Wednesday morning has dawned identical to yesterday, overcast, cool, heading for a temp of about 22 I think. Apart from the wind, which was considerable yesterday, perfect rowing conditions. As promised, Shane has contributed some of his thoughts on yesterdays training...
We went for a longer row this morning, 17-18km aprox, rating 22-25, Basically a good row, the boat seems to posses plenty of stability and therefore quite reliable in the wash. We were pleasantly surprised (well I was) to find our counterfeit seats still in the boat. Quite possibly they could have been discovered by the rightful owners (Reading University Boat Club) and been stolen back. But since RUBC is only 6miles away and ours are are potentially on the boat trailer back to Ireland, none of us are losing any sleep over it. Essentially we are amazed that German, British and Italian boats are equipment compatible. Regardless we have our excuses regarding Aussie ignorance, such as ‘oh no, we’ve got your seats, sorry, we’ll swap them with ours’ well practiced.
This is the crews first and Conrad + my self’s second time that we’ve rowed the Italian made Filippe boat. Conrad and I rowed a Filippe pair at the WA state championships last year and were instantly impressed with the feel and again (especially at the catch) stability The course, as Drew has already stated, is quite narrow and potentially very dangerous from a steering point of view. Fortunately we are becoming more predictable with our line and even started to discuss what to do in a worst case barrier clash scenario. Other crews and corresponding boats are starting to fill the tent giving us the opportunity to pace against and give further steering practice.
The afternoon row was short and sharp, only 6km. The headwind was extremely stiff, particularly through the middle and at the very end of the course. Nevertheless, we had several good sections, holding ratings of 33/34 into the head conditions. When faced with these type of conditions in a race situation, we will need to lighten the gearing slightly. For those interested, we are currently rowing with a pretty tight rig, span 85.0, oar 377.0, inboard 115.0. Reducing the oar length to 376.0 is going to be the right move in these conditions. So we came off the water pretty happy, everyone is well, despite Hatsy's hands resembling raw hamburger, a legacy of 36km of bowside rowing in 24 hours.
Gossip
After bailing up and interrogating one on the coxswains that we raced against last year we’ve discovered that London RC, the club that we had such a tussle with in last year’s semi’s, has.also put their number one club crew in the Wyfold coxless 4 (our event). It will be interesting to see if any of the same faces appear.
Shane
Today will be a shorter row this morning, only 12km, then the afternoon off. Sam lands at 6:30pm, so a contingent will head of to Heathrow to collect him. A courier has been dispatched from Ireland with our seats, so another part of the puzzle is falling into place.
On the non-rowing front, we were treated to a farm tour yesterday afternoon by one of our hosts who took us on the back of the farm Land Rover to see some fantastic views over the valley and gave us some interesting insights into life on an English cattle farm. We saw lots of cows. They also crop barley and canola in addition to the obvious accommodation sideline. The farm has been used as a set for the Midsomer Murders TV program and also features in a James Bond film. The Vicar of Dibley is filmed just up the road. All in all, a very diverse little business!
Cheers, Drew
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