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Regatta Day [rowing]
Sep. 19th, 2021 05:56 amNot entirely sure what I want to record here.
I got to the boathouse a bit after 5 to get started. Glad for some minutes of peace and quiet. I started running at about 6 am, as people showed up wanting and needing various things.
Meetings with the safety launch drivers and start and finish line timers were too late and squished too close together. I need to meet with both of those groups earlier next time. Maybe the Thursday evening before the regatta just so we can talk and not be rushed.
And then, too soon, it was time for the Coaches and Coxswain's meeting. I was not nearly so organized for that as I'd hoped to be, but I winged it to the best of my ability and I don't think it was too terrible.
I was eventually able to get a cup of coffee at around 8 am. Sometime after that I managed two granola bars.
Two things that put me on edge:
1. Our club's dear coach put together some VERY last-minute entries. I appreciated some of the intentions there but it made life more difficult for our "Regattacentral" person (person managing timing and logistics behind the scenes). It also meant I had to run back and forth between three different coaches to manage negotiations - put me in a difficult spot.
2. Our timing and communication systems were inadequate, which put me in a rough spot with the referees and also with Regattacentral. We had picked up some extra stopwatches for the start line, but learned, to my horror, that after a certain point they ticked over and stopped displaying the seconds place. Thankfully our referees were carrying some higher-quality rowing backup stopwatches, so they were able to perform an emergency rescue and the show could go on.
I should note: one of the biggest reasons why our timing and communication systems were inadequate was financial; the regatta happened at a scale where the costs of running it were close to, if not greater than, any funds brought in. This is not ideal, but on the other hand I really wanted to make the regatta happen so I could work on ironing out unanticipated wrinkles at a smaller scale.
It helped that the weather turned out to be absolutely perfect.
As you might imagine I did not get any photos during the regatta.
I was also the very last person to leave the boathouse, at around 2 pm. After everyone else had left, I was still very much wired from all of the activity, and decided that putting things away and getting the boathouse reorganized would help me to calm down again. And it did.
That meant that I was the only person remaining at the boathouse to witness this, shortly after 2 pm:
I think this is the first time I've seen this particular tour boat in motion and not just moored up in downtown Troy (or, you know, drifting downriver with the ice floes after breaking free of its moorings!).
Three more photos, offered without much more comment:
I got to the boathouse a bit after 5 to get started. Glad for some minutes of peace and quiet. I started running at about 6 am, as people showed up wanting and needing various things.
Meetings with the safety launch drivers and start and finish line timers were too late and squished too close together. I need to meet with both of those groups earlier next time. Maybe the Thursday evening before the regatta just so we can talk and not be rushed.
And then, too soon, it was time for the Coaches and Coxswain's meeting. I was not nearly so organized for that as I'd hoped to be, but I winged it to the best of my ability and I don't think it was too terrible.
I was eventually able to get a cup of coffee at around 8 am. Sometime after that I managed two granola bars.
Two things that put me on edge:
1. Our club's dear coach put together some VERY last-minute entries. I appreciated some of the intentions there but it made life more difficult for our "Regattacentral" person (person managing timing and logistics behind the scenes). It also meant I had to run back and forth between three different coaches to manage negotiations - put me in a difficult spot.
2. Our timing and communication systems were inadequate, which put me in a rough spot with the referees and also with Regattacentral. We had picked up some extra stopwatches for the start line, but learned, to my horror, that after a certain point they ticked over and stopped displaying the seconds place. Thankfully our referees were carrying some higher-quality rowing backup stopwatches, so they were able to perform an emergency rescue and the show could go on.
I should note: one of the biggest reasons why our timing and communication systems were inadequate was financial; the regatta happened at a scale where the costs of running it were close to, if not greater than, any funds brought in. This is not ideal, but on the other hand I really wanted to make the regatta happen so I could work on ironing out unanticipated wrinkles at a smaller scale.
It helped that the weather turned out to be absolutely perfect.
As you might imagine I did not get any photos during the regatta.
I was also the very last person to leave the boathouse, at around 2 pm. After everyone else had left, I was still very much wired from all of the activity, and decided that putting things away and getting the boathouse reorganized would help me to calm down again. And it did.
That meant that I was the only person remaining at the boathouse to witness this, shortly after 2 pm:
I think this is the first time I've seen this particular tour boat in motion and not just moored up in downtown Troy (or, you know, drifting downriver with the ice floes after breaking free of its moorings!).
Three more photos, offered without much more comment:
