulous coastal double in, do our eyes deceive us, Chesterton blue) and we were in. It was only as we drove down from Inverness (it takes about an hour to drive the length of the Loch!) and saw the waves that serious concerns and a creeping sense of foreboding started to fill our heads. The acclimatisation paddle on the evening before was perfectly lovely and the loch surface was barely troubled by the gentlest of breezes. Conditions couldn’t get much better than that we thought.

It was all going so well… Our heroes: Steven Andrews and Jonathan Pilgrim.

The next morning, arriving at the launch site, the water was the like of which numerous locals hadn’t seem for some considerable while, a mirror-smooth surface that looked like one could see the reflection of the entire sky.  In fact the only perturbation seemed to lie on the horizon where the horizon met the loch, a result of the length of the piece of water that lay ahead and the curvature of the earth.

The start was admirably informal, with a nice assortment of river racing craft and more robust vessels.  The first half was just lovely. The first quarter being amazing. Starting off on a glassy millpond the only concern was that it was quite a long way and at least one of the crew slightly resented pulling along such an impressively heavy boat.

A strong start saw us only led by a racing quad and eight. After a quick pause to remove some layers of clothing, we rowed the rest of the way just in just our club all-in-one’s. Just warm enough for the sustained effort to keep us warm (2:20 to 2:30 split, for those who are interested).

The second half was a different matter. Slowly but surely the waves started to get bigger and it started to get harder to figure out how to hold any kind of split. 2:30 was the aim but 2:40 And 2:20 would randomly pop up. And it just got rougher as was obvious when the eight appeared again in front of us, all of its crew looking rather bedraggled. We would eventually pass them as they were sinking, having gone the wrong way around a fish farm. By this stage my glutes were on fire (training, or even some Sculling in the last year may have helped that) and the waves meant that every now and then you would be rowing uphill. The effort leading to the occasional yelp of pain. Luckily this was balanced by the whoops of enjoyment as we surfed down the other side. But what an amazing piece of water to row on, hemmed in by the steep sides of the great glen, a feature delineated by an ancient geological fault that splits Scotland in two, and the departure point slowly dipping below the horizon.

Ah, that’s much better.

Then there was just the finish to deal with. Trying to exit the boat in crashing waves and the potential to be smashed against some ill-placed rocks. We were very glad when Audrey, our fabulous bank party and photographer, jumped in to help. And that our legs didn't give way when we jumped out. Quite an effort to lift the boat out and on to trestles and then collapse. A well-earned beer followed and some fraternal banter with our fellow competitors.

So, we finished second overall, only beaten by a very fancy Empacher quad, the like of which one would expect to see at an Olympic regatta, which sank twice. They did it in 2:45 to our 3:12. The fastest crossing in a coastal boat, ever! (perhaps…..)

All in all, a really rather special event and there will certainly be another attempt from the Club. A rough day on the Tideway will never quite hold the same terror for these two club members.

Video (see 1:14). More (9:45; actually a bit earlier you get to see the quad trying to land, which is fun).