Chesterton Rowing Club

It was a dark and snowy night...

2012-02-09T22:34:00.003Z

Tuesday was just very cold. Wednesday there was ice, and the mixed VIII had to be cancelled. Today day was warmer, the ice meleted, but as we pushed off a gentle snow started. By the time we got back...

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of either Simon or Fio: both looked like snowpeople after a bit; at least we rowers were moving. And warm(ish) snow beats -4 oC any time. Apparently the night-time coxing was easier, too, because the banks were more obvious.

As to the rowing: 3 reaches, with a very pleasing enthusiasm from the crew for the third reach. Short pieces up to the railway bridge up each reach; from my fallible memory, the best was the last (at 26), the worst was the first (at 28) and the 30 was tolerable. We have a problem with rushing; at 30, the natural rush-rate mostly corresponds to the stroke rate, but we're not properly in control. At 28, nasty things happen (so we should try to do this more and get it right). At 26 there was a pleasing amount of control coming forwards, and more power.

Winter chronicles, continued: Saturday

Reports varied as to the actual temperature, but all agreed that it was f*ck*ng freezing - literally so; at 8 am there was about a centimetre of ice on the river. My car said -10 oC; James H reported the Cambridge weather station at -12. Anyway you looked at it, ergs were inevitable, and that is what we did. The good bit, though, was that we did them as a matter of course.

It was an absolutely gorgeous morning if you ignored the cold: heavy rime on all the trees and absolutely still.

Head of the Cam: Saturday 28th April 2012

2012-02-02T21:43:00.000Z

Please make a date in your diary for the Head of the Cam Race which is to be held on SATURDAY 28th APRIL this year.

For entrants

Enquiries, prebooking, whatever: please contact the Race Secretary, William Connolley, at wmconnolley@gmail.com / 07985 935400.

Usual format, more details will be available soon. To while away the time, why not look at the Head of the Cam, 2011 featuring links to photos of all crews and videos too.

For us

Chesterton has run this event for some years; make sure that you keep the date free if at all possible, as we will need everyone to get involved and help out with marshalling and race organisation. It is also a fun, social day, it's usually good weather (fingers crossed!) and there will be a gathering in a local pub afterwards. Further emails will be sent round asking for specific roles to be filled, but for now just make sure that you are free all day if you can.

Erging theory

2012-02-01T18:41:00.007Z

With ergs increasingly in the news as you'll know from your emails, it is perhaps a good idea to put down a few wise words of advice.

Let's start off with a motto: "It never gets easier, you just go faster". In fact that isn't what I want to say at all, but its a great quote!

How not to hate ergs

This is the important bit. Many people seem to approach ergs as a once-a-year test for which-crew-will-I-get-into. Or, they do them so infrequently that every one becomes a quest for a new Personal Best or Seasons Best. This is a recipe for making every erg deeply unpleasant.

JH found Winter Workouts: Why do Rowers Fear the Erg? which expresses much the same thoughts. If you're doing running training, you don't do every practice run flat out, or near flat out. Ergs should be the same: do them regularly, but do most of them well backed off from your PB. They are supposed to be regular fitness training, not episodic tests.

How to like ergs

This is the converse of the above: positive advice as to what to do.

* Pick a piece to do regularly. Record your times / distances. Compete against yourself. Compete against your crew members, in a caring-sharing-group-huggy good way, not in a fanatical race to the top of the table way.
* Join heiaheia, and join the Chesterton group to share your training and see other people's.
* 30 mins is a good piece: long enough to gain fitness. 2k is good as a test piece but it isn't long enough.
* If you're new to all this (a) ask for advice and (b) consider starting off with 10 or 20 minutes before venturing on 30 mins.
* Establish a regular schedule, say once a week (assuming you're doing other training during the week; more if not).
* What works well for me is a "sawtooth" schedule, which is roughly: 30 minute pieces, done at PB-900m, then PB-700m, ..., PB-200m. That forms one set; repeat until fit. Possibly fling in a test piece at the end of each set or two. PB-800m is fairly easy, but you still sweat. PB-200m is hard work. Adjust the exact numbers to suit yourself.

How to do erg tests

However, if you really do want to try your hardest for a test, then you might like to read:

* How to: Pull a 2k test
* Something about rowing..? The 2K
* Dr Southgate's advice column from the old website.

Other good things about ergs

You can also use ergs to practice your rowing technique. Not all of it, obviously. But if you're told, in the boat, that you're rushing the slide; or you're told that you're not separating properly, or your hands-away is too slow: then all of that can be practised on the erg. And usually, if you'd like, someone will be available to coach you.

What we do with ergs

We're doing the ergs to get fit, at this time of year. But they will also form part of the crew selection process come the summer. So I'd better talk about how we compare people.

The current "table" is here, and it is aimed at Head of the Trent type distances, which is not too dissimilar to 30 minutes.

Weight adjustment

In order to compare scores there is a "raw" and a "weight adjusted" value. "raw" is, as you'd expect, exactly what the erg says. But in the real world a heavier person presses the boat down in the water and slows it down a little. So it is fair to correct the scores to a nominal weight. But a truely fair correction is elusive. What I've done is use a 2/9 power law for the weights, and correct against "your weight plus deadweight", where deadweight is your share of the boat+cox weight (which works out at about 20 kg). If all that is gobbledegook to you, all you need to know is that both the raw and adjusted values are judged, but the adjusted ought to have preference, and that in practice, it hasn't generally mattered which we use. If all that made sense but you'd like to know more, just ask, I can mail you the exciting spreadsheet for you to play with yourself.

Let's try to make it clearer by an example. The nominal weight I use is 85kg. So:

* Steven Andrews, who weighs 95kg and has a raw time of 21:12 for 6k, gets corrected to a longer time: 21:44.
* William Connolley, who weighs 73kg and has a raw time of 22:53, gets corrected to a shorter time of 22:07.

In the spirit of "how not to hate ergs" please don't treat the above as targets.

Targets

As a very rough guide, which we will feel free to tear up if we want to, the aim for M1 is an 8k 30 min piece, a 22 min 6k piece [*], and a sub-7-min 2k. All weight adjusted.

Since M1 tend to do more ergs, we have a better idea of their targets than anyone else. Very roughly, I'd say 7500m for 30 mins would be a decent target for M2; that then scales (via more magic; 1.06 power law) to a 23:40 6k and a 7:23 2k.

[*] More exactly, 22:07, but 22 is a nice round number.

References

* Ergodic theory

Your HOTTmeister speaks

2012-01-28T17:30:00.041Z

Time to dig out the old ergs again, I'm afraid. The Head of The Trent provides a suitable excuse, but above that: the winter is the time to lay your base for summer fitness. And as I painfully found last night, running just isn't enough. Which isn't strange: rowing and ergs didn't make me fit to run, either.

For the moment we're adopting the innovation of 6k ergs, as it is (a) about the Trent distance (actually 6k is too long, the Trent is probably about a 5k equivalent or less) and (b) it makes a change from half-hours. We're also going to try doing the weight adjustment based on (bodyweight + share of (boatweight + coxweight)) instead of raw bodyweight; this is fairer for the heavy folk and closer to reality. Though up to now, the list of people in raw-erg-order and weight-adjusted-erg-order hasn't mattered much.

In case it isn't obvious, ergs have multiple benefits, apart from the primary one of causing pain. Done regularly, they help fitness, obviously. But they are also excellent mental training for the long haul of headraces, and allow you to see, objectively, how well you can sustain effort; how well you respond in your own mind when your body is begging you to stop.

I expect to update this post as we do more, and/or as people send in scores done on their own. Don't worry, I trust you.

Yet more misc

And still they pour in...


Bod            Raw Time     Avg raw split       Weight  Weight adjusted
Steven (30m)   8260                             92      8116
Paul H (30m)   7531                             74      7767
James H (5k)   18:38                            82      18:29
James H (10k)  39:17
Dave B (30m)   6991                             78      7126
Chris W (30m)  7711                             80      7816

2012/02/11

On Saturday the river was frozen, so we have another fine crop of scores, as well as some misc collected ones.

Here is the 30 min table updates; note that the current "King of the Hill" is still James Howard, with 8144-adjusts-to-8209:


Bod            Raw Time     Avg raw split       Weight  Weight adjusted
Dave B         6884                             78      7017
WilliamC       7600 [*]     1:58                72      7885
Dave R         7486                             68      7848
Simon E        7093                             65      7528
WilliamC       7792                             72      8085
WilliamD       7534                             93.5    7385
WilliamW       7650                             80      7754 [nb: guessed weight]
Steven A       8330         1:48                92      8127
Gary D (30m)   7030                             80      7125 [nb: guessed weight]
Dave R (30m)   7568                             68      7953
Dave B (30m)   6909                             77      7062
Gary D (30m)   7250                             82.5    7308

[*] On my home erg, which (I am quite convinced) is about 200m harder than the Queens ones over 30 mins. But don't worry, I'm not adding an adjust for that.

More misc collected scores


Bod            Raw Time     Avg raw split       Weight  Weight adjusted
Simon E (6k)  25:04         2:05.3              66      23:42
Dave R (6k)   23:40                             68      22:31
Steven A       8330         1:48                95      8127
James H (10k)  38:45
James H  (1h) 15644                             82.5
Steven A                                        92
Chris F (2k)   7:06.9                           ?
Lorraine       6701                             64      7137
Chris W (45m) 11049                             80.5

2012/02/02

This was our second night of the new year. I need to work out the weight adjustments, and then sort the table.


Bod            Raw Time     Avg raw split       Weight  Weight adjusted
Will W         23:28.5      1:57.4              80      23:10
Paul H         23:46        1:58.8              74      23:03
Dave R         24:38        2:03                69      23:31
William C      23:00        1:55                73      22:14
William D      22:59        1:54.9              94      23:30
Chris F        22:24.6      1:52                95      22:58

Misc collected scores

Not yet in table, and/or not entrants, just fitness:


William C      30 mins    7501
Chris W        30 mins    7629
James H        30 mins    8144
James H        6k         21:38.4
Andy S         2k          7:59
James H        2k          6:49.9
Chris W        3k         11:18

2012/01/27

This was our first night of the new year.


Bod            Raw Time     Avg split      Weight adjusted
Steven A       21:12        1:46           21:44
James H        22:11        1:51   [+]     22:00
William C      22:53        1:54.5 [*]     22:07
William D      23:49        1:59           24:14

Avg splits are to the nearest 0.5. These should all be treated as a good hard try, but not necessarily the best that could be done ([+]: marginally worse than the 1:50.5 split for his 30 min 8144 earlier in the week, but he'd been running at lunchtime; [*] worse than my 1:53 split for 30 min last April).

All of these are decent scores, and if SA can get down to a 1:45 split I'll be prepared to call that "heroic". If you're not used to doing erg-arithmetic in your head (alas, a sign of someone who has done too many) then a 2:00 split corresponds to a 24:00 time for 6k, or a 7.5k in 30 minutes.

Did I mention how much we all enjoyed Steven's choice of music? Fortunately his speakers did not match his muscles, so it was inaudible. We need what I believe the youth today refer to as a "boom box" or "ghetto blaster".

The 30 mins table

We're concentrating on the 6k scores now, but Due To Popular Demand [%] here is a 30 min table, too.


Bod            Raw Distance   Date        Avg split      Weight adjusted
James H        8144           2012/01/?   -              8209
William C      7838           2011/11/11  -              8107
Chris W        7629 [+]       2012/02/02  -              7732 (assuming 80 kg)

[%] Well, James Howard is a very popular chap.
[+] Probably not all-out.

Refs

* Your ErgMeister Speaks

Winter head to head

2012-01-22T10:46:00.005Z

City have some pix of the H2H up on facebook and here is M1

ripped off and cropped. We're at the bottom of the reach on the first leg. Don't look at the previous pic if you were rowing at 6 or 2 :-).

Results and analysis

Full results are available from City.


 1  300 3 Caius M1A           student m Mays/Eights Div 1 8+ 6:20 6:37 12:57
 2  400 4 Downing College M1  student m Mays/Eights Div 1 8+ 6:30 6:40 13:10
 3  301 3 Queens M1           student m Mays/Eights Div 1 8+ 6:37 6:56 13:33
...
 8  104 1 Girton              student m Mays/Eights Div 2 8+ 6:40 7:21 14:01
 9  305 3 Christ's College M2 student m Mays/Eights Div 2 8+ 6:50 7:11 14:01
10  103 1 Christ's College M1 student m Mays/Eights Div 1 8+ 6:37 7:26 14:03
...
14  314 2 Boars Head Cribb    cra     m Intermediate 3    8+ 7:07 7:22 14:29
...
16  405 4 Bedford School      cra     m Novice            8+ 7:09 7:28 14:37
...
18  406 2 X-Press Legends     cra     m Novice            8+ 7:12 7:37 14:49
...
20  105 1 Rob Roy  (Mas C)    cra     m MasB/C            8+ 6:58 7:52 14:50 14:26
...
22  106 1 Champion o' Thames  cra     m Intermediate 3    8+ 7:06 7:49 14:55
23  200 2 Cantabs             cra     m JuniorJ18         2x 7:21 7:37 14:58
...
24  107 1 Chesterton RC       cra     m Intermediate 3    8+ 7:04 7:59 15:03
...
    207 2 Champs J18          cra     m JuniorJ18         8+ 7:23 7:56 15:19
    202 2 Champs Masters      cra     m Intermediate 3    8+ 7:31 7:55 15:26

(note heroic performance by Cantabs J18 double).

We beat Champs (M1?) on the first leg, but lost by 8 seconds overall. But we beat their M2. Since we're sandwiched by them for bumps, that is a good start.

It was very windy for the first leg: we went down in 7:04 and came back nearly a minute slower in 7:59. Compare that to the differences for boats in divisions 3 and 4, and their times are much closer, which I think gives an advantage to later divisions. Not just easier rowing conditions with a calmer Reach, but also the boost you get from a tailwind is worth less than the corresponding headwind. Note that Christs M2, in div 3, beat their M1, in div 1. Which is a long-winded way of me leading up to wondering if we'd have beaten Xpress Legends if they'd not been in div 4.

We've entered the Head of the Trent which is, and SA said, like the H2H but with the gap for a rest closed up until it doesn't exist, and then with another 2k thrown in. So time to start taking the land training seriously.

Also, anyone remember the Tidy 2k challenge?

Winter league

2012-01-15T21:51:00.004Z

Sunday was calm and still but cold and mostly cloudy. Those unfortunate enough to be in the first division got up at unearthly hours and arrived at the river far too early. And the results were...


301 Cantabs    Men IM1 8 M1          09:10 1
401 Cantabs    Men IM1 8 M2          09:19 2
402 Cantabs    Men IM2 8 Hills Road  09:23 3
101 City       Men IM2 8 M2          09:33 4
...
215 X-Press    Men Nov 8 Legends     10:14 12=
...
156 Radegund   Men Nov 8 M1          10:20 17=
...
106 Chesterton Men Nov 8             10:27 20
323 Chesterton Women Nov 8           12:41 159
123 Chesterton Women Nov 4+          12:52 166
244 Chesterton Men Nov 1X Connolley  13:52 195

Full results are available via local copy, and likely one day officially.

The mens VIII had a very good row, going over in fine form at 31 all the way, slightly slowed down by having to go wide around Ditton in order to overtake Tabs Greybeards. Steven had decided to drop us down to a Novice crew - leaving out the Mighty IV - so I got a chance to stroke it, which was fun. That left me a bit shagged, which is my excuse for a relatively uninteresting performance in the scull in div 2.

To be continued in legs 2 and 3...

Christmas Head

2011-12-10T21:42:00.000Z

Not to be confused with last year's Christmas Head, where we were cops and robbers. This year the emphasis was on fun; in the spirit of which we entered three crews as Elite mixed, secure in the knowledge that there was unlikely to be another Elite mixed crew out and so one of us must win. And indeed there wasn't. And with three crews there was enough for a category, though since we were all from the same club it sort-of didn't count, though I gather the fastest crew got pots anyway, doubtless some dubious behind-the-scenes skullduggery going on.

The ladies also entered an VIII, and I heroically entered my first proper sculling race (the previous one was time-only); results for all are at cityrc.co.uk/xmas2011-results.pdf.

[This post written well after the event and back-dated, so I may as well say: Happy New Year to all!]

Refs

* More pix than you really want to see.

Winter head

2011-11-19T18:06:00.014Z

The Winter Head is when all the world comes to Cambridge. Or so it seems, from the crush at the start on our little provincial river.

Here is the crowd milling around before division 2 [Note: the pic is 800 px wide, so isn't all visible on a small screen. In which case, you can click on the pic for a full view]. It was a gorgeous day - fortunately we had an odd number so were on the towpath side so got to get out, stretch, relax, have a nice wee, and sit on the convenient bench in the glorious sunshine and watch the poor folk on the far side in the shade.

Notice how some of the boats on the banks are facing the Wrong Way. This is because - we can only assume - Cantabs have Tideway envy. However what they forgot is that the Tideway is really very wide, and there is lots of spare room to spin. The Cam is rally very narrow, and there is just room to squeak an VIII round, when there is a boat on the bank on both sides. Anyway, I should not cavil, because it was a jolly nice day.

Those are the speeds from my GPS watch, for the "M1" crew in division 2 and the "M2" crew in division 3. Conditions were very good, and similar, for both divisions. M1 probably averaged, by eye, about 16 kph (perhaps a fraction slower) which is 1:52.5 (if it were 15.5, it would be 1:56. If you thought the course was 2500m (I do) and believed our 9:32 time, its 1:54.5). M2 averaged perhaps 14 kph which is 2:08.6 (giving no allowance at all for the Cam's sluggish flow). Note that the trough-then-peak about 4/5 of the way in, on both traces, is associated with the railway bridge: I think the trace gets thrown off there. There is clearly an offset on the rowcoach (well, of the impeller really) of perhaps :10, it would be nice to do some exact tests with that sometime.

Err, so, how did we do? OK I think - nothing too spectacular, but it was a decent row for M1. I never know what to say about the actual races: we're big boys now, no-one catches crabs and its a head race, so nothing interesting happens. And also for M2, though a few pips lower and the fitness started to tell past Ditton corner. Oh yes, and we had the excitement of being passed by CUWBC (featuring, I think, Anna) on Ditton corner. I really should have kept to the Plough side of Plough reach and let them come through that way, but we'd (we'd? I'd) taken a wide line around Grassy so I stayed on that side, sort-of hoping they might take the outside line on Ditton, but if course they didn't. In the end, all that happened was we went a bit wide on Ditton, too.

The finish of division 2 was a bit chaotic, too. All went well initially - boats came through, some stopped on Stourbridge - but then eventually they started to back up, until by the end there was barely space for boats to get over the line, as here (the finish line is from about where the most distant banked VIII). At one point there was the terrible crunching noise of honeycomb breaking, as someone backed their VIII perpendicularly into the side of one on the bank. Oops.

Lessons

M1 and M2 had decided to swap over on Stourbridge common, because we were in successive divisions and feared getting stuck. In retrospect, and because M1 was 215 - ie, close to the head of the division amongst competent boats - we'd have been better off changing over at Peterhouse. Landing space on Stourbridge is at something of a premium, and the second crew gets a short warmup, and there is the hassle of not starting and finishing at the same place. However, it did mean we could visit the cake stall.

Crews

Link to the results.

M1 (9:32, 70th overall, 3rd in IM3 class): Cox: Simon. Str: Kate (welcome back for a special guest appearance), James H, Andy S (taking a brief break from the olympics), Will W, Chris W, William D, Paul "loves the cock" Holland, Bow: William C.

M2 (10:35, 4th in Nov class): Cox: William C. Str: Steve Gull, Ralph, Eben Upton, Brian McGuinness, Dave R, Dave B, Paul H, Simon.

W4+ (11:55, 3rd in Nov class): Cox: Meg. Str: Joss, Mel, Sarah, Anne.

W8 (11:41, 3rd in Nov class): Cox: Cox Alison. Str: Laura, Janice, Lorraine, Annie, Bev, Jo, Meg, Amy.

(Amy also rowed with her UCL crew).

More pix at flickr.

The MILF boat [*] goes to town

2011-11-07T18:41:00.017Z

The Ladies had a crew (Joss, Mel, Sarah and Anne) all trained up for the Tideway, but no cox (because Meg, who had trained with them, wasn't available for the day). Hearing of my l33t coxing abilities [+] they enlisted me; and after one outing to weld crew and cox into one seamless unit, we were ready. The race was at 12:30 (the exact timing year to year is dictated by the state of the tide) so there was no ridiculous getting up and off before dawn as the men had to for the 2010 VIII's Vets head. Mel skillfully directed us down the North Circular to Tideway scullers where we had to pick our numbers up (a bit annoying that you have to go to the finish to pick up the numbers, because most people, like us, boat from near the start, because it makes far more sense to have a nice warm-up beforehand than a long tedious row back after the race).

And so we arrived at the embankment near London Rowing Club, where we were to boat. For those who haven't done this before, the first step is to find your trailer (Sunday is the Vets head, with 230 entries. Saturday was the larger Fours head, with about twice as many entries, and we were sharing space with the likes of Robs and Tabs as well as college crews on the Downing trailer, ably driven by Gripper (and I do mean ably: we watched him get down the lanes back to Emma and though its gate afterwards, and he was getting through with inches to spare). So Spare Rib had sat on the trailer all Saturday). The next step is to get the boat off, fairly tricky when it is on the tip-top rack and none of us are giants. After that comes re-rigging but at least, since this is a IV and not split, we didn't have to put the hull together.

Then we had a fairly easy time of boating off the concrete hard - since this is the Vets head, and thus a smaller race, there isn't too much press for boating spaces. If you look at this photo carefully you'll spot the deliberate mistake. And I don't mean me having to rush off and dump the wellies back in the trailer while some helpful passerby holds the boat, because we didn't have a support crew. Anyway, we pulled in and fixed the mistake pretty quickly, and off we went, though with a little less margin for getting to the start than we'd intended.

This was the big moment for me, and I now appreciate the difference between sitting in a boat being merely required to row under orders, and feeling the responsibility of navigation on the big scary Tideway. However, it quickly became apparent that everything was going to work out OK, the flow was about expected (the race is run on the ebb tide, so you're rowing up against the tide), we could quite happily move against it, the chop was OK - of this more anon - and the wind wasn't pushing us about much. Being in division 4 our marshalling position was on the Surrey side, so I had no river crossing to worry about. After a while I realised I could spare my crew some effort by going up as close to the bank as possible to minimise the flow. And so we paddled up, going through exercises and then mixing light, steady state, and a few bursts. But there is plenty of room for that - its about 7 km to the start, compared to 5 km to the Baits Bite on the Cam. The race started at 12:30 (not quite promptly) and you're supposed to be in your marshalling position by 12:15 - we weren't, quite, nor were many others. We sat around for 1/2 hour while divisions 1 and most of 2 went off (I say sat around, but of course the crew has to constantly keep tapping the boat along to stay in position against the flow, about every 10 secs, so no-one gets any rest. I experimented with letting them decide then it was time to tap, to try saving my voice and making it easier for them, but it didn't work, as too often you need a manoeuvring stroke thrown in) then moved up above the bridge while the rest of 2 and then 3 went off, and then, excitement, division 4 was spinning (we were nearly the last boat), time to dekit, and we're now pointing the right way and heading for Chiswick bridge...

And so, the race itself! We were boat #229 out of 230, and so had been a bit afraid of getting left adrift. Marlowe, at #227, had pratted around so there was a huge gap between them and #226 off in the distance. We gained on #228 quite rapidly, and passed them on the first bend (they didn't move out of our way as they should have, my first course imperfection, but given the stress of the start I probably wouldn't have in their place either). Somewhere between Barnes railway bridge and the beginning of the Hammersmith bend #230 started moving up on us. We held them for a while with a few pushes, but they kept coming, and oh-so-gradually squeezed past us (I even got to do some Tidy-esque "I've got their 3-woman; now give me their 2"). We had a brief exciting blade clash when we moved back up on them once they thought they were safely past. On the Hammersmith bend the nice water at the start gave way to chop and some rather large waves like this . That threw us for a bit, and #230 began to pull away; with #228 dropped astern we were largely on our own after that, as far as the crew could see, though we were still in contact with #230 from my view.

If you're interested in how my track compares to a professional cox, I've done a mash-up of me-vs-Tidy.

From then, it is down to hard work from the crew combined with a bit of encouragement from the cox, until we got over the finish line, thank goodness (I find it hard to know what to say in the middle of a long piece other than rather unhelpful equivalents of "row harder you slackers". We got by on a mix of legs-10 as often as I thought realistic; various technical calls (finishes; hands; rhythm (gosh that is a hard word to spell, happily it is easy to say, though not easy to respond to); ratio) to recall them to their duty when they drifted into their own shell of pain; and general encouragemnt ("make it worth your coming here") and noting the milestones, and the times, as we went round. I flogged them a bit further than needed because I wasn't quite sure where the finish line was (it is upstream of Putney bridge, not down) - sorry about that. #230 were decent enough to give us three cheers once over the line, so we returned it. And so back to the start (with the river level now much lower we were in the gunk not the concrete) and de-boat, de-rig, and re-trailer (not aided by several boats needing to be re-arranged. As Gripper said "its always Robs" :-). A quick cup of tea in London Rowing Club gave us a chance to admire their glorious clubhouse and history, complete with enormous oil paintings of Chaps with Sideburns rowing at Henley. And so home (tediously, via TSS to return the numbers and reclaim our £6 deposit) and then the last boring bit - detrailering the boat, rowing it from Emma to home, and finally all stowed away safely. As Anne said, we really should have gone out for a drink to celebrate at that point, but we were all too knackered.

And our result? Somehow, compared to actually participating, that doesn't seem too important. But we had a time of 26:44 and an overall finsh position was 209/216 (1 dnf, 13 dns). Which was better than we'd expected - perhaps the organisers shouldn't put all the Women's novice boats at the end next time, but should mix up a few of the older Mens masters crews :-).

Top tips

* I didn't bother with wellies, just sandals, and not even those for the finish. If you have no support crew you're probably best off not bothering with wellies, and just going barefoot or flip-flops: the river really isn't that cold. [Struck; see the comments]
* Parking near LRC is easy enough on the Sunday.
* The race number that goes on the boat into the front holder is designed to be secured with a little nut and bolt. You can hold it on with tape, we did, but a nut-n-bolt would be neater.
* Make sure you know where your boat is supposed to go on the trailer. Ideally, get hold of the loading plan so you know where everyone else's is supposed to be too, so you can correct the inevitable mistakes.
* Take a couple of plastic cups, or perhaps better a sponge, in case you need to bail. Had the waves been only a little higher, we would have definitely needed to!
* Get one of the crew to write the post, then you won't get such a dreadfully cox-centric view :-)

Refs

* Anna had some problems that we didn't.
* More pix
* Vets Fours Head site.
* Everything you ever wanted to know about steering the course

Footnotes

[*] I'm not sure who coined this term but I'm fairly sure he is married to one of the crew members. So don't blame me.
[+] Yes yes I know: no-one else was available.

My first sculling race

2011-10-01T20:15:00.005+01:00

By William, aged Masters C.

Summer is over, the blades have been fresh painted, we've had our AGM (new committee post coming soon) and it is time to return to the river.

It was a lovely day, so after dutifully doing my Waitrose shopping I headed to the river for a little scull. Simon and Meg were out tubbing. But! I was turned back at the Green Dragon bridge, because the Robs small boats regatta was on, 11:30 division. Oh well I thought, shame: I could have entered instead. And then I though: so why not enter the 1 pm division? It is either that or go back home and cut the grass. And I did, for time only, since I was late. Fortunately Katherine and Anna-Rosa were at race control. I just had time for a coffee and baclava at Tishka's, and a nice chat about the financial situation with the old bloke at the table next door, before rushing back to embark and do the traditional rush-up-to-the-start-line-only-to-find-that-plenty-of-other-people-are-ten-minutes-late.

But it was a lovely day - too hot, really: after a bit I drifted over to the shady side; its nice being in a scull, you couldn't do that in a cumbersome VIII - so waiting at the start was fine. As I was a late entry I was at the back, with only a Robs novice girl behind me, who had the benefit of advice shouted from her bank party.

Sculling without having to worry about what might be coming the other way was a joy; I went rather wide around Grassy by accident, but this turned out to be a good thing because there was a narrowboat hugging the inner corner. I flagged a little down the reach, but ended up with an overall split of 2:31 and a time of 13:08 (a minute behind Katherine and Anna-Rosa). A time was what I really wanted: something to be a marker for future improvement, I hope. And to compare to others.

The full results are here (I'm 101, not alas spelt quite as I might desire). Trying to compare my time, I see I am the fastest and indeed the only CRA Open novice scull. So I won; err. But the fastest BR (British Rowing, as in can-row-off-Cam I think; though lots of clearly Cambridge crews entered as BR) time was 10:41; that was the novice time, beating the IM3 time, which in turn beat the IM2 time. How traditional. And those were by CULRC, so that doesn't help me much. Well never mind; there are plenty more regattas coming up.

AGM

2011-09-22T18:24:00.001+01:00

These are the minutes of the 2011 AGM, held on Thursday 22nd Septermber 2011 at 8:30pm, in The Punter.

1.1 Confirmation of Agenda
2.0 Proposed Amendments to the Constitution (Secretary)
2.1 Temporary Membership definition (3.1) – passed subject to a clarification that a temporary member does not need to fill in a membership form (3.2)
2.2 Removal of reference to ‘Chairman’ (9.4) - passed
2.3 Amendment/Correction of ‘Distribution’ clause (15.0) - passed
3.0 Annual Subscription Proposal (Treasurer)
3.1 It was agreed that the annual subscription should be increased to £192/year
4.0 Reports from the 2010/11 Committee
4.1 Club Captain(Chris Wood)
4.2 Treasurer & Membership Secretary (Sarah Coates-Holland)
4.3 Men’s Captain (James Tidy)
4.4 Women’s Captain (Amy Tillson)
4.5 Safety Advisor (Paul Holland)
4.6 Equipment Officer (Andy Southgate)
4.7 Social Secretary (Rebecca Scourse)
4.8 Thanks to Mike Prior Jones for his work in making cox boxes, to Emma Howard and
Emma Bonsall for their effort in making the Head of the Cam run smoothly, to Tom for co-
ordinating HoC Task Team, to Alison for her coxing school efforts, to Simon for his work
with the beginners and to Chris for his captaincy this year.
5.0 Formal Dissolution of the 2010/11 Committee (Secretary)
6.0 Election of 2011/12 Committee (Secretary)
6.1 Final Call for Candidates
6.2 Elections
6.2.1 Club Captain – Chris Wood re-elected
6.2.2 Treasurer &Membership Secretary – Sarah Coates-Holland re-elected
6.2.3 Men’s Captain – Steven Andrews elected
6.2.4 Women’s Captain – Net Mansfield elected
6.2.5 Equipment Officer – James Howard elected
6.2.6 Safety Advisor – Dave Richards elected
6.2.7 Social Secretary – Becca Scourse re-elected
6.2.8 Kit Secretary – Lorraine Turvill elected
6.2.9 Webmaster – William Connolley elected
6.2.10 Secretary – Amy Tillson re-elected
6.2.11 Funding Secretary – position unfilled
6.2.12 Head Coach – position unfilled
6.2.13 Race Secretary – Emma Howard elected
7.0 Any other Business
7.1 Trestles need fixing
7.2 Mens VIII needs a rigger jigger replaced under the coxes seat
7.3 Cox boxes – James Tidy is giving the club one cox box on loan, and giving another to the club. Mike Prior-Jones is happy to look into making more.
7.4 Sponsorship – Current sponsorship deal will end next year – people are looking into asking their companies if they are willing.

Notes:
* This post was written in November. I've backdated it to the date of the meeting.
* I've redacted the attendees and apologies section, as I don't see why those need to be public.

Blades ready for the new season (and the ice filled darkness of winter rowing)

2011-09-16T21:23:00.000+01:00

The gleaming new paint job on the men's IV and VIII blades (I hope that was the right order for the stripes!)

With the darkness drawing in and winter rowing beckoning it seemed like the perfect time to rejuvenate the clubs blades and with a whole club effort it seems to have been accomplished with relative ease. Just seeing the blades looking so good certainly makes me want to get back in a boat even if we won't be able to see them in the dark. Looking forward to seeing, or not, everyone back in the boats soon.

Bumps: day 4 and round-up

2011-07-25T11:35:00.017+01:00

Well, its all over now. The last song has been sung, the last bottle drunk, the last burnt sausage consumed, the last nail painted, and the last naked quad rowed up to the lock.

How did we do, overall? Speaking as one of M1, I'd say "the boys dun good" - we had only one bump up, but we rowed well overall and had a really very exciting row-over on the last day, chased hard by Champs 2. Elsewhere, the picture was a less rosy. M2 went up on day 2, bumping the evil arch-villain Will Wyckham in the process, but alas it all went horribly wrong on the next 2 days when Tabs 7 upgraded both their rowing and their boat, and they ended one place down overall. M3 had keeness and determination going for them, but that wasn't reflected in their results, since they earned their spoons (which John had painted up for M1 two years ago, but which we fortunately didn't need then).

The ladies perhaps suffered from their success of last year. W2 rowed over 4 times, unable to catch up with City 7 ahead; W1 went down 3, but with a mighty row-over on day 3.

Video of M1 friday, a frame-grab from us going down Plough reach in a Champs sandwich (click for video). Its hard to see how close we are - alas the cameraman is focussing on the excitement of Tabs 3 bumping Tabs 2 in the far distance. However, I think we're probably closer than we thought we were. David Ponting took a nice pic at nearly the same time.

Steven would like to make it clear that rumours of naked quadding have been greatly exaggerated.

Refs

* Day 3
* Day 2
* Day 1
* Amy on Day 4

* The bumps chart pic is semi-ripped from Vera analytics.
* Champs 2 bowcam.
* M1 friday from madprof77; W1 on thursday.

Bumps day 3

2011-07-22T00:28:00.006+01:00

Less pizzazz and enthusiasm today, as the results are more muted. The pic is M2 having just done their practice start outside the Plough, rounding Grassy on the way to the start. Click for more.

M3: down again, poor chaps. M2: down, bad boys, to Will Wyckham and his gang of reprobates in their shiny new Stampfli. Get 'em tomorrow again, boys. M1: row over. Closed on Champs 1 but not enough.

W2: row over. W1: row over, but an exciting one. See Amy's blog, and video.

Refs

* Day 2
* Amy
* William
* Paul
* M1 at Jet Photographic
* M1 video by Rob Payne

Bumps day 2

2011-07-21T00:20:00.008+01:00

And so it falls to me once again to chronicle our efforts. As it happens, this was a good night for M1 and M2, who both went up. Here we are, happy to have bumped City 3:

M1: L to R: Andy Southgate (4); Steven Andrews (5); Chris Wood (2); Ollie Crabb (S); James Tidy (Cox); Chris Metcalfe (3); William Connolley (B); James Howard (7; with George); Chris Smith (6; sub for Tom Watt who managed to injure himself at the last minute, aiee). Photo credit: Gytha (but I did my best to sabotage it by leaving my SLR on aperture priority). Full story in tedious detail here.

M2: Ralph, Paul (Captain), Andi, William, Emma (Cox), Dave (hiding), Katherine, Gary, Rob, who bumped Tabs 7 (CCL, featuring Will Wykeham, Chesterton renegade who gets his comeuppance).

Elsewhere the news was not so good: M3 down, W1 down (so we're now higher than them, so James may win his bottle of whiskey off Freya), and W2 rowed over.

Weather for the evening: cool, still, threatened rain, but didn't.

Refs

* Day 1
* William
* Amy
* Paul
* Rob Payne's video

Bumps day 1

2011-07-19T23:27:00.010+01:00

Day 1 of the Cambridge City bumps, which we've been training for... well, since the end of last years's bumps.

In the pic: W2, who rowed over at #30. They get to chase City 7 again tomorrow, but now have City 8 bumped up behind them. M3 went down one to #53, just above the sandwich boat at the bottom of division 3. A thrilling race with an exciting conclusion round about the Plough, where they weren't quite saved by the InveterEight.

M2 rowed over at #32, with Leys Lysander (old boys, so probably pretty well the same crew as came though M2 last year) bumping out ahead of them, giving them a shot at Tabs 7 (CCL, boo hiss) tomorrow, if they can hold off Champs 5. W1 are down one to #13 to a very fast Xpress crew.

And M1: we had a good row. We quibbled about it a little afterwards, and in the pub, but it was good. However, it wasn't a useful test: behind us, Champs 2 got Nines 3 fairly quickly - before first post - and ahead of us Tabs 3 (Hills Road) got City 3 around about the Plough (irritatingly impeding us, forcing us to stop (for one glorious moment I thought we'd bumped them; but it didn't last, and we'd had no whistles) and restart). James then flogged us down the reach for some obscure reason, we stopped for some beer, and then went to the Waterman. Tomorrow will be the true test.

Oh, and did I mention that bloody Georgina held up M1 for 20 mins while they pratted around? Wazzocks.

Refs

* Amy
* William
* Paul
* M2 going round First Post (Jet) and M3
* Videos: M1; M2

Xpress heads

2011-07-17T11:32:00.004+01:00

The Xpress head was on the 20th of June. We put in a decent crew and won in 9:42; you can even see our track (the section from ~30 to ~40 mins is the race itself).

That is the big pot. The rather nice shot glass is from the Xpress "International" Head Race on the 25th of June; the word "International" is intended somewhat for fun; from what I gather the excuse for the event is an exchange between Circolo Canottieri Aniene of Rome and Xpress: every second year they visit each other, alternating Rome and Cambridge. Steven / Katherine organised a mixed mixed VIII coxed by Simon, middle four from M1 (Ollie, Steven, Chris, William), stroked by Anna Rosa from Robs, Sarah at 7; and Tanja and Katherine again from Robs in the bows. And the Robs folk came from us originally I gather. Of the race: there was a stiff head wind. We came in 11:02 which won us the mixed category; GPS track here. We even got a plaque, which has been on various exciting adventures around the world since. Chesterton also put in a second crew in the second division (Meg coxing; a welcome back to Ralph at stroke; Katherine again; William C (sitting oddly on strokeside), Will W, Andi R, Simon, and special guest appearance by Emma "never again" M.). So I have two shot glasses :-).

[Yes, this post is a bit late, but better than never]

CRA timed race 2011

2011-07-05T23:49:00.005+01:00

The CRA timed race is sort of the rowing-on race for the CRA bumps, except there are spare places, so it isn't. As I understand it. But it is a chance to row over, errm, not the actual course (because it is rowed from the railway bridge to Jesus boathouse, more or less, which bears precious little relation to the real course), a bit before the bumps, with something that may or may not be your actual crew.

Anyway, bugger all the caveats, here are the results, hot off the press, ripped off a boathouse wall by James Tiny (who he?) and presented to you here and now. The official version will be available sometime soon once the CRA website recovers from its DoS attack.

So, well, you can read the results for yourself. The only question is, can you interpret them correctly? We started 5 and came 4 which is fine. The Tabs crew that pushed us to the lock didn't deign to race, though. Nines look to be utterly f*ck*d, unless that is the 3rd crew or something - who knows.

Our M2 crew looks fairly handy for a boat close to the bottom of M2, and our ladies deserve congratulations for winning pots as fastest novice ladies - very promising. And after it all we repaired for a jolly evening in the Waterman which was excellent. That Chris Smith was there, and he didn't insult us particularly severely, which must be good, no?

Peterborough Regatta

2011-06-06T23:12:00.000+01:00

Stormy weather made for some interesting conditions for the Peterborough Regatta. The headwind, straight down the lake, not only caused problems for the organisers but also for some of the competitors with some boats not coping with the conditions and being blown across the lanes.

The Chesterton IV nearing victory in the Masters B/C 1000m final (Photo: William Connolly)

The regatta started well for Chesterton with the IV taking on a 6 second handicap against Oundel Town RC and Star RC to win the Masters B/C 1000m final, quadrupling the number of Chesterton points and winning a nice set of hip flasks in to the bargain. The gusting winds and breaking waves made for an interesting and at times rather damp row but despite the soaking, the crew and a particularly wet cox were very happy with the win and losing their novice status.

The VIII again had to take on a handicap against Cambridge 99 and St Ives in the Masters B/C final but were unable to reel in the disadvantage despite making some gains.

The Chesterton VIII making gains on St Ives

Tethering the boats against the effects of the wind we headed back to Cambridge to dry off and refresh with some isotonic sports beer and replenish our energy and electrolite levels with a few pork based snacks. Unfortunately there was no change in the weather over night and it was in to the teeth of the continuing gale that we would be aiming to chop through once more over the shorter 500m Sunday course. Unfortunately it was a tale of poor starts with the VIII being stunned at the start of the IM3 heat by a lightening quick Clare College 1st boat and never quite finding our rythm to pull it back. The IV also made a bad start in the Masters B final against Rob Roy RC who held on to their lead well despite Chesterton pushing the rating up in to the mid-forties in an effort to make back the deficit off the line.

Over a 500m course a bad start is difficult to recover from as both crews demonstrated in the Sunday races. However every race entered brings more experience to the crew and allows mistakes and weaknesses to be identified and worked on to improve our chances and competitivness for the next race.

Thanks to James T for organising the crews and trailering and thanks to those who helped rigging, driving, de-rigging and providing a vocal support where possible.

The winning Masters IV crew - James T (cox), Steven (stroke), James H (3), Tom (2) & Andy (bow)

Champs Eights Head

2011-05-22T19:19:00.003+01:00

M3 rowing home

A very turbulent day's racing. Chesterton entered four eights- a near-full-strength M1, an M2-with-several-subs, and an M3-also-with-several-subs.

Conditions were particularly windy, gusting down the Reach and forming white horses at first, although the wind did die down throughout the day (relatively!) giving the first division the worst conditions, and the third division the best- proven by various colleges who raced the same crew more than once, and also Jesus M1 beating Caius M1 to overall first place. The latter were in the first division, the former in the third.

Times for Chesterton boats-

M1 (Vet B) got 5'48". This was the fastest raw time for a veteran eight, beating a City crew composed of experienced people- who were in the faster second division- by one second. However, being Vet C, they had a better adjustment and pipped us to the pots by 3 seconds. Nevertheless, a good, strong row.

M2 (CRA Novice) got 6'35", having had a strong performance. They came in second in the category (I believe) behind a City eight that got a fraction under 6 minutes, but still a good achievement.

M3 (Also CRA novice) got 6'55", despite some dubious rowing from the 3 seat, and beat a crew so they weren't last in the category- a good achievement for a completely scratch crew with no warm-up!

The women entered a scratch crew, and achieved 7'46". Despite an unfortunate wind gust that took them very wide around Ditton corner, and led them to graze the far bank, they reset out and rowed a reasonable race. They were third (I think) in their category.

Full results to follow, along with more photographs, when Champs release them.

Head of the Cam (aftermath)

2011-04-30T21:57:00.007+01:00

And the result for the fastest Men's and Women's crews are:

Caius and

Downing. No great surprises there based on Lents. Full results are available from the Chesterton club website.

Stills are (or will be...) available from here. Video will be available from Spannerspotter.

Incidentally, if you think there are areas where we could improve on the running of the event, do please let us know (headofthecam@gmail.com). We already have some thoughts about marshalling in a strong wind, but please let us have your feedback if you have any suggestions.


1994 Robs
1995 Robs
1996 Eton
1997 F&T
1998 F&T
1999 Caius
2000 ?
2001 ?
2002 Emma (?)
2003 Caius
2004 Broxbourne
2005 Caius
2006 Caius
2007 Downing
2008 Fitz
2009 Jesus
2010 Caius
2011 Caius (Men) and 
     Downing (Women)

(Results found from reading the shield, and various entrails found on the web)

HEAD OF THE CAM

2011-04-27T10:53:00.002+01:00

Entries for Head of the Cam are now closed, thank you for your entries.

For any last minute entries please contact headofthecam@gmail.com, we still have some spaces left.

Race control at Queens College Boathouse will be open from 9.30am on Saturday, we look forward to seeing you then!

Your ErgMeister Speaks

2011-04-07T18:46:00.026+01:00

James T appointed me "Lord High Tsar of the Erg Table" but I'd rather be an ErgMeister so I'm grabbing my own title. We need some way of recording training, praising the valorous, shaming the wicked, encouraging the timid, and so on. And perhaps this blog is it. Lets try, anyway. Hopefully, every week I'll get a good crop of scores in, and will produce an updated post so we know who is hot and who is not.

I think I only have ultimate erg-authority over M1, but I don't see why M2 and M3 shouldn't ~~share the pain~~ join in the fun too, in the spirit of healthy competion. Hot women are also welcome to join.

This post is long and rambling because (a) I'm bad at organising things, (b) this will hopefully be a useful reference for the future and (c) I don't have any scores yet to talk about (OK, I do have two scores, Tom and me, but I want a few more than that).

Quite a few of us record our training on HeiaHeia (http://www.heiaheia.com/) on a daily basis - its a sort of Facebook for exercise. Go get a free account if you haven't already, friend people, and join the Chesterton Rowing Club group (although now I think about it, it says it is a closed group, so you might need an invite).

What we're looking for is for people to do ergs, and tell me (email is fine, wmconnolley(at)gmail.com) and I'll make up cute graphs and tables and stuff. We're going to pay attention to both "raw" and "weight-adjusted" scores, and I think this is a convenient place to tell you about them, so see the section below.

And one last word of intro: please don't be shy. The last thing we need is for everyone to not want to put up their scores because they aren't quite good enough to hang out in public.

Weight-adjusted scores

All else being equal, a bigger person can pull a better erg. But, a bigger person will also weight a boat down more, increasing the drag. Therefore, some kind of weight adjustment is fair. The one we're going to use is from the Concept2 website, and is basically a 2/9 power law.

However, talk of a simple thing like a 2/9 power law makes the Arts Side folks heads explode, so I've drawn a pretty picture instead. Click to enlarge as usual. It is all very simple: all the curves are normalised to what I've asserted is a typical weight of 85 kg. So, suppose you weigh 80 kg and are aiming for a 7500m weight-adjusted score. Then you look at the deep-red dots at the 80 kg point, and see you need to do about 7400 m. Conversely, if you weighted 90 kg you'd need to pull ~7600m.

If even the picture makes your head explode, then don't worry: just get on the erg and do your best. Tell me your distance and your weight, and I'll work out the conversion.

Or just use the Concept2 weight adjustment calculator yourself.

Distances and settings

For now, do 30 minutes pieces. As the great James T said:

As we come closer to Bumps, I would like us to move onto 2ks and sprint work, but for now, the erg is a way of assessing and improving what your body can do. And you'll even see me on one of the torture machines at some point in the near future.

30 minutes is good for long-term fitness - there is still time to improve this in the next few months.

Settings: all settings give you the same amount of distance for your effort, so use whatever setting you like, but some will fill more comfortable than others. Wanging it up to 10 will make it heavy. Down at 1 you'll struggle to rate high enough to pull a decent distance because it will be too light. Most people use a setting around 3 or 4, or if you want to get fancy a drag factor of about 125. I use 4, if you care.

If you're not in the habit of doing ergs, or possibly have never done a 30-minute one before, then fear not. Just turn up to one of the <ahem> regular sessions (wednesdays at 7pm is looking good) and we'll introduce you.

Ergs and sessions

All ergs are the same, so feel free to use a home / gym one if you have it. The club ones are in Queens and hang near the back on the right. There are 4 of them, and (although there is a booking system somewhere if you're feeling bureaucratic) generally available.

Erg sessions will probably move around to avoid conflicts with outings etc etc, but 7 pm on wednesdays is looking good so far, on a sample of one out of one.

Information required

I need:

* your raw score
* your weight
* date done
* witness

The weight is necessary for calculating the weight-adjusted score (duh) if you want that done. The adjustment is moderately sensitive to the weight (see graph) so please make sure the weight is accurate and not deliberately flattering. "I'm sure I weighted only 75kg a month back" isn't really good enough. There is a set of scales at Queens which I believe are fairly accurate.

If you're going to do a mind-boggling oh-my-god-I-can't-believe-he-did-that sort of erg, then it would be prudent to have a reliable witness, not because we don't trust you (obviously) but just for that comforting feeling of security. On the other hand, for run-of-the-mill everyday about-the-same-as-last-week sort of times, you don't need a witness.

Weight-adjusted scores - the small print

Tom did some looking up scores on the web, and found that, considering world-record times, the lightweight record was (weight-adjusted) almost exactly the same as the heavyweight record. Which tells you that the adjustment is pretty well exact ignoring boat and cox weigt. So in the real world which features boats and coxes who both have non-zero weights, you'd expect the heavier rowers to have an advantage. And, as Tom also observed, if you look at world records on water, heavier crews go faster. Also, Andy observes that short pieces favouring heavier rowers (short term power => muscle size => cube of size) but not so much in longer pieces (long term power => lung surface area => square of size). He thinks. So maybe the Big Boys can pull things back when we drop down to 2k later on.

The point is, in the end, that neither a raw score nor a weight-adjusted score is a perfect measure of strength. Which is why we'll use both, as well as a healthy dose of prejudice.

Season's best scores

In adjusted-to-85kg-weight order.


Who        Raw   weight  Adjusted  Witness  Notes
Tom        8350  81      8441      William  Week1
William    7933  71      8255      Tom      Week1
Sipper     8023  83      8073      Ext      Week4
Chris W    7906  79      8037      -        Week4
Ollie      7850  81      7936      William  Week2
Andy S     7896  85      7896      Photo    Week3
Andi R     7623  76.5    7800[*]   Wife     Week6
Simon      7324  65      7771      -        Week3
Dave R     7412  68      7710      -        Week3   
Lorraine   6550  60      7072      Ev       Week1
James T    6530  65      6928      W+O      Week2

[*] Approximate adjustment

Week 1 scores

I guess I may as well update this post with this weeks scores as I get them. So far we have (in weight-adjusted-to-85kg order):


Who        Raw   weight  Adjusted  Witness
Tom        8350  81      8441      William
William    7933  71      8255      Tom
Simon      7306  65      7752
Lorraine   6550  60      7072      Ev

Week 2 scores

Note: my table can only cope with integral weights, so all recorded weights are adjusted to the nearest kg. This shouldn't matter too much.


Who        Raw   weight  Adjusted  Witness  Notes
William    7938  72      8233      Ollie
Ollie      7850  81      7936      William
James T    6530  65      6928      W+O 
Chris W    7561  79      7686      -

Week 3 scores

Good to see people taking a creative approach to proving their erg scores in the absence of witnesses. A slightly thinner crop of scores this week, with the Easter break eating into availability, including mine.

We'll be back to full nagging mode next week.


Who        Raw   weight  Adjusted  Witness  Notes
Sipper     8013  83      8063      M1 and W1 of Anglia Ruskin
Andy S     7896  85      7896      Photo!
Chris W    7645  79      7770      -   
Dave R     7412  68      7710      -        Approx adjustment

Rumours exist that James H has been erging but is "not happy with his weight".

Week 4 scores

Just recording some incoming, not a full list yet. Please send in yours:


Who        Raw   weight  Adjusted  Witness  Notes
Sipper     8023  83      ?         Tom
Tom        8153  81      ?         Sipper   Casual
Chris W    7906  79      ?         -        Phoned in
Simon      7324  65      ?         -

Rumours exist that James H has been erging but is "not happy with his weight".

Week 5 scores

No 30 mins so far (are we getting bored?) but I did a half marathon in 1:27:37. It made a change. My bum hurts.

Week 6

Or is it 7? I lose track. Andi R puts up 7623 on Sunday (followed by 7621 on Wednesday) and is 76.5 kg. I went running :-). Chris Wood offers "10m + (5x500m r3 @ 1.44 32 spm) +10m" (r3 = rest for 3 minutes).

Vesta Vets Head 2011

2011-04-04T22:29:00.015+01:00

Sunday dawned bright and clear for the Vesta Vets Head 2011. Well, it did so after we'd been burning down the M11 for about an hour, since we'd had to get up well before dawn. Simon, Ralph and I went down together, having met up with James H, Andy and Ollie at Queens. The rest of our fine crew were to meet us in London. Before we left Queens, I counted the riggers and seats again in my boot, not wishing to "do a Press". The boat itself we'd waved off on Friday night, so it sat on a trailer all Saturday (ahem). Despite getting a teensy bit lost in London once we came off the M4 (a mixture of my driving and Ralph's "old school" navigating: no GPS, just bits of paper) we arrived in good time, easily found a parking spot, and the boat and the crew. Simon and Amy were to "bank party" us, doing stuff like taking away the wellies and helping with the blades. And cheering from the bridge :-).

As you see from Simon's pic (ripped from the copy on Amy's blog) it is a busy scene far removed from the quiet Cam, though not nearly as busy as the HORR the day before (see here for our 2010 entry). Also fortunately James T decided to hustle us into the water as about the second to boat, so we missed all the hurry and the crush.

We had time for a relaxed paddle up to the start, then a spin and paddle down with the stream a little, which was useful to get a feel for rowing-with-the-stream, since it is far stronger than we're used to. The wind was slight, conditions good. Spin and head back for the start, more crews around now. About half an hour of faff keeping on station as the crews around closed in; Press just near us.

And then the off; the thing embedded here (assuming it is working) is the GPS track from my watch. So we all get to see and carp at James's line, though it looks OK to me. If you know a way to compare it to the "one true line" do let me know. The splits, as measured by my watch, are awesome: around 3:05 per km to start with (i.e. just over 1:30 per 500m), falling to 3:10 then 3:15 at the end. However, those are speed-over-ground and include the stream, so they are meaningless, except insofar as they tell you how fast the stream was. James was reporting splits of 1:45 falling to 1:50 I think, so the stream was making a difference of about :15. So the stream was running at 0.64 m/s, if my maths has come out right. Does that sound right?

The row itself was quite uneventful. We were together, we were fit enough to stop getting ragged, we rowed solidly all the way at about 29 I think. We got overtaken twice: once by a bunch of Italians (but I like to think that if they had come all this way over, they were probably pretty good. We saw them in Vesta boathouse afterwards: they even had rucksacks made up specially for the occasion and had Nick Lee standard of kit), and once by someone else. It rather reminded me of a recent article in "Rowing and Regatta": with head racing, you've got no idea how well you've done during the race, or indeed afterwards, until much later when the results come out.

Which brings me on to the results: our time was 21:21 and our place was 67th (of 204). James T had taken a flying guess and aimed for "top 20" but clearly we were some way away from that. I got all nerdy and drew a pic in Excel (it took me ages to work out how to do selections) of time against finish position, colour coded by class. We're the big blue dot. It is the familair S-shaped curve, but apart from that I'm not really sure it says anything useful.

I won't overload this post with toooo many pix, because I'm ripping them off Amy, who has more and better. Go look at her post.

But I can't resist one last mystery pic, on the left: what it this, and what is missing ;-?

After the row, and de-rigging and splitting the boat, we retired to Vesta for a well earned bit of food and drink, and a stand on the balcony in the sun watching the world go by. Then home time: the drive back (in our case, via Hammersmith, to retrieve Simon's splendid banner) wasn't too painful (unless you were Andy stuck on the Sarth Circular). Re-rigging the boat at 6 finished off the day, leaving me free to collapse in a heap on the living room floor at about 9.

And lastly, here we all are (again, pic from Simon):

Left to Right: Mr L Bin; Tom Watt; William Dulyea; Mr Oliver Crabb, Esquire; Dr Andrew Southgate; James "Curvaceous" Tidy; Dr James Howard; Dr William "Please learn not to smile like that" Connolley; Chris Wood; Ralph "Distant" Hancock.

And just after lastly... a pic from BigBlade embedded here with permission:

[Update: we get a mention in "Regatta", which Amy spotted: "Sixty-seventh placed Chesterton RC may not have won [the Vets Head] but they were the technical wizards of the race, leaving a GPS track of the route they steered, their splits, and even working out the speed of the stream" - Rowing and Regatta magazine May 2011.]

Refs

* Amy's view
* My pix on flickr (or will be, when I upload them)
* Simon's pix on facebook
* Full results

Head of the Cam

2011-03-21T11:31:00.003Z

Entries for this years Head of the Cam race are now open!

Saturday 30th April 2011

The Head Course - Cambridge, 2600m

3 divisions:

Division 1 10:45
Division 2 12:30
Division 3 14:15

VIIIs - IVs - Small Boats

BR, CRA and College Classes

£5 per rowing seat.

For further details on how to enter, please go to www.headofthecam.org

Entries close 7pm, Thursday 21st April

Womens Eights Head of the River Race 2011

2011-03-21T09:00:00.000Z

The crew: James, Ali (not well enough to row), Janice, Lorraine, Bev, Mel (lovely sub!), Claire, me, Jo, Anne PHOTO: Simon E

Saturday morning dawned bright sunny and warm, as promised by the Met Office. Our first task was to load the boat onto the trailer, and then wave it off to be driven down to London by another club. Then we all headed for cars and trains to make our way to London.

We were boating from Furnivall Gardens which has always been my favourite place to boat from on the Thames. It is close to Hammersmith Bridge which is about two thirds of the way down the course and is the best place for spectators to watch from. It also means that you get a warm up rowing to the start and not to onerous a row back from the finish. This year Furnivall only accepted 11 boats so there was a relaxed atmosphere as we rigged the boat ready to go, and we had inside space to store kit and wellies.

Rigging Dawntreader PHOTO: Ali B

Blades ready PHOTO: Ali B

Soon, our boating slot arrived and we carried our eight down onto the pontoon. We pushed off and that was when we realised something was wrong. Only the stern four of the boat could hear James's voice over the speakers connected to the cox-box amplifier. Our boat splits in two, and the wiring is connected at the join by a waterproof rubber connector. I was sitting in the 5 seat, just behind the join, and so I checked the connector. Two bare-ended (but insulated) wires came out of the connector in my hand. Ah. Problem. The solder had come loose inside the connector. If the connector is broken, the four girls in the bow can't hear the cox. So theat means they can't hear his instructions to manouver the boat, or his voice when the race begins, encouraging them on through 20+ minutes of pain. Last year, the cox box ran out of power halfway down the course and so I knew how awful it is to race without a cox. As I was closest to the broken connector, I took it upon myself to find a way to fix it. However, we had to get to our marshalling position first, and couldn't just sit there and fiddle with it. So we kept rowing, relaying calls down the boat until we reached our spot. Staying in one place on the Thames is tough - the stream flows about as fast as a pair of rowers can row, so you always have to have some people rowing.

The offending component!

Once we were roughly stationary, I tried just sticking the bare wires back into the loose half of the connector. Voices from the bow confirmed that they were getting intermittent noise from the speakers so I knew all was not lost. After a while, I discarded the loose part of the connector and tried just sticking the wires into the half of the connector still attached to the bow end of the boat, losing the part which was broken. I also cleaned the little bits of wire that were sticking out of the insulation as best I could. Stripping the insulation off would have been advantageous but I didn't have a tool to do so. Stuffing the newly cleaned wires as far as I could into the connector, I learnt from the bows that they could hear James voice. The insulation on wires provided enough friction to hold the wires in the rubber of the remaining connector and so I just hoped beyond hope that it would hold. We had another 20 minutes of marshalling and then a 20+ minute race. It held through the marshalling, and then we were off. There was nothing more I could do but hope.

The race started well, and we got into a good rhythm. Rowing on the Thames is quite different to rowing on the Cam, as the water is much rougher, and rowing with the tide means that it feels strange when you place your blade in, as if you haven't really got enough connection with the water. Still, we maintained well, and James' coxing kept us going, Soon we could see Hammersmith Bridge, where we knew our supporters would be cheering for us. We could see our club flag and also a great sign made by Simon - 'ROW FASTER, CHESTERTON, THE BAR IS OPEN!' which made me smile through the pain!

PHOTO: Simon E

That's us in the middle, about to overtake Essex on the left PHOTO: Simon E

At this point, we began to overtake the crew in front (the University of Essex) which was great fun. James thrives on this kind of coxing - when there is a real competition on our hands, and we slowly but surely passed them by. At this point in the race, overtaking was just the encouragement we needed to keep pushing to the end. It seemed to go on for ever, but eventually there was the call to wind it down. I felt pretty wrecked at this point, and couldn't speak to ask the question to which I desperately wanted the answer: Did the connection hold? Eventually I managed to gasp out the question, and got the answer that it had held, which was the best part of the race for me!

We had a bit of a row back to Furnivall but it wasn't too bad, and the sun was still shining. Our supporters met us on the pontoon and we took the boat apart to put back on the trailer before heading for a meal at Pizza Express. While we were there we learned that we'd come 271 out of 302 boats (all results by division), with a time of 23 minutes 21 seconds which wasn't too bad considering that we were a 'scratch' crew - with a sub (thanks so much, Mel!) who was rowing for one of the girls who was too ill to join us. Thanks also to our supporters on the bank and to James for his coxing.

Norwich head

2011-02-27T19:48:00.003Z

[A belated post, but I've edited the post date to match the event]

Norwich head is what you get to if you turn right; if you turn left you get to the half marathon (and if you go by train you meet the foul-mouthed old ladies). But we turned the right way and (unlike Press) had remembered to bring our riggers and (unlike the nameless Quad) we remembered not to turn turtle. And I was unaffected by the rain while waiting for the start because I'd brought my collapsible umbrella, and even if everyone else mocked me I was dry.

However, after this comprehensive list of things we got right, I now have to come on the the rowing itself. We had a good strong steady row, nothing spectacular, but it didn't feel as though we weakened. The Essex Boys came up on us off the start, and were on our tail after ~1/3 the course. Then we pushed back a bit and maybe they tired and we had the corner and we held them for a bit, before finally they had the inside of a bend and got past us. That took us to about 2/3 of the course, which is nearly back; just under the motorway bridge and home. The course itself is pleasantly rural.

And the end result? 15:28 for us and we were 5th in Division 2 4th of IM3 VIII's. I suppose we might have hoped for better, but we are just one small town boat club and Essex are an entire university, and only beat us by 30 seconds.

In the evening afterwards, a crew curry in the Maharajah. Here we all are:

Photo credit: William D's camera, photographer: Emma? L to R: Tom Watt, Andy Southgate, Chris Wood, Simon Emmings, William Dulyea, James Howard, James Tidy, Ollie Crab, William Connolley, Ralph Hancock (yes I know we all know who we are but I write them out sometimes so the search engines will find us).

You see from this (and the top pic) that it was really fairly muddy or (as James T put it) "like the Somme".

Refs

* Norwich head
* Norwich Rowing Club
* William D's pix

Christmas Head

2010-12-12T20:34:00.007Z

We won (jointly with Cantabs) the Mens IM3 VIII category in a time of 7:02; see results.

We also entered a Womens VIII, two mixed VIII's, and two pairs, all of which performed creditably:


104 Chesterton Rage Against the Machine cra m  IM3 8+ 1 7:02
103 Champion of the Thames campbell     cra m  IM3 8+ 1 7:02
225 Chesterton Band Aid                 cra mx Nv  8+ 2 8:08
218 Chesterton Westlife        Invitational m  IM3 2- 2 8:10
224 Chesterton Slade                    cra mx Nv  8+ 2 8:29
133 Chesterton Girls Aloud              cra w  Nv  8+ 1 8:35
245 Chesterton East 17         Invitational m  Nv  2- 2 8:37

Refs

* William's blog

Video of outing, 13th November 2010

2010-11-13T23:47:00.000Z

2010/2011 Club Committee

2010-10-28T13:04:00.000+01:00

At the AGM, the following people were voted into club positions:

Club Captain:
Chris Wood

Men's Captain:
James Tidy

Women's Captain:
Freya Morrissey/Amy Tillson

Secretary:
Amy Tillson

Treasurer:
Sarah Coates

Equipment Officer:
Andy Southgate

Webmaster:
Andy Southgate

Kit Officer:
Beverley England

Water Safety Advisor:
Paul Holland

Social Secretary:
Becca Scourse

Winter ergo league

2010-10-01T14:58:00.002+01:00

Fired by excess beer at last nights AGM (doubtless to be blogged soon) Gary finally completed the last phase of the much-heraled Winter Ergo League: actually organising the first session. And so this lunchtime Paul, Gary and I went down to Queens, found out how to work the new safe, sat around for a bit, then finally confessed that we would actually have to do an erg. It was raining.

Out mighty awe-inspiring distances (for 30 minutes, of course) were:


William C   7,582 
Gary D      7,307 
Paul H      7,240

all of us are about 100 m off our years best. The rules of the competition aren't quite clear: the aim is that we all put in £10 and the winner - he (or she) who improves the most by Christmas - wins all. Improves meaning fraction, or distance, or sheer good looks - this has yet to be decided.

The rest of you are invited to join in.

Boston Marathon 2010

2010-09-20T14:04:00.002+01:00

Lincoln Stamp End Lock - Boston Rowing Club

River Witham

31 miles (50km). 4 hours, 42 minutes

At 5:30am, I departed for Lincoln rowing club in the company of 9 other crazy rowers. For the second time, I was to row the Boston Rowing Marathon in an VIII. Two other rowers from our club were to row the same distance in a pair.

We arrived at the rowing club, and unloaded the boat while one of the other rowers took the trailer to the other end of the course at Boston, before getting a lift back to Lincoln. This is a logistical nightmare for organisers, as the start and finish of the race are so far apart! As one of the organisers, I had to draw a diagram in the end so that I could get my head round where all the cars and rowers should be at any one time!

The weather did not look good. It was tipping it down as we put the boat together, and showed no signs of letting up. But as we pushed off at 10:56, the rain began to let up. By the time we reached Bardney's Lock, 13.5km further on, it had let up completely! The lock is the most stressful part of the race, with crews competing to get out and back in again as fast as possible. Once back on the river we settled into a good pace, averaging about a 2:30-2:40 split, so we were getting through roughly a kilometer every 5 minutes or so. The km markers are really the only way to know how far you've gone as there are few landmarks on the Witham! James is a great job of keeping us focused and rowing well. He also provided musical interludes by playing rousing tunes via an adaptor down the cox box speakers. We rowed to Smoke on the Water, Don't Stop Me Now and the Ride of the Valkyries! Every 10km or so we had a break to take on water and food, but otherwise we just kept rowing.

I enjoyed this year's row more than last year. The actual rowing was better, the cox box lasted the whole length of the race, James's coxing was really very motivational and kept us better focused, and best of all we finished the race 20 minutes faster than last year!

Picture taken by Mel's brother on Will's camera. Taken form Will's flikr album

The crew from left to right and top to bottom: Mel, William D, Freya, William C, Jo, Anne, Joss, me, James. Six of us (Mel, William C, Anne, Joss and me) did it last year as well! Tom and Andy rowed the pair.

I survived without any blisters, and most people manged to avoid getting too many. Today, I just ache all over - especially in my legs!

Also see Will C's blog, with even a graph of our splits: http://scienceblogs.com/stoat/2010/09/boston_marathon.php

Bumps, day 3: ladies day

2010-07-22T23:21:00.008+01:00

A day for the ladies: W1 and W2 both bumped up, so W2 are now on for blades tomorrow. Great stuff.

The men fared less well: M3 rowed over (twice) being sandwich boat. Still, the exercise is good for them. M2 rowed over, after closing to within a length of Cantabs 7 but losing it on Grassy. M1 went down about at the White House, painful.

Blogs:

* William (M2)
* Amy (W2)
* Paul Holland for the Cmabridge News.

Also, there are loads of pix on various facebook pages (the pix here is ripped from Jo Crisall's album. It is actually a pic from yesterday, but I haven't seen any from today yet). We should make some kind of collection thingy.

[Extra pic added, one of Ivan's says Amy, W2 from Wednesday (day 2)]

Bumps, day 2

2010-07-21T23:52:00.006+01:00

[M1 coming into the gut, chasing City 3 and being chased by Cantabs 2. Not a great pic (sorry) but you get an idea of the distances]

Results:

M1 - down 1
M2 - up 1
M3 - up 1, then row-over as sandwich boat of division 3

W1 - up 1
W2 - up 2

Bumps blogging so far:

* William (M2)
* Amy (W2)

Pix from...

Jo C: Video of W1's bump

Me: mostly M2 posing, and Men's first division.

Chris Woods: M2 and M3, conveniently uploaded to the clubs website; I can never work out how to do that :-)

JET:

* M1
* M3
* W2
* W2 bows

Bumps, day 1

2010-07-21T11:06:00.003+01:00

M2 bumps preparation

2010-07-07T18:51:00.002+01:00

Bumps preparation from an M2 viewpoint: I'm sure M1 and the Ladies can speak for themselves. So: a couple of weeks ago we too part in the Xpress head (see previous report) and we were, to be honest, a bit rubbish. Full results are here but, in brief, while M1 did well (9:19, 12 seconds down on City) we took 11:20 and got overtaken by a Cantabs crew (Gunning) who we had reason to suspect would be near us in the bumps. This was disappointing. Actually it was worse than that but this is a public forum.

Yesterday was the CRA Timed Race, and in true CRA style the results aren't up as I write this, so I refer you to my bootleg copy. Now (admittedly on a shorter course) we're less than a minute down on M1, and more importantly *we* overtook someone (a poor 99's third crew: alas it won't be 99's 3 in the bumps :-). Perhaps more importantly we beat the Cantabs crew (pretty sure it was the same one, it had AM stroking it again!) by 24 seconds of real time. With their Vets time adjustment they beat us by a few seconds of reported time but we don't care because, aha, there is no such adjustment in the bumps.

According to the CRA charts, and the assumption that they are Cantabs 8, they are the crew ahead of us on day 1, which would be promising, but I've known the charts to shift a little in the run-up. So who knows.

Anyway, lets play pretend: suppose all remains equal, and we're 24 seconds faster over 2,200 m. Boats are 90 feet apart [1] so call it 40 m on the safe side. A boat goes at 5 m/s let us say, so that is 8 seconds, so we need 2,200/(24/8) ~ 700 m to catch them. Hopefully I've got the maths right there, and I think I've erred on the safe side. That is perfectly doable, but given the chaos of the bumps almost anything could happen ahead of them in 700 m, so we have our work cut out.

Things we can do to get faster: bed down, obviously. That was our first row in the Corpus boat, and we weren't expecting a bow-rigged one, or one rigged so low. The blades were nice though. We didn't quite have our full crew. And we still have a bit more training to do (none of this affects any of the other crews, of course :-).

X-press Head Race

2010-06-15T12:53:00.002+01:00

Four Chesterton boats took part in the 2010 X-press Head race. The results were as follows:

M1, IM3 VIII, 9:19, 2nd overall
M2-3, novice VIII, 11:20
Women's novice VIII+ 11:43
Women's novice IV+ 12:34

Helped along by a tailwind the newly formed Chesterton M1 beat the club record for the head course by 9 seconds, not bad for a scratch crew. Lets see what we can do with a bit of practice.

Wallingford

2010-05-04T21:53:00.004+01:00

Chesterton sent two IV's (well, all right, one-and-a-half, since there was some crew overlap) to Wallingford regatta on Eton's rowing lake. Despite poor weather and some excitement at the start we had a good time and achieved passable times. Read the full truth at Stoat.

A Race Report

2010-04-21T17:16:00.003+01:00

Long overdue! Both Jameses have been promising to write one but both have been too busy, so it was up to WC to write the first one:

http://scienceblogs.com/stoat/2010/04/horror.php#more

I like the first picture, of all the blades!

HoRR video

2010-04-12T15:10:00.001+01:00

6 minutes and 5 seconds in- a good shot of us off the start line.

HoRR/Vets Head Photos

2010-03-29T10:46:00.009+01:00

Well done to everyone who rowed/coxed the Mens and Veterans's Heads at the weekend, especially the crazy people who did it twice! It was a great weekend for all concerned! Race Reports will follow shortly.

Mens Head Crew

(302/420 with a time of 19.57)

Cox: James T
Stroke: Ralph H
7: James H
6: Tom W
5: William C
4: Tom M
3: Mike P-J
2: Chris W
Bow: Paul H

Vets Head Crew

(92/204 with a time of 15.04, beating loads of men-only boats!)

Cox James T
Stroke: Joss T
7: Claire H
6: Ralph H
5: James H
4: Tom W
3: Paul H
2: Bev E
Bow: Janice D

Here are some photos from the races and links to where there are more.

Mens Head of the River Race

BigBlade

More at : http://www.bigblade-photos.com/displayimage.php?src=http://www.bigblade-photos.com/rowing/events/2010/meh10/bydivision/&im=MEH_10_02645

Birdman (Hammersmith)

More at http://events.birdmanphotography.com/?Action=VF&id=3691778650&ppwd=nr6706kk

Jet Photographic

Hammersmith

http://www.jetphotographic.com/showphoto.php?id=199441

Start
http://www.jetphotographic.com/showphoto.php?id=199040

Vets Head of the River Race

BigBlade(loads!)

More at http://www.bigblade-photos.com/rowing/events/2010/veh10/bydivision/153%20Chesterton%20RC%20%28B%29%20MxVB%20C.html

Birdman

More at http://events.birdmanphotography.com/?Action=VF&id=3696888050&ppwd=nr6706kk

Jet

http://www.jetphotographic.com/showphoto.php?id=199650

Victim identification

2010-03-24T14:42:00.003Z

On HoRR/Vets Head weekend the tideway is home to many strange blades. Those of you heading down to London to support us this weekend may find yourselves wondering just which club those poor souls struggling in the wake of the mighty Chesterton men belong to.

May I suggest you use this handy guide to tick off our victims.

Video of WeHoRR- under Hammersmith Bridge

2010-03-22T09:37:00.001Z

From 4:30 onwards. Only a little snippet, but it's worth seeing.

Hammersmith Head 2010 BowCam

2010-03-19T18:39:00.002Z

Look out for the unsat sky....

This is what we are all aiming towards...

2010-03-18T09:55:00.003Z

Blog Layout Edit

2010-03-17T12:51:00.001Z

Follwing Will's comment below, I've had a bit of a fiddle with the settings. Comments very welcome, and I know the title image isn't great quality! I'm working on it, I just need the TT font that we use so that I can create a better version.

HORR 2007

2010-03-17T10:44:00.004Z

For those doing the HORR, here is a pic a friend sent me from 2007, when the weather wasn't so good.

Glug glug glug...

BTW, don't you think our blog is a bit thin, in the sense of not-very-wide. How about someone tweaks the settings a bit?

More photos of WEHoRR: overtaking Durham

2010-03-16T09:26:00.001Z

http://www.bigblade-photos.com/rowing/events/2010/weh10/bydivision/198%20Chesterton%20RC%20N%20C.html

The Hammersmith Head

2010-03-15T08:50:00.012Z

Sparring with Bristol- they're about 3 or 4 seats up at this point, but it's the closest they got.

56/89 overall, 8/21 novice

Yesterday the Chesterton men made the first of two trips to the tideway this spring travelling to Tideway Scullers for the Hammersmith Head. The objective was to familiarise the HORR crew with the waves wind and general chaos of racing on the Thames which is so different to our own little Cam. Only two of the rowers and our cox had previously been on the Thames so there were plenty of nerves as we put our VIII together on the embankment but once we boated everyone settled down quickly.

After a brief warm up we marshalled above Chiswick Bridge and watched division 1 spin off the opposite bank and head off downstream. Soon it was our turn and we were off. The crews nerves showed at first and we started a little slowly with Bristol university gaining ground behind. A strong headwind and choppy river was hampering our style and just after Barnes Bridge the Bristol cox was calling her crew to push past us.... she didn' know there was no way Chesterton were going to be overtaken so soon. We matched their push and raced side by side around the long bend heartened by cheers from our supporters at Chiswick pier and overtaking another crew on the way. It was clear we were a match for Bristol and after James played some mind games with their bow pair we finally shook them off and pulled ahead by a length or so by the finish at Hammersmith Bridge.

The row back to Tideway Scullers was over very choppy water, including the wake of a lifeboat that raced past at full speed but the crew rowed well on the home run. Encouraged by the call of “push 10 for the pub” we were met on the hard by Emma, Sarah and Dan who ensured we got the shiny new boat out without a scratch. The boat was trailered in good time and we retired to the bar, first at tideway scullers and afterwards at The Ship Inn (excellent Spitfire on tap). Everyone enjoyed the experience and I think its sets us up nicely for the main event in 2 weeks time.

More pictures and a video or two to follow!

Crew: J Tidy (cox), R Hancock, J Howard, T Watt, W Connolley, T Mansfield, M Prior-Jones, C Wood, P Holland
More pictures and a longer report here: http://scienceblogs.com/stoat/2010/03/mothers_day.php

Results:

Finish Position, Start position, Crew name and Category

1 2 LONDON RC A SEN.8+ 11:00
2 1 HENLEY RC A ELI.8+ 11:02
3 5 STAR CLUB IM1.8+ 11:02
4 3 LONDON RC B SEN.8+ 11:08
5 15 BRISTOL UNIV A IM2.8+ 11:09 IM2.8+
6 7 BRISTOL CITY RC A IM1.8+ 11:13
7 49 BRISTOL UNIV B IM3.8+ 11:18 IM3.8+
8 12 LONDON RC C IM1.8+ 11:21
9 9 TIDEWAY SCULLERS A IM1.8+ 11:23
10 31 BIRMINGHAM UNI A IM3.8+ 11:24
11 10 HENLEY RC B IM1.8+ 11:25
12 16 W OF ENGLAND UNIV A IM2.8+ 11:26
13 6 THAMES TRADESMEN IM1.8+ 11:28
14 19 BATH UNIV A IM2.8+ 11:31
15 77 TIDEWAY SCULLERS B NOV.8+ 11:31 NOV.8+
16 14 PUTNEY TOWN A IM2.8+ 11:32
17 11 VESTA A IM1.8+ 11:32
18 18 IMPERIAL COLL A IM2.8+ 11:33
19 82 QUINTIN BC A VetD.8+ 11:34 00:35 10:59 Vet C/D 8+ C/D H'cap
20 4 LEA RC A IM1.8+ 11:35
21 46 BRISTOL CITY RC B IM3.8+ 11:36
22 21 MAIDSTONE INVICTA A IM2.8+ 11:37
23 37 IMPERIAL COLL B T/O 11:37
24 8 MORTLAKE AA A IM1.8+ 11:38
25 17 HENLEY RC C IM2.8+ 11:39
26 32 LADY MARGARET BC IM3.8+ 11:40
27 13 EXETER UNIV A IM2.8+ 11:43
28 55 BIRMINGHAM UNI B IM3.8+ 11:46
29 30 CARDIFF UNIV BC A IM3.8+ 11:46
30 33 UNIV COLL LON A IM3.8+ 11:49
31 61 BRISTOL UNIV C NOV.8+ 11:50
32 20 LEA RC B IM2.8+ 11:50
33 47 SWANSEA UNIV RC A IM3.8+ 11:51
34 56 PUTNEY TOWN B IM3.8+ 11:51
35 54 ST GEORGES HOSP IM3.8+ 11:55
36 52 CARDIFF UNIV BC B IM3.8+ 11:56
37 60 RUMS BOAT CLUB A NOV.8+ 11:56
38 51 AURIOL KENSINGTON A IM3.8+ 11:58
39 27 HSBC RC IM3.8+ 11:59
40 63 IMPERIAL COL MED BC A NOV.8+ 12:01
41 34 SONS OF THAMES A IM3.8+ 12:01
42 24 ELIZABETHAN BC IM2.8+ 12:02
43 48 BATH UNIV B IM3.8+ 12:03
44 80 THAMES RC B VetC.8+ 12:04 00:16 11:48 C/D H'cap
45 57 EXETER UNIV B IM3.8+ 12:04
46 35 PETERBOROUGH CITY A IM3.8+ 12:07
47 42 DE MONTFORT LEICS IM3.8+ 12:07
48 28 PARRS PRIORY RC A IM3.8+ 12:08
49 79 BRISTOL UNIV D NOV.8+ 12:10
50 44 W OF ENGLAND UNIV B IM3.8+ 12:10
51 76 EXETER UNIV C NOV.8+ 12:12
52 29 KINGS COLL LON A IM3.8+ 12:12
53 41 SONS OF THAMES B IM3.8+ 12:17
54 69 IMPERIAL COLL C NOV.8+ 12:18
55 83 TIDEWAY SCULLERS C VetE.8+ 12:20 00:52 11:28 Vet E/F 8+ E/F H'cap
56 78 CHESTERTON RC NOV.8+ 12:21
57 59 BIRMINGHAM UNI C NOV.8+ 12:23
58 22 VESTA B IM2.8+ 12:27
59 25 CYGNET RC A IM2.8+ 12:28
60 39 ESSEX UNIV IM3.8+ 12:29
61 68 THAMES RC A NOV.8+ 12:36
62 70 SWANSEA UNIV RC B NOV.8+ 12:39
63 45 HSBC RC IM3.8+ 12:40
64 75 LSE RC NOV.8+ 12:44
65 53 MORTLAKE AA B IM3.8+ 12:46
66 67 IMPERIAL COL MED BC B NOV.8+ 12:46
67 62 UNIV COLL LON B NOV.8+ 12:49
68 43 PETERBOROUGH CITY B IM3.8+ 12:52
69 58 QUEEN MARY BC NOV.8+ 12:53
70 36 MAIDSTONE INVICTA B IM3.8+ 12:53
71 38 BARTS & LONDON IM3.8+ 12:57
72 26 FURNIVALL IM3.8+ 12:57
73 72 BATH UNIV C NOV.8+ 12:58
74 64 RUMS BOAT CLUB B NOV.8+ 13:02
75 71 VESTA C NOV.8+ 13:04
76 81 PUTNEY TOWN C VetD.8+ 13:07 00:35 12:32 C/D H'cap
77 66 BIRMINGHAM UNI D NOV.8+ 13:09
78 74 UNIV COLL LON C NOV.8+ 13:10
79 50 PARR S PRIORY RC B IM3.8+ 13:15
80 40 KINGS COLL LON B IM3.8+ 13:16
81 86 LONDON RC D VetF.8+ 13:30 01:11 12:19 E/F H'cap
82 87 BEWL BRIDGE VetF.8+ 13:33 01:11 12:22 E/F H'cap
83 88 KINGS COLL LON C W.IM3.8+ 13:49 W.IM3.8+
84 84 QUINTIN BC B VetE.8+ 13:58 00:52 13:06 E/F H'cap
85 73 CYGNET RC B NOV.8+ 14:13
86 89 BATH UNIV D W.NOV.8+ 14:18 W.NOV.8+
87 65 AURIOL KENSINGTON B NOV.8+ 14:33
88 90 KINGS COLL LON D W.NOV.8+ 14:44
89 85 PUTNEY TOWN D VetE.8+ 15:29 00:52 14:37 E/F H'cap23 SUDBURY RC IM2.8+ DNS

Tideway results

2010-03-14T14:23:00.000Z

As most of you know the Tideway VIII raced in the Women's' head of the River race yesterday and are delighted to report we came 248th out of 289 with a time of 22.29. This is a big improvement on recent results where we have come in the 280s. The time on its own does not mean that much as it depends on the weather conditions of the day, but we finished 11th out of 17 in our category of novice club.

I think the most telling fact is that boat 199 who chased us all the way and only overtook us on the finish ended up with a time of 22.08 (ie 20 secs faster) and position 219 - well within our grasp.

Other Cambridge crews who took part

City A IM1 19.56 25th
Claire A's boat 20.41 79th
City B IM3 20.42 81st
Cantabs A IM2 20.57 104th
City C IM3 21.43 181st
99s IM2 21.48 - must be annoyed to be beaten by City C 190th - but only 40 sec faster than us
Champs 1 IM3 21.50 195th
Cantabs B IM3 21.59 210th
City D 22.29 246th
Chesterton 22.29 248th - City D just beat us by part of a second - presumably the same crew who made a dramatic improvement in Winter league last week

In the novice club category (our category)
Winner was Bexhill and Worthing RC 21.12
Last City of Oxford 24.35
A 3 min range of times - and we are nearer the winner than the loser.

The clubs that beat us were Norwich, Nottingham (both very big clubs), 5 clubs from the Thames and Aberdeen RC. We beat Lea, Eton Excelsior, Kingston, Vesta, Doncaster and City of Oxford.

Thanks to everyone who made it possible for us to go especially Claire, Kate (our cox) and Andy S for making sure the boat would pass the inspection and giving me every single spare part he could think of.

Anne

WEHoRR 2010

2010-03-14T13:18:00.006Z

2700 athletes, 300 boats, 8 Chesterton rowers, 1 cox, and a day to remember! For several of us is was our first experience of rowing the Women's Eights Head, or 'Tideway', but even for those who had raced on the Thames before, it was still a fantastic experience.

Under Hammersmith Bridge (birdman photography) more here

The forecast was for sunny spells, and although we could have done with a little more sun, we were still lucky to have a bright, not too cold day without a lot of wind. We were boating from Tideway Scullers School, which is positioned exactly on the start line, by Chiswick bridge. We all arrived, some by train and some by car, by 12:30pm, and the boat was waiting for us. Once we had put the boat together, we had plenty of time to eat, pose for crew photos, and try to calm each others' nerves! At 2pm, we went hands on the boat, and took our place in the queue to boat. It all happens very quickly, as there were so many boats waiting to push off behind us. We were very grateful to Janice, Emily and Jo, who helped us with our blades and wellies. And then we were off! Rowing on the Thames! It was pretty exciting, and for many the race nerves fell away.

We then had a short row to our marshalling spot. Our cox, Kate (from Magdelene College) who had kindly stepped in to help out and get practice for coxing Magdalene M2 at the Mens Head of the River Race, very ably kept us on station. It was a constant process of rowing and maneuvering to keep in the same spot against the flow of the tide (the Eights Head races are always rowed with the tidal stream). As we moved up to the start, race nerves started to appear again for some (including me)! Under marshall's orders, we de-kitted and span the boat ready to race. This was it!

We felt like we got off to a strong start. Rowing on the Thames is different to rowing on the rivulet that is the Cam, but we took it in our stride, and kept a good rhythm, rating 28, and rowing quite long. We had gained confidence when we overtook the boat in front (a Durham college second boat) with ease within about 3 mintues of the start. This gave us a great boost and we maintained well under Barnes bridge, and past Chiswick Eyot. Tiredness began to set in, but before long we were rowing under Hammersmith Bridge where we could hear cheering from our enthusiastic support team. This fired us up, and we were determined to look good for them and the cameras. We pushed off Hammersmith Bridge, rating a little higher at 29 and relaxed into the long stretch to the Black buoy. Unfortunately it was on this stretch that the cox box battery ran out, and Kate's voice, which has been spurring us on so well, faded out. She didn't realise how badly we couldn't hear her, so for the last part we were on our own to an extent. Despite this we did still manage to overtake another boat after this point. Although my memory is somewhat hazy, the results tell me that it was another Durham college first boat! Not knowing exactly where the finish was made the final minutes somewhat difficult to judge, and we were overtaken by a couple of boats just before the finish line. Although we clearly all wanted to prevent them coming by, we weren't able to make a united effort to do so. But despite the lack of cox box, we all kept going strongly, coxing ourselves through it to keep pushing. We did lose length towards the end but we kept a good rhythm, and when we passed the finish line, none of us had that much left!

But we still had to row home, back to Tideway Sculler School at Chiswick. It was tough and it took a good hour against the stream. My hands were quite sore, as well as everything else, but it was not entirely unpleasant in the evening light to be rowing down one of the most famous stretches of river in the world! Upon arrival at TSS, we were greeted by our loyal wellie bearers and my James helped pull us in. Soon we were back on land, enjoying Freya's delicious flapjack, and putting the boat back together.

We retired to The Ship on the opposite bank after we had put the boat back on the trailer for drinks and dinner before heading back to Cambridge, tired but elated at having done it.

Chiswick Bridge as the sun set after the race.

Our category (expand for a better view)

Womens' Eights Head of the River Race

2010-03-13T20:25:00.002Z

Congratulations to the Chesterton womens' crew who came 248th out of 289 crews at the WEHoRR race in a time of 22.28. A very strong performance, and a decided improvement over previous years. Well done to:

Anne
Joss
Amy
Freya
Mel
Ev
Sarah
Alison
Kate (Cox)

Tideway!

2010-03-11T09:51:00.004Z

This is the standard video used to teach people about the Tideway. It's very much worth watching, to get a feel for the event and to see it in action. It's also compulsory for all coxswains to watch.

Search "Tideway Head" on Youtube to get some more classics. I particularly like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C9vCYGoPcY.

WEHoRR:

Useful documents here: http://www.wehorr.org/documents/2010-Info-Captains-Crews.pdf

Everyone needs to have read this!

The draw is at http://www.wehorr.org/documents/2010-Draw.pdf

Good luck to everyone racing! I'll be cheering from Hammersmith Bridge.

Hammersmith:

The map of the course is here: http://www.akrowing.com/download/CoursePDF.pdf

We're boating from TSS, which is by the start line, so we'll paddle a bit before marshalling.

Info on the start is here: http://www.akrowing.com/download/StartPDF.pdf

And the draw is here: http://www.akrowing.com/events.php?event=2010-hamh

A timely reminder...

2010-03-10T13:59:00.005Z

This is what we're not going to allow to happen this year:

City had a fast start, whereas we were a little bit too slow off the blocks. They gain about half a length in the first few strokes.

The Tidy 2k challenge

2010-03-10T10:31:00.001Z

Surely I cannot be alone in wondering what Mr Tidys 2K score actually is. I therefore propose a little wager - everyone who wants to take part puts £2 in and guesses a time.

We will get James on an ergo the Monday after tideway and the person who guessed closest wins the pot.

I'm going for 9:24

Men's Ergo Leaderboard

2010-03-09T15:57:00.002Z

Tom set off with an early lead, but surprise contender Steven pulled a 7min 2k and knocked our esteemed captain down into third place. It looks like Steven has the potential to knock our current leader off top-spot- or is Tom's lead too great? Will Ralph overtake James, or will the latter have another go, with better pace? What's my 2k score?

Find out in the next thrilling installment...

Link at http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AjyCKTce_X42dDVWQWdNcGxWRWZ4RmNVdXRsZmFHY3c&hl=en

New Eight, new Blog

2010-03-09T10:45:00.001Z

Photo courtesy of WMC

Hello, and welcome to the Chesterton Rowing Club blog. On here, we will post photos, videos to review, the ergo table, and reports and photos from races and events.

The first item of news is the new men's eight. The club now has two decent eights, for the mens' and womens' squads, which will help us to train well and become more competitive in races!

Forthcoming events for the women include the Womens' Eights Head of the River Race on Saturday 13th, and for the men, the Hammersmith Head on the 14th.

Club Kit

2010-01-29T20:18:00.000Z

Club vests, splashtops and other bits

The club kit looks a bit like this:

If you want some, please look up the Kit Officer on the contacts list.

Membership

2010-01-29T20:11:00.001Z

Membership is open to everybody.

Full rowing membership cost £192 for the year payable in one lump sum or monthly instalments of £16 (pro-rata for newbies).

Social and coaching memberships are £20 per year.

Coxing membership is £10.

Bumps membership for the year 2011 was £45 not including entry fees (typically £10 which is paid to the CRA); it will be similar for this coming year.

We also offer 3 month taster membership for £48 for those just taking up the sport and are not sure whether it is for them. The 3 months runs from their first outing in an VIII and it covers all tubbing sessions, all training sessions on the erg, any land training sessions, and all rowing outings for the said 3 months.

Constitution

2010-01-28T22:24:00.002Z

[This is a web-ified version of the latest version of the club constitution, provided for convenience. The definitive version in Word (boo!) format is available on request.]

Chesterton Rowing Club

Constitution and Rules

1. NAME

1.1. The club shall be known as Chesterton Rowing Club hereinafter known as the Club

1.2. The Club is affiliated to the ARA and CRA.

2. OBJECTIVES

2.1. The objectives of the Club are to promote a wider participation and interest in the sport of rowing in the Cambridge area.

3. MEMBERSHIP

3.1. The following are eligible for membership:

· Membership is open to any person at the discretion of the committee.

· If the club accepts a membership application from any junior, i.e. a person under 18 years of age, the committee shall immediately review its structure and procedures to comply with recommendations set out in the “Child Protection Procedures in Rowing” as published by the ARA”

· Classes of Membership:

· Rowing members

· Temporary members*

· Social, coaching and coxing members

NB: *Temporary Members can be designated as such by any committee member, or by those members responsible for organising an outing, for the purposes of competition, training or recreation. Temporary membership will be held for the duration of the outing only.

3.2. Election:

Candidates for election to membership shall submit a completed membership form to the Membership Secretary. The power of election shall rest with the committee, who may refuse to elect to membership any applicant without assigning a reason for doing so.

3.3. Acceptance:

The committee may at its sole discretion, decline to accept renewal of membership, from any person, without disclosing the reason.

4. EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES POLICY

The Club shall endeavour to ensure that the talents and resources of all members are utilised to the full and that no member receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of sex, disability marital status, creed, social class, colour, ethnic group, age or sexual orientation or is disadvantaged by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be relevant to performance.

5. ENTRANCE FEE

5.1. There is no entrance fee. New members shall be charged the applicable subscription rate, adjusted pro-rata for the remainder of the membership year.

6. SUBSCRIPTION

6.1. The rates of subscription shall be determined by a simple majority of the committee and shall be due on election, and thereafter on or before 1 January in every year.

7. CESSATION OF MEMBERSHIP

7.1. Any members may resign without notice

7.2. Any member may be expelled by a quorate meeting of the committee, held with due notice

7.3. Any member who has been expelled by the committee may appeal by instructing the Honorary Secretary to call an Extraordinary General Meeting, which shall decide whether or not to reinstate the member, and whether or not to repay any part of the member’s subscription.

7.4. A member shall be deemed to have resigned from the Club if, after due notice, he/shall has not paid the annual subscription by the renewal date. He/she may, however, rejoin at any time during the year by paying the full annual membership fee, subject to the provision of 3.3 above.

8. SPONSORSHIP

8.1. No rowing kit bearing the name of SIMOCO shall be worn in any Chesterton Rowing Club outings, on the Cam or elsewhere, or in boathouses on the Cam, or in the vicinity of Cambridge boathouses.

8.2. Race kit is to be worn for all races on or off Cam, if it has been issued to a member by the Kit Secretary (see paragraph 10.11). Race kit is as described on the club website.

8.3. The Club expects it members to behave responsibility at all times. Members shall not bring the Club or its sponsors into disrepute whilst involved in Club outings and races on or off the Cam.

9. COMMITTEE

9.1. Only members entitled to vote are eligible to hold office. Only paid-up members are entitled to vote at meetings.

9.2. The committee shall conduct the affairs of the Club as a whole and shall consist of at least three members sharing the following offices:

9.2.1. Club Captain

9.2.2. Men’s Captain

9.2.3. Women’s Captain

9.2.4. Honorary Secretary

9.2.5. Membership Secretary/Treasurer

9.2.6. Race Secretaries

9.2.7. Head Coach

9.2.8. Water Safety Advisor

9.2.9. Equipment Officer

9.2.10. Webmaster

9.2.11. Kit Secretary

9.2.12. Funding Secretary

9.2.13. Social Secretary

9.2.14. Crew Captains – non-voting member

9.3. Any committee member holding more than one office shall have one vote. The committee shall have the power to co-opt further members and co-opted members shall have the right to vote at committee meetings.

9.4. Nominations for the position of Captain, Honorary Secretary, Treasurer and other Officers shall be put forward in the form of a motion under the terms of Rule 11.5

9.5. The term of office for elected officers shall be for one year, and members shall be eligible for re-election.

9.6. The committee may at any time request an independent examination of the Club accounts.

10. DUTIES OF COMMITTEE

10.1. Club Captain:

· The Club Captain shall be responsible for guiding the activities of the Club in accordance with its general policy as expressed by the majority of its members.

· The Club Captain shall represent or arrange for the representation of the Club at ARA regional level, CRA delegates’ meeting, and at meetings of other organisations.

· The Club Captain shall ex officio be a member of any other committee of the Club.

· The Club Captain shall have the ultimate responsibility for deciding which individuals shall row in each crew and for what crews are formed.

10.2. Men’s Captain:

· The Men’s Captain shall be responsible for formation and development of the men’s crew in consultation with the Head Coach.

· The Men’s Captain shall help with and promote the selection of Men’s crew captains.

10.3. Women’s Captain:

· The Women’s Captain shall be responsible for formation and development of the women’s crews in consultation with the Head Coach.

· The Women’s Captain shall help with, and promote, the selection of women’s crew captains.

10.4. Honorary Secretary:

· The Honorary Secretary shall be responsible for the organisation of meetings of the committee and of the Club, and the recording of minutes relating to such meetings and all correspondence relating to the general business of the Club.

· The Honorary Secretary shall provide a point of contact for general ARA correspondence.

10.5. Membership Secretary/Treasurer:

· The Membership Secretary/Treasurer shall be responsible for processing membership applications and renewals, shall ensure that membership forms are correctly filed in, and shall provide membership figures for the ARA membership declaration.

· The Membership Secretary/Treasurer shall be responsible for collection of all membership fees, and for payment of these into the Club’s bank account.

· The Membership Secretary/Treasurer shall keep such books of account as required by the General Meeting.

· The Treasurer shall prepare the books annually and shall produce at the AGM accounts showing the financial state of the Clubs.

10.6. Race Secretary:

· The Race Secretary shall process all racing entries from Crew Captains and scullers, so that the Club can submit race entries in a co-ordinated way. While a single Race Secretary is preferred, not more than two Race Secretaries can cooperate to perform these duties.

· At the Race Secretary’s discretion, and in consultation with the Treasurer, the Club’s bank account may be used to pay all crew entries together for any event, in which case the Race Secretary is responsible for ensuring that the Crew Captains recover entry fees from the rowers and pay these back to the Club. A levy may be applied to any race fees paid via the Club’s bank account to cover interest and risk of default, as agreed by the committee.

10.7. Head Coach:

· The Head Coach shall advise on coaching related matters.

10.8. Water Safety Advisor:

· The Water Safety Advisor is responsible for keeping the Club up to date with ARA guidelines and regulations on water safety and for ensuring that this information is disseminated within the Club. The Water Safety Advisor shall keep such safety records as are required by the ARA.

10.9. Equipment Officer:

· The Equipment Officer shall be responsible for maintaining equipment in a safe and serviceable condition.

· The Equipment Officer shall be responsible for all contractual arrangements between the Club and other parties, particularly but not exclusively hire of rack space, hire of equipment, hiring out of the Club’s equipment.

· The Equipment Officer shall be responsible for insuring the Club’s equipment and ensuring that the Club is covered for public liability.

10.10. The Webmaster:

· The Webmaster shall be responsible for insuring the Club’s website and other electronic services, such as mailing lists, online boat booking etc.

10.11. Kit Secretary:

· The Kit Secretary shall be responsible for design and procurement of racing kit for the Club and for the issue of T shirts showing the name of the sponsor to all new Club members.

10.12. Funding Secretary:

· The Funding Secretary shall be responsible for finding means to improve the Club’s income. These may include sponsorship, fund-raising events, sports events etc as approved by the committee.

10.13. Social Secretary:

· The Social Secretary shall be responsible for identifying social events which should encourage socialising between crews and groups within the Club and between Clubs.

10.14. Crew Captains:

· Any number of Crew Captains may be co-opted onto the committee. Crew Captains shall organise crew outings and provide the Race Secretary with accurate details of crews, preferred entry status and preferred division times. Crew Captains shall recover race fees from rowers in their crews, on behalf of the Race Secretary.

11. COMMITTEE MEETINGS

11.1. The committee is responsible for the general conduct of the Club’s business and activities.

11.2. The committee shall meet during the year, as required by the business to be transacted.

11.3. Special meetings of the committee shall be called by the Honorary Secretary on instructions from the Club Captain, or not less than three committee members.

11.4. A quorum shall consist of not less than three officers who have been elected at a general meeting.

11.5. In the case of casual vacancy among the committee, the said committee shall be entitled to appoint another eligible person to act until the next AGM.

11.6. Not less than seven clear days’ notice shall be given of a committee meeting, such notice being sent to all current committee members.

12. GENERAL MEETING

12.1. Fully paid up members of any category shall be entitled to vote at General Meetings. Non-members, and former members whose subscription has lapsed, shall not be entitled to vote.

12.2. An Annual General Meeting shall be held in the autumn of each year. There shall be laid before the meeting a statement of accounts made up to the 30 September immediately preceding.

12.3. An Extraordinary General Meeting shall be called on the instructions of a simple majority of the committee or on a requisition signed by not less than 3 members of the Club entitled to vote.

12.4. Not less than 21 clear days notice shall be given, specifying to all members the time and business of the General Meeting.

12.5. At any General Meeting, a resolution put to the vote of the Meeting shall be decided by a show of hands of those entitled to vote, except when more than one nomination has been received for a position on the committee, in which case voting will be by secret ballot. In the event of a tie, the result shall be decided by postal ballot of all paid-up members.

12.6. At all General Meetings, the Club Captain shall preside or in his or her absence, a Chairman for the meeting will be elected from the committee by the voting members present.

12.7. At all General Meetings not less than five members of the Club entitled to vote shall constitute a quorum.

12.8. Absences of quorum: If after half an hour from the time appointed for the meeting, a quorum is not present, the Meeting, if called at the request of the members, shall be dissolved. In any other case, the meeting shall be adjourned until a time and place to be fixed by the committee. If a quorum is not present within half an hour from the time appointed for an adjourned meeting, the members present shall be a quorum.

12.9. Accidental Omission: Accidental Omission to give notice of a meeting to, or the non-receipt of notice of a meeting by any members shall not invalidate the proceedings of a meeting.

12.10. Election of men’s and women’s captains: only men shall be entitled to vote for the men’s captains only women shall be entitled to vote for the women’s captain.

12.11. Where one member holds more than one committee post, that member shall only be entitled to one vote.

13. LIABILITY

The committee shall manage the affairs of the Club. Financial or legal liability incurred in the rightful exercise of their office shall not however be the personal liability of the committee but shall be the responsibility of the Club as a whole.

14. ALTERATION OF CONSTITUTION

14.1. This constitution shall be altered amended or rescinded except by a General Meeting of the Club.

14.2. A resolution to give effect to a change must be passed by at least 75% of the members present at the General Meeting, and voting on this behalf.

15. DISTRIBUTION

In no circumstances can any profit be distributed to members. All profits generated must be used in furthering the objectives of the Club.

16. TERMINATION

The Club shall not terminate except by a resolution of a Special General Meeting convened for the purpose and, in such an event, any surplus assets shall be handed over to a body or bodies with similar objectives to a charity or charities agreed by the meeting which formally terminates the Club.

17. POWER OF DECISION

Any matter not provided for in this constitution or any question over the interpretation of it shall be dealt with by the committee whose decision shall be final.

18. SAFETY

The committee shall appoint a member to act as Water Safety Advisor whose duty it will be to understand the requirements of the ARA Code of Practice for Water Safety and advise on their prominent display, their observation and their implementation at all times.

19. DECLARATION

All members shall be required to sign a membership form which shall include a declaration of any applicable health problems, and which shall be kept by the Membership Secretary. Any relevant health problems may be communicated with officers of the Club and to coaches as necessary to ensure the safety of rowers.

20. VALIDITY

This constitution replaces any previous version of the constitution or POR documents [CW1] and is the only document applicable to the Club.

Approved at the Annual General Meeting, September 22nd 2011.

Signed by (Club Captain) ...................................... [Christopher Wood]

[CW1]For review, intention not clear.

Night coxing list

2009-11-14T16:51:00.006Z

The Chesterton R.C. Night Rowing Policy currently says:

Only those coxes on the night-time coxes list may cox at night. All coxes wishing to be added to this list must discuss this with the club captain who will ensure that the cox is suitably experienced or trained.

At a recent committee meeting we decided to split the list into two sections: "full" night coxes, and "under measures" night coxes, who are expected to be more cautious than full night coxes. Specifically, "under measures" coxes should not go past the reach; and should be more cautious about both coxing in general and the weather conditions under which an outing is permitted.

This list was last updated 2011/11/14 and supersedes the old list. Note: it includes a number of people no longer part of the club, but who we still trust :-).

"Full" list

* John Aspden
* Alison Binney
* David Byrne
* Emma Cosham
* Fiona Knights
* Emma Metcalf
* Andy Nicol
* Anne Roberts
* Chris Smith
* James Tidy
* Simon Emmings

"Under measures" list

* Katherine Webster
* William Connolley
* Sarah Coates
* Joss Telford
* Robert Nimmo
* Fio Brady

Club admin

2009-11-14T16:47:00.006Z

This page is for linking to posts or other pages related to club admin.

* Night coxing list
* Water safety policy
* Constitution
* Membership
* Club kit
* Pages migrated from the old website

Coxing Check-list

2009-10-13T19:25:00.000+01:00

This is a list of items which coxes should check prior to an outing. These checks must be carried out regularly, and prior to every night-time outing, to ensure that the boat is fit to row and is unlikely to break down during an outing.

* Bow-ball must be fitted and secure, not split or perished.
* All hatches must be covered (hatches can be taped over in an emergency but arrange to have the cover replaced)
* Rigger bolts and top-bolts should be tight
* All heel-restraints must be fitted and secure; the sole of the shoe must not lift above the horizontal.
* The rudder should move freely, there should be no fraying or chafing of the rudder lines, and the rudder top-bolt should be tight.
* The cox must wear a suitable life-jacket or buoyancy-aid; life-jackets must not be worn under other clothing. Note that only a manual life-jacket may be used in a bow-coxed boat.

For night-time rowing only

* White lights must be securely fitted to bow and stern, each with at least 180 degrees of illumination. Fit a lanyard if lights are fixed using suction cups.
* A flashing red light must also be shown at the stern
* Cox and Bow must wear reflective clothing
* Thermal blankets must be carried, at least three in a four, five in an eight
* A throw-line should be carried unless there is a bank-party who should be carrying one
* A first-aid kit must be brought to the boathouse; it can be left behind or taken in the boat
* A mobile phone must be carried by cox, a crew member, or the bank-party
* Cox and bank-party (if present) should be able to communicate via radio-link or telephone
* In the absence of a bank-party, the cox should have arranged for someone to be on-call in case of emergency

Page last updated 4/5/2008 AIN

Chesterton R.C. Night Rowing Policy

2009-10-13T19:05:00.004+01:00

Introduction

This document is based upon a risk assessment carried out in accordance with ARA guidelines. Its purpose is to explain the club procedures designed to mitigate the risks associated specifically with rowing at night. These measures are in addition to the safety measures required for safe rowing in daylight.

General

The club captain’s express permission is required for all crews wishing to row at night.

No coxless boat or scull may be used at night

No college boats may be used at night

No inexperienced crew members may row at night. Inexperienced crew are those who have taken part in less than twelve outings in fine, racing boats, or until judged competent by the Club Captain.

Only those coxes on the night-time coxes list may cox at night. All coxes wishing to be added to this list must discuss this with the club captain who will ensure that the cox is suitably experienced or trained.

No rowing in bad weather – common sense should be used. Remember poor weather conditions that are acceptable for daylight outings may not be acceptable for a night time outing.

No rowing if the river is in flood, sufficient to obscure the edge of the hard.

The bank party

There has been a great deal of discussion concerning bank parties, both within the club and within the CRA. The Chesterton risk assessment established that the bank party face more potentially harmful risks than the crew in the boat. Therefore Chesterton do not require that a bank party be present for night outings. The most serious risks faced by a bank party are a collision on the towpath, with either other people or objects, particularly if such collisions result in the bank party falling into the river. Therefore the following precautions emphasise the need for a bank party to be visible and to be protected if a collision occurs.

The bank party should wear:

* Warm clothing
* A high visibility vest
* Cycle helmet
* Automatic life jacket – this must not be worn under clothing.
* Their bike should be well maintained have both bike lights and reflectors fitted

The bank party should also carry:

* Attack alarm – there is a slight risk of an altercation with other towpath users. Bank parties should avoid confrontations and be aware of their surroundings. This alarm may also be useful in alerting the boats crew to other problems.
* Thermal blanket
* Throw line – you must know how to use this!

The bank party should be aware of the risks of following the boat and understand that they are not there to coach but to act as a lookout. Bank parties have responsibility for both their own safely and that of other towpath users.

The outing Equipment

Every night outing must be equipped with the following:

* Lights – bright white lights that shine 360 degrees. These may be 2 lights each shining 180 degrees mounted at the bow and stern. Make sure the boat is visible from the side. In addition a flashing red light should be carried on the stern. Spare batteries should be carried and the lights should be tethered to the boat to avoid them being lost overboard. In the event of a light failure the boat must not be moved until the light has been fixed or replaced.
* Reflective clothing – The bowperson must wear a high visibility vest.
* First Aid kit (stored in boats)
* Throw line – Should be carried by the bank party (if present) or in the boat.
* Thermal blankets – at least one between two (i.e. 5 are needed in an VIII).
* Extra clothing – Hypothermia is a serious risk at night. The cox must ensure they wear enough to keep warm and the crew must have extra layers in case of a breakdown or a change in the weather. It is advisable to leave a change of clothing at the boathouse.
* Crew members should not feel pressured to start or continue an outing if they are cold; victims of hypothermia may be unaware of their condition, and the crew should be aware of symptoms and be proactive in observing other crew members- especially the cox. The safety of all crew members takes priority over the outing.
* Tool kit – tools should be carried in the boat sufficient to make minor repairs- at least a rigger jigger and an adjustable spanner. Do not attempt repairs beyond your competence.
* Mobile phone, in a waterproof container. The phone must have the contact details of the Club Captain and Water Safety Advisor stored in it.

Before the outing

The Cox should brief the crew and bank party before the outing outlining the particular risks associated with night rowing. This briefing should ensure that each crewmember understands:

* Risks around the boathouse – extra care should be taken on the hard and around the boathouse in the dark, particularly in winter when ice may form.
* Man Overboard – In all cases the Club Captain and Water Safety Adviser should be informed immediately. The victim needs to be warmed and dried as soon as possible; in an emergency, the Penny Ferry restaurant or residential boaters may provide help, or a car may be brought to the riverbank, if it is deemed by the cox that the victim’s condition is sufficient to prevent the boat being rowed back to the boathouse.
* The Capsize drill – after a capsize the crew must stay with the boat. The boat provides buoyancy and is visible to other craft. Swim with the boat to the towpath side of the river, check for and treat any injuries and assess the situation. In all cases, a member of the committee and/or the emergency services should be contacted immediately. If the crew are all OK bail the boat out and row back to the boathouse. If anyone is injured or cold consider the risk of hypothermia and telephone for help. The safely of club members is more important than the equipment, if needs be abandon the boat and arrange for it to be collected by another crew.
* Responsibilities of the bank party – the bank party is primarily responsible for both their own safety and that of other towpath users. They can act as a lookout only when they are not engaged in looking after themselves.
* The role of the cox – the cox is the master of the boat and as such carries responsibility for the safety of her/his crew and boat, and the safety of other river users. This is a more onerous responsibility at night and the crew should understand that coxing commands are to be obeyed, as always, promptly and without discussion.

Boat Checks

The cox should personally check that all of the equipment listed above is available and in working order. In addition to the normal safety checks (bow ball, shoes and hatch covers, first aid kit, thermal blanket and tools) the boat should be inspected to limit the risks of it breaking down and stranding the crew on the river. See coxing check-list.

No outing should take place in a defective or under-equipped boat.

On the water

On the river, in addition to normal daytime safety rules, the following guidelines should be observed:

* Spinning – Spinning should be carried out well clear of corners, particularly on the reach, where boats should (as always) spin between the two posts situated by the Haling Way. If present the bank party should position themselves to warn any oncoming boat
* Firm pressure – should be used only on the long reach. In addition corners should be taken with care, especially the cross-over points and Grassy Corner, at low speed and as far over to the correct side of the river as is practicable. The bank party (if present) should cycle ahead to ensure the river is clear and warn the Cox of oncoming boats.
* Feet-out rowing must not be undertaken at night, as it prevents the boat from stopping quickly in an emergency.
* Breakdown procedure – Should the boat break down move to the towpath side of the river and stop. Assess the situation and ensure that the crew are warm. If the problem can be repaired then do so. If not then call for help and arrange for the boat to be collected. If the crew are cold or otherwise unsafe then abandon the boat and walk to safety. In particular no boat with a damaged rudder is to be moved at night (even if the cox would normally feel competent in moving a rudderless boat in the day). In this situation call for help and have the boat towed back to the boathouse either by asking powered craft for assistance or using the tub.
* Avoidance of swamping – the most potentially harmful risks identified are those events that lead to crew members or bank parties falling into the river. This is highly unlikely with a competent crew in an VIII or IV in good weather. One potentially risky situation remains outside of club control: it is possible that the wash produced by another vessel could swamp a rowing boat. If a cox feels that swamping is a possibility than they should stop the boat and have the crew sit it, and ideally turn to meet the wash bows-on. This should ensure the boat does not capsize even if it takes on water. No power boat on the Cam should be going fast enough to create a dangerous wash. In the event of crew members getting excessively wet, the situation should be assessed and the precautions against hypothermia detailed above should be followed.
* Other craft – the cox should be aware of the lights used by other craft on the Cam. In particular they should know how to interpret the visible lights and horn signals of moving power boats.
* KAYAKS AND SMALL CRAFT ARE OFTEN UNLIT

Summary

Rowing at night carries more risks than rowing in daylight but as long as the crew, cox and any bank party are aware of the procedures for mitigating these risks then it can be undertaken in reasonably safely. The purpose of this document is not to put rowers off night rowing but to ensure that night outings can be as productive and safe as possible.

Water Quality

2009-10-13T18:59:00.002+01:00

A few words about the water quality of the river Cam and how to reduce the risk of catching anything nasty while rowing.

Firstly a quick read through various web sites and on-line databases suggests that the Cam is not in bad shape. The major pollutants are at acceptable concentrations and fish stocks are healthy…. However that is far from saying the water is safe to swim in or drink during a capsize/cox dunking session.

Leptospirosis

The most serious risk to your health is from leptospirosis which is “a bacterial infection resulting from exposure to the Leptospira interrogans bacterium. There is an acute form of human infection known as Weil's Disease, where the patient suffers from jaundice, though this term is often (incorrectly) used to describe any case of infection.”

Lots of good advice about reducing the risk of infection can be found on the web so, rather than attempting to re-write it here, I would like you all to read the ARA guidelines.

Those who found that insufficient will find lots more info at the leptospirosis information centre.

Finally, for pictures of the Bacteria, its effects and a rather smug looking rodent see: leptospirosis link.

In summary:

* Keep and cuts and blisters covered and dry
* Wash your hands before eating and shower after falling in.
* If you get flu like symptoms 1-3 weeks after an outing don't forget to tell the doctor that leptospirosis may be a possibility.

Cynobacteria and Gastro-intestinal illness

The ARA site also has guidelines on Cynobacteria and Gastro-intestinal illness which you should also read. Cynobacteria are unlikely to be a problem on the Cam which has a strong current. However, the Gastro-intestinal illness sections suggests that risk of these infections is increased if sewage is present in the water. Sewage does get into the river Cam, both from the outfalls of two sewage treatment plants, and from boats fitted with sea toilets, therefore you should all be aware of the risk and remember to wash your hands/shower after outings.

The one nice thing about these potential health risks is that they can be mitigated by simple measures, so now you are aware of them they shouldn't worry you unduly.

James Howard.

Page last reviewed 13/10/2011 WMC

Tracking post - pages migrated from the website

2009-10-13T18:57:00.003+01:00

This page just lists pages migrated from the website.

* water safety from http://www.chestertonrowingclub.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=5
* water quality from http://www.chestertonrowingclub.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=8
* coxing check list from http://www.chestertonrowingclub.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=12
* night rowing policy from http://www.chestertonrowingclub.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=10

Water Safety

2009-10-13T18:40:00.009+01:00

General

The ARA publishes water safety information on its web site. Follow this link to find the ARA water safety code.

Map of the River

The Cambridge University Combined Boat Clubs publish a detailed map of the river, which includes locations of the college boathouses. Follow this link to find the CUCBC handbook (in PDF format.)

CUCBC Handbook

The Cambridge University Combined Boat Clubs publish a handbook, with important safety information. It is aimed primarily at college and university rowers, but much of it is applicable to town rowers too. Follow this link to find the CUCBC handbook (in PDF format.)

Refer to the following sections:

* 3 - Rules of the River
* K - Coxing Guidelines
* O - Map of the River
* P - Code of Conduct for Anglers and Rowers

I have selected the sections which are applicable to Chesterton RC coaches and coxes, and I expect all CRC crews to abide by them with the following exceptions:

* Rule 11 - night time rowing - to be conducted in accordance with CRA rules, and only with the captain's agreement. Only accredited night-time coxes may be used.
* Various rules concerning which crews are allowed out at specific times apply only to college and university crews.
* various rules concerning "novices" - the CUBC definition of a novice is different from the definition used by ARA and town clubs. In general, for "novice" read "beginner".

All outings should be coached (or at least accompanied from the bank) where possible; coxes and rowers in coxless boats must be assessed for competence before being allowed out un-accompanied.

Accidents

All accidents and serious incidents must be reported to the regional safety advisor and to ARA. Please contact club water safety adviser, who will handle the details of filing a report.

Water Safety Advisor

The current club water safety adviser is listed on the club contacts page.

Shoes

Rowing shoes have a strap which connects the heel of the shoe to the foot-stretcher (the platform to which the shoe is attached.)

The purpose of heel-straps is to save your life in the event of a capsize, by holding the heel of the shoe, allowing you to pull your feet free and escape from under the boat.

Each heel-strap must be attached in such a way that the sole of the shoe does not rise above the horizontal. Heel-straps must not be looped through the bottom-mounting of the foot-stretcher in such a way that lifting one shoe pulls the other down.

Rowers shall not disconnect their heel-straps. This endangers other crew members, and can result in disqualification of the boat or delays boating in races.

Coxes should regularly ask the crew to check that heel-straps are correctly fitted (see coxing instructions on information page.)

Hatch-covers

All hatch-covers should be in place when a boat is put out on the river. Hatches can be taped-over as a temporary measure, but the fault must be reported and fixed.

Bow Balls

The bow ball is a mandatory piece of safety equipment; this must be securely fixed to the bow of the boat, and must not be split or loose. The test for this is whether the bow-ball can be pushed to the side, which would render it ineffective.

Life-jackets and buoyancy aids

Buoyancy aids are padded waist-coats, which provide some support to someone who can already swim. They will not turn an unconscious person face-up in the water. A buoyancy aid, however, will provide the cox with a small degree of physical protection in the case of a collision.

Life-jacets on the other hand will, once inflated, turn a person over in the water so that they are face-up, and will support their head above water. Life-jackets provide no protection from impact. There are two types of life-jacket, viz. manual and automatic. An automatic life-jacket will inflate itself when submerged, or may be activated by pull ign a toggle. A manual life-jacket can only be activated by pulling a toggle.

Automatic and manual life-jackets must not be used in bow-loading boats, as they would impede the cox's exit in the case of a capsize.

Capsize

Capsize is unlikely in a four or an eight, fairly likely in a pair, and should be treated as an occupational hazard in a single scull. In any case, the following instructions should be memorised and precautions taken.

In the event of a capsize, the crew and cox should stay with the boat; use it as a buoyancy aid, and swim with it to the bank so that you can get out.

If possible, empty the boat and row it back to the boathouse. Otherwise, secure the boat to the bank, then seek shelter and assistance. Scullers should make sure they keep a change of clothing at or near the boathouse.

Coxes and scullers should carry a thermal blanket in cold or windy weather. These only cost a few pounds, and are very compact. The club keeps stocks of these at the boathouses it uses, check with the equipment officer (Andy Nicol) if you can't find one.

First-Aid

Coxes should bring a first-aid kit to the boathouse for every outing, and should check the expiry date of the kit monthly. Any items used should be replaced. The club carries first-aid kits for this purpose.

Throw Lines

Coaches should carry a throw-line with them on every outing. The club carries throw-lines for this purpose.

Page last reviewed 13/10/2011 WMC

The Club - What it is and what we do

2009-10-12T11:32:00.008+01:00

Chesterton Rowing Club is a small and friendly rowing club in Cambridge, UK.

We row on the river Cam, and enter local and regional competitions.

We put up three men's and two women's boats into the town bumps.

We enter most time trials and regattas on the river Cam, including Autumn Head, Winter Head, Christmas Head, Winter League, Nines Autumn Regatta.

We enter events around the Eastern region, including Bedford, Peterborough, Sudbury
We enter events on the Thames, a fairly serious undertaking, as the course is 4 1/4 miles long, and the river is tidal.

We train our own rowers from scratch using a Mondego tub pair and a Kayell training scull.

Beginners will be trained sufficiently in training boats to be able to row safely when put into an eight, and are often able to race within a few outings.

Outings are generally coached, even for beginners. This leads to rapid development and helps rowers avoid faults which can be difficult to overcome when habits have become ingrained.

Chesterton RC is affiliated to British Rowing and to the Cambridgeshire Rowing Association

The club is active socially as well as for rowing, and although we don't have our own boathouse or club house, Chesterton rowers can usually be found enjoying a drink together after outings.

Please see here for membership rates.

A brief history

Chesterton Rowing Club started off life as Pye Rowing Club, and has been around since the 1930s. It started off life as a company club, affiliated to the company sports and social club.

Pye Telecommunications was taken over by Philips in the 1970s, but the Pye name stayed, as Pye is a trademark of Philips.

The rowing club changed its name to Simoco in the late 1990s shortly after Philips sold its mobile radio business. The club became gradually less dependent on the shrinking number of company staff, and became increasingly independent, finally losing its affiliation to the Philips Sports and Social club when the latter was closed down during re-development of the company's St Andrews Road site.

The club continued to lease the St Andrews Road boathouse on a yearly basis until this was sold off in early 2000.

The club now uses rack space in several college boathouses and hires college boats when it requires additional capacity for races, especially the town bumps.

The club changed its name to Chesterton Rowing Club on 1st May 2008, finally reflecting its status as a fully independent club.

Contacts

2009-10-12T11:18:00.006+01:00

These are the contact details for the current year (2011-2012).

If you're not sure who to contact, the secretary is probably the best bet. If you're interested in joining as an experienced rower, contact the appropriate captain. If you're a novice and would like to try out rowing, please contact the "organiser of novices", Simon Emmings (simoooon(at)hotmail.com).

* Club Captain: Chris Wood
* Men's Captain: Steven Andrews (u04sda(at)yahoo.ie)
* Women's Captain: Jeanette Mansfield (mrsjmansfield(at)gmail.com)
* Secretary: Amy Tillson (email)
* Treasurer and Membership: Sarah Coates-Holland
* Equipment Officer: James Howard
* Webmaster: William Connolley (wmconnolley(at)gmail.com)
* Kit Officer: Lorraine Turville
* Water Safety Advisor: Dave Richards
* Social Secretary: Becca Scourse
* Race Secretary: Emma Howard