A Day at the Races: Week 1
Feb. 23rd, 2013 07:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterThis was the first weekend of three back-to-back weekends with regatta activities. As I partly alluded to in my previous post, my roles at these regattas are mixed. Today's regatta was a dual race against Baylor Crew, so there weren't any events that I could race in. That meant that I rode out to the lake with a sense of trepidation; would I be sitting, twiddling my thumbs all morning? Would I just wind up sneaking out in the single to get in some water time? I just didn't know.
But I should start even earlier. Regattas tend to begin fairly early, but this was a small-scale event and racing didn't get underway until 9 am, so it was a pretty late start by rowing standards. That was a good thing for me, as I had to back-calculate from the regatta start time to figure out when I needed to wrap things up at the lab, to figure out when I needed to get up. The end result was that I woke up at 5 am, ate breakfast, spent an hour in the lab, and then spent an hour biking out to the lake from the lab in a mild headwind, while riding the Jolly Roger and towing Kirby, my smaller bike trailer.
When I arrived at the lake, I learned, to my great delight, that the leadership gang had done a great job of getting things organized for the regatta. I was assigned shifts at the finish line, in a kayak, alternating with shifts in the safety launch, which would be used to align and start the races.
Hanging out at the finish line in the kayak was fun. It was a double kayak, so I had the company of another rower, and it was exciting, as every once and a while a bunch of boats would come charging towards us and we had to make note of the time and sound an air horn all at once. There are many worse places to be than in a boat out on a lake on a sunny day.
After the first two races, W, who had been piloting the coaching launch, had to switch out so he could race. So a volunteer and I motored on down to the start to fill in as aligners and starters. Those of you who have been to regattas previously will realize that these are a whole lot of jobs to try and conduct all at once. I juggled the launch tiller, a megaphone, a stopwatch, and a cell phone, while trying to get squirrelly, nervous boats of rowers all lined up as best I could while the wind blew everyone around. Oh, also it was difficult for coxswains to discern the direction of the race course, so that added in even another element of entertainment.
Add to all of that some drama during one of the first races: the largest event of the day was the Men's Open 4+, which had four boats. The A&M boats were on the inside, while the two Baylor crews took the outside lanes. About 300 meters in to the race, the Baylor boat on the right side suddenly decided to veer towards the neighboring A&M boat. The resulting clash led to a broken oar and boat damage, along with some heated words. The boats managed to separate, however, and continued down the course, with the A&M boat taking the win in the end.
The hard part of that situation was that it happened at a point where there wasn't anything I could really do. I would have liked to have been in an official chase boat at that point, better-versed in the proper procedures for handling interference between crews. The logical action would have been to disqualify the Baylor boat, because it interfered with the A&M boat's course by suddenly making a sharp maneuver. But it's hard to do that without any official's flags to wave, and without a launch that could actually keep up with the racing crews.
After that race, my biggest challenge was trying to get coxswains to move their boats to within the same football field while aligning bowballs. I think the clash made them a bit skittish, so they started erring on the side of caution.
Overall, the day went reasonably well, I'd say. I'm still so much happier to be out racing rather than officiating, but I can also recognize that I was able to fill an important role, which reduced the stress experienced by the regatta organizers.
It's going to be interesting to take on different roles during the next two regatta weekends. Next weekend is the Heart of Texas in Austin, where I'll race in the single, despite the fact that I've hardly had a chance to practice racing. Then, after that, I'll go back to Tempe to work as the announcer for the Desert Sprints, for old times' sake.
But I should start even earlier. Regattas tend to begin fairly early, but this was a small-scale event and racing didn't get underway until 9 am, so it was a pretty late start by rowing standards. That was a good thing for me, as I had to back-calculate from the regatta start time to figure out when I needed to wrap things up at the lab, to figure out when I needed to get up. The end result was that I woke up at 5 am, ate breakfast, spent an hour in the lab, and then spent an hour biking out to the lake from the lab in a mild headwind, while riding the Jolly Roger and towing Kirby, my smaller bike trailer.
When I arrived at the lake, I learned, to my great delight, that the leadership gang had done a great job of getting things organized for the regatta. I was assigned shifts at the finish line, in a kayak, alternating with shifts in the safety launch, which would be used to align and start the races.
Hanging out at the finish line in the kayak was fun. It was a double kayak, so I had the company of another rower, and it was exciting, as every once and a while a bunch of boats would come charging towards us and we had to make note of the time and sound an air horn all at once. There are many worse places to be than in a boat out on a lake on a sunny day.
After the first two races, W, who had been piloting the coaching launch, had to switch out so he could race. So a volunteer and I motored on down to the start to fill in as aligners and starters. Those of you who have been to regattas previously will realize that these are a whole lot of jobs to try and conduct all at once. I juggled the launch tiller, a megaphone, a stopwatch, and a cell phone, while trying to get squirrelly, nervous boats of rowers all lined up as best I could while the wind blew everyone around. Oh, also it was difficult for coxswains to discern the direction of the race course, so that added in even another element of entertainment.
Add to all of that some drama during one of the first races: the largest event of the day was the Men's Open 4+, which had four boats. The A&M boats were on the inside, while the two Baylor crews took the outside lanes. About 300 meters in to the race, the Baylor boat on the right side suddenly decided to veer towards the neighboring A&M boat. The resulting clash led to a broken oar and boat damage, along with some heated words. The boats managed to separate, however, and continued down the course, with the A&M boat taking the win in the end.
The hard part of that situation was that it happened at a point where there wasn't anything I could really do. I would have liked to have been in an official chase boat at that point, better-versed in the proper procedures for handling interference between crews. The logical action would have been to disqualify the Baylor boat, because it interfered with the A&M boat's course by suddenly making a sharp maneuver. But it's hard to do that without any official's flags to wave, and without a launch that could actually keep up with the racing crews.
After that race, my biggest challenge was trying to get coxswains to move their boats to within the same football field while aligning bowballs. I think the clash made them a bit skittish, so they started erring on the side of caution.
Overall, the day went reasonably well, I'd say. I'm still so much happier to be out racing rather than officiating, but I can also recognize that I was able to fill an important role, which reduced the stress experienced by the regatta organizers.
It's going to be interesting to take on different roles during the next two regatta weekends. Next weekend is the Heart of Texas in Austin, where I'll race in the single, despite the fact that I've hardly had a chance to practice racing. Then, after that, I'll go back to Tempe to work as the announcer for the Desert Sprints, for old times' sake.
