OTW with Potomac Boat Club's John Forrest, Part IV: The Thames Challenge Cup, Round One

Potomac Boat Club Thames Cup VIII races the heat (Photo: Marianne Wood)

While the Potomac Wyfold IV experienced some hard Henley luck, the Thames Cup VIII crew responded well to a tough challenge from local favorites, Marlow Rowing Club. 

Here's John's view of the first round of the Thames Challenge Cup from the six seat of the PBC eight:

Today was the first day of racing at Henley Royal Regatta. PBC’s four and eight were scheduled to race at opposite ends of the day—8:40AM and 6:30PM. The four drew London Rowing Club ‘B’ in a morning Wyfold match up. It was a close race early on with Potomac taking a slight lead before drifting into London’s water. There was a clash and the race umpire disqualified PBC for interference. It is an understatement to call this a disappointing way to exit the regatta, but the four is handling it admirably.

The eight then had the rest of the day to prepare for our evening race against Marlow Rowing Club. After a lunch break paddle, we rested in the afternoon before meeting up at the boat tent ninety minutes before our race.

After a beautiful two days of weather, the morning started off overcast with a moderate cross-headwind on the course. After an afternoon shower passed through, the sun began to poke out from the clouds and the wind slackened as we were walking to the course. We had some of the best conditions of the day to race in.

We negotiated our way to the top of the course through the late afternoon pleasure boat traffic. After passing the start line, we got in our pre-race power strokes and starts and then lined up at the start. We tried to stay loose at the start and the three of us from the 2010 boat were glad to see the umpire’s launch Herakles, which followed all of our races in 2010, pull past Temple Island to officiate our race.

PBC VIII v. Marlow (Photo: Marianne Wood)

Marlow gunned it off the start and the two boats traded seats throughout the early part of the race. Marlow held a lead of a couple of seats at the Barrier and we had reversed the margin by Fawley. Over the second half the race we punched out to an open water lead and managed to hold that until the finish.

After docking, we had a chance for a brief chat with the Marlow boat. They are a great group and sound like a young crew and I hope they are able to have more good racing in their future. Off the water, the marquee event so far was the Overseas Crew Reception at the River & Rowing Museum. This gave us the first chance to break out our official PBC blazers as a team.

Blazer Up! PBC contingent on the bank (Photo: Marianne Wood)

The museum is a great venue with interesting exhibitions on the history of rowing, Henley Royal Regatta, and the Thames River. One highlight of the reception was a speech from the newest regatta steward, Guin Batten. She shared the story of her first time racing at the regatta. She was new to sculling but made it through qualifiers for the women’s single event, only to draw Elisabeta Lipa for her first race. Although her first Henley race did not result in a win, it was still a very memorable race and she encouraged all of the crews to enjoy the racing to forge their own lasting memories of the regatta. We race the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club at 10AM tomorrow morning and are looking forward to another day of racing on the Thames. -JF 

Quite a dramatic first day of racing, with no less than 88 races having been run on the Henley course on Wednesday. While it may be obvious, it is always astounding, nonetheless, to think that roughly half of the crews entered in the regatta have already been eliminated (with the obvious exceptions of those yet to begin racing). But then, such is Henley Royal Regatta. 

Thanks very much to John for the post on quite a busy evening—another exciting day awaits tomorrow on the Thames!

-RR

Trending posts this month

"I Row Crew" — Rowing in 'The Social Network'

Image
Like many of the rowing faithful, I've been keeping up with the saga penned by Dan Boyne about the filming of the rowing scenes in David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network , and I must say I had high hopes going into the film. The first problem I encountered: the phrase, "I row crew." It was uttered so many times before anyone "rowed crew" on the water that I had trouble buying any of it later. It's understandable that the character of Mark Zuckerberg makes that mistake, since he has no idea about the sport. But when the Winklevoss twins themselves utter the phrase several times, one begins to wonder where Boyne was when these lines were not being chopped or changed. Seriously, who says that? As far as the actual rowing goes, the first scene, which has the twins out training in a pair along with the rest of the Harvard squad, is not all bad — it just ends that way. The line, "Those guys are freakin' fast" is certainly every b...
Read more

The 30 Best Rowing Coaches of All Time, Part 3: The Top 10

Image
The top 10 best rowing coaches, including guess who (Photo © Iain Weir / Rowing Photography ) It's time for the third and final part of our 3-part series on the best of the best in the rowing coaching ranks. These coaches not only command respect based on performance, but have also shown the ability to adapt to new circumstances, build dynasties, and ultimately help shape the trajectory of rowing as a sport. Honestly, it would be easy to extend this series into 10 more posts... But we wouldn't do that to you. As we've said before, the hope is that the following may serve to educate and spark discussion, as both an appreciation of history and of the coaching craft. Also note: As we stated in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, there are few women in this list, but that is a reflection of a general underrepresentation of women in the head coaching ranks in our sport—and indeed (as has been well documented ) a growing number of NCAA sports in the United States. ...
Read more

Will It Make the Boat Go Faster? At Marin Rowing Association, Culture is Key

Image
Hands in after training  My alarm goes off—it’s 4:22am.  It’s been a while since I did this. Immediately, I think back to a college dorm room, rolling out of bed and running down the steps to carpool caravan to Marina Del Rey.  Not this time, though. It’s a Tuesday in late September, and I’m heading across the Golden Gate Bridge to Greenbrae, California, where I’ll meet with the Marin Rowing Men’s Masters squad. Fortunately, it’s an unusually warm morning—and when I roll in, the boathouse is already buzzing with activity.  Launch time: 5:10. Heading out into the Bay before dawn The Marin Rowing Association program has both men’s and women’s masters boats competing to win at every event they attend. In the fall, that can only mean one thing: The Head Of The Charles .  The boat that Coach Rodrigo Rodrigues and I spend most of our time with is the Grand Masters eight—average age 60+. But that’s just one of five crews that launched with us that morning. Everyone’s ...
Read more

So, are Naked Rowing Calendars a Thing Now?

Image
Warwick rowers are all in again this year (Photo courtesy of Warwick Boat Club)  The phenomenon started four years ago with the Warwick Rowing men's squad. Then, the following year, the Warwick women's team joined the fray. Now, Newcastle University's men and women are back on the naked calendar train. So, the question is, have rowing and naked calendars become a thing? The above video features the 2014-2015 Warwick women's squad—the third edition of the calendar , and, from the looks of it, the raciest. However, perhaps not so racy as that of the 2014-2015 Warwick men (see below). But raciness aside, all four of these teams have chosen worthy charities and have gone "the full monty" to make sure that those causes have received considerable contributions. The Warwick women contribute to Macmillan Cancer Support —a cause for which Warwick reports it has donated some £5,000. The Warwick men? Sport Allies —a charity that combats homophobia in spor...
Read more

Winter Workouts: Why Do Rowers Fear the Erg?

Image
Op-Ed from the RowingRelated Editorial Staff Friend. Not foe. (Illustration: B. Kitch) I am really frustrated by our sport when it comes to the erg being viewed as a torture device rather than a helpful tool that people can enjoy. This negative mindset, which is extremely contagious, plagues the sport, preventing athletes from training to their potential and possibly serving as one of the reasons that careers in rowing, at every level, are often so short. When compared to other endurance sports, I have not encountered an equal level of disdain for such fundamental mental and physical endurance training. My main problem is that everywhere I turn in the rowing community, whether it's high school rowers, college athletes, or even national team hopefuls, I hear of people dreading the erg. I've never heard about a cross country runner 'dreading' a track workout. True, basketball and football players may dread running wind sprints or other such conditioning acti...
Read more