The University of Warwick Boat Club (UWBC, basically takes part in two types of races; regattas and head racing. In regattas, teams row side by side over a short distance of 2 km, whereas head races are time trials over 4 to 7 km. During February 2015, the club took part in the Worcester, Peterborough and Henley head races. Various club members have written up reports from these events for the Club’s official site http://warwickrowing.org and we thought you’d like to hear about how the money you help us raise for our sport is helping us improve our ranking in university rowing. We’ve tried to keep these as jargon-free as possible, but if you’re puzzled by any of the terms, send us a comment and we’ll get a rower to answer you. The Boys
Worcester – Head of the Severn – a Novice Man’s Perspective
By James
On 1st February at 7am, 20 novice men accompanied by three coxes departed to participate in their first ever race. When dawn finally rose and the winter dew had evaporated, we arrived at Worcester rowing club. We pulled into a deserted car park, where we were met by a bitter wind. Nevertheless, we got on with rigging our boats armed with only a few tools between the five novice boats. The Resi (Resolute is a boat used by the novice men) was up to its old tricks with the ‘big boy’ No. 7 seat missing the lower foot stretcher strip and the No. 4 seat’s sliders had been decimated.
A race against the clock started as 10:45am came round and we hadn’t been checked over yet. Regardless of this fact, we shouldered our trusty boat and headed off to the landing stage.
When we got there, we were met by an unstoppable torrent of brown water! We saw the novice IV had already braved the stream, but had made very little progress.
The two VIIIs set off briskly, after being informed by a marshall that we needed to head up river as soon as possible because we were late for the race. Paddling upstream was a struggle, but once we got there we felt we’d achieved something because at the resi training camps only five weeks beforehand, we probably couldn’t have managed it. When we got there, we removed our warm layers and prepared to smash the race.
Pushing off proved a huge problem, so we lost time on our run up to the start line. Unfazed by this, we pushed hard and got the boat speed up for the whistle. A minor hiccup occurred when No. 4’s footplate came loose and we had to row as Sixes while it was fixed. The rest of the race was good and although we could have used a bit more power, we were impressed with our technique and speed of the race overall.
The results of the time trial supported what we thought. Warwick’s novice first VIII came a heroic second to the Birmingham University team. .
The second VIII destroyed the course to win fifth place, ahead of Birmingham’s second VIII by a cool 0.052 seconds, which some say was down to the No. 7 man’s huge calves.
Worcester – Head of the Severn – The Women’s View
By Megan
On 1st February the novice rowing squad discovered two things: the fun of head racing and how pathetic radio is on Sunday mornings. We also discovered just how cold it can be when you’re involved in an outdoor sport, because when we arrived at Worcester we had to rig the boats in the freezing wind that was also creating chaos on the water.
We enjoyed their first experience of marshalling, which is where you get all the boats on the water in the right number order, starting with Number 1. After a few tweaks and scrabbling around for a hatch cap, which is important safety device, the Warwick novices were allowed on the water.
The second VIII mad it onto the water without a hitch and elegantly paddled up the river to the start point. The first VIII were not as successful and after a small shower in the river, a run in with the bank and expert avoidance of the Novice Men’s IV, they were off up the river: until a footplate came loose. Fifteen minutes later we were all OK to go thanks to the help of a safety boat. Luckily, we made it to the start in time and successfully found some of the bank to hold on to. The joy of being the last crew up meant we didn’t have to wait as long to get started.
Meanwhile, the second VIII discovered that the hanging around part can be a bit hazardous at times, but our coxes ensured we all made it to the start. This was a major achievement given that a men’s ‘four’ decided it would rather crash and chat up members of the women’s boat than actually take part in the race.
But first we cheered on our men’s teams. Then we were up. Our race felt like it was over in no time, partly because the strong stream helped us. The second VIII also finished with a good time, despite a few pesky crabs a hundred metres from the line.
All girls got off the water extremely excited to have completed their first race and had to be strongly encouraged to get the boats off the water instead of just chatting about it for the next hour. As a squad we discovered that food and warmth are both good motivators for de-rigging, and we achieved what must be our quickest de-rig to date. Bring on Peterborough!!
