2016 Schools rowing

[SBrow]

jennings bailed yes but with good reason. they didnt have a boat to row in. there boat broke in the race they did at around 1pm due to the crappy conditions of gold cup u referred to

Broken rigger? I have heard of the carbon riggers on those USPs not being able to handle a crab

 

[behindtheshed]

I have to disagree with some of what you said. I admit they could have a couple more boys but in terms of special, you tell me a location for a regatta at schoolboy level that is as interesting as this. Dangerous is a big word which and is not one i would use to describe the course. I think if you asked everyone that won a silver oar they would be fairly happy. As nice as a podium presentation would be it is also totally impractical.

LTR you've described your own fondness for the excitement of Gold Cup and that's great; however simply having an "interesting" stretch of river as part of the school's real estate constitutes no effort on Riverview's part in "making it more special for spectators". As for danger, ask the View eights rower who took two sickening hits to the face with an oar during a collision at the buoy; ask the Shore crew who got T-boned by a Joeys VIII at the buoy; ask the uni rowers who suddenly found themselves in the path of the giant cruiser; ask the young girls whom I witnessed begging to receive their silver oars before the magical time of 10.30am because their return school bus was leaving. Special indeed!
oh and MLC manages to bring a podium to H+C and make it work. Perhaps a couple of square inches of the precious VIP area could be spared for this purpose.

 

[fpiglet]

More special? how?????

Would it kill them to have a couple of boys standing at the top of the hill at the fork in the road, explaining where spectators go (and advising them to get their coffee and use the toilet first)? Or even a few signs! I helped out numerous parents new to the sport who were wandering around the area with no idea where to go or who to follow in which direction.

How about they let people use the toilets down at Cova Cottage instead of trekking back up that godawful hill? Perhaps a temporary shadecloth over the concrete furnace which is supposedly a form of "seating"?

Apart from the Old Ignatians who eventually rolled up to start the BBQ after a sizeable group of rowers and supporters hung round starving for nearly 2 hours, there was zero effort on the part of Riverview to make anything special for spectators.

The whole day is set up for the comfort and convenience of Riverview and no-one else. The course is ridiculous bordering on dangerous, the races prove nothing except who got the best lane draw and the non-podium presentation of the medal-replacement "coveted silver oars" leaves even the winners feeling flat.

Agree. For about an hour the BBQ had steaks only in blue paper napkins. Ran out of bread but how hard it is to calculate 1000 sausages = 1000 pieces of bread (if you're tight as a Jesuit or 2000 slices if you want some onions and make it reasonably like a sandwich). Then there was the Blackwater security Corp blocking off the boat area - you don't see that at Henley. Also my son was handed a couple of silver oars in a plain envelope - it looked like he received his stand over payment. Also I miss the blue and white painted stripes that used to be on the blade of the silver oars. Is it me or is the Women's Gold Cup just slightly larger and rounder than the Men's? Also there is a regular commentator there so sonorous that he almost had the same effect as the sirens and drew the boats onto the rocks!

 

[LuvToRo]

LTR you've described your own fondness for the excitement of Gold Cup and that's great; however simply having an "interesting" stretch of river as part of the school's real estate constitutes no effort on Riverview's part in "making it more special for spectators". As for danger, ask the View eights rower who took two sickening hits to the face with an oar during a collision at the buoy; ask the Shore crew who got T-boned by a Joeys VIII at the buoy; ask the uni rowers who suddenly found themselves in the path of the giant cruiser; ask the young girls whom I witnessed begging to receive their silver oars before the magical time of 10.30am because their return school bus was leaving. Special indeed!
oh and MLC manages to bring a podium to H+C and make it work. Perhaps a couple of square inches of the precious VIP area could be spared for this purpose.

Well they still have to set up all the buoys, the staters the finish line etc. So the piece of water is kind of organised by Riverview. Its sounds like your attitude towards the Riverview Gold Cup has come from a bad off water experience. I'm not sure if its for you to judge whether Riverview did a bad job of setting up and organising the regatta as I imagine you have never set a regatta up and the fact of the matter is without the help of the school there would be no regatta and we wouldn't be having this conversation. In terms of the podium it would actually be more dangerous making crews having to cross the racecourse even more constantly to get to the beach.

Im not trying to have an argument with anyone i am just appreciating that there was a regatta yesterday.

On a different subject is the "Shore crew that got T boned by a Joeys VIII at the buoy" the 2nd VIII final from yesterday. What are everyones thoughts on the collision.

 

[behindtheshed]

Well they still have to set up all the buoys, the staters the finish line etc. So the piece of water is kind of organised by Riverview. Its sounds like your attitude towards the Riverview Gold Cup has come from a bad off water experience. I'm not sure if its for you to judge whether Riverview did a bad job of setting up and organising the regatta as I imagine you have never set a regatta up and the fact of the matter is without the help of the school there would be no regatta and we wouldn't be having this conversation. In terms of the podium it would actually be more dangerous making crews having to cross the racecourse even more constantly to get to the beach.

Im not trying to have an argument with anyone i am just appreciating that there was a regatta yesterday.

On a different subject is the "Shore crew that got T boned by a Joeys VIII at the buoy" the 2nd VIII final from yesterday. What are everyones thoughts on the collision.

Ok I don't want to have one of those churlish, pointless discussions that go on and on in this thread, but let me be clear: your claim that Riverview makes an effort to give the spectators a superior experience is not true, for all the reasons I outlined earlier. Despite what you "imagine", actually I'm intimately acquainted with the nuts and bolts of setting up a regatta. Every school does the same behind the scenes jobs whether at SIRC or on open water. I never claimed that Riverview set up badly in terms of buoys, officials etc. Simply that the course is horrid and that there are basic standards on the shore which the school does not bother with.

My attitude to Gold Cup is based on years of bad off water experiences, to the point where I don't recall a good one. I've outlined all the negatives in the spectator experience and you haven't refuted any of them.

I don't want to have an argument with anyone either. I am not down on Riverview per se - the All Saints Regatta by contrast is a fantastic event. The location is great, the course is clear, the facilities are accessible and available. I'd rather see Gold Cup run like this - as a sprint finishing before the dog-leg and using the boatshed and pontoon.

 

[rowerforlife]

On the way back from Lane Cove, there were several crews complaining about dodgy starters. They said that the starter was telling crews to tap up, and in the middle of the process, the starter yelled "Attention! ROW!" with no gap between the words. Several crews got off to bad starts, and the dodgy lane draws added to their complications. Riverview spent too much time telling people the Finish Procedures, instead of making sure crews were marshalled correctly, especially in bad conditions that the Gold Cup is renowned for. But there were still crews misunderstanding the finish procedures, some even crossing the river to leave just as races started.
What is with the results showing that St Josephs 3rd VIII being 'REMOVED FROM RESULTS"?
Hopefully all crews will leave this race in the past and focus on winning HOTR.
In the junior racing (this thread IS for ALL SCHOOLS ROWING) I hope Scot's Yr 9 Quads will turn up to their own regatta.
Is it just me, or did the High, Grammar, and Newington Yr 8 and 9 quads suddenly improve over the summer?

SO many questions, very little time till the end of the season. All will finish dramatically this weekend for the Juniors, and at HOTR for the seniors.
GOOD LUCK TO ALL CREWS!

 

[Spieber]

I agree with Behindthesheds on the safety issue. This is a bit old now but if the Riverview 1st VIII cox can't navigate the river, who can?

 

[behindtheshed]

Ill have you know that the reason why the "St Josephs 3rd VIII" was removed was because they are plain, dirty cheats with no respect towards other crews. This is evident as THEY were the ones responsible for a crash between the Riverview 3rd VIII and themselves. It showcases how incompetent their coxswain is and school morals. Furthering this, when the Joeys 2nd VIII bowman caught a crab - instead of trying to fix his error, he quit. This then lead to 2 seat and 3 seat stopping and eventually the whole boat. This is unacceptable behaviour and I congratulate the marshals for their keen observations. Good luck to all crews at the HOTR. Live long and prosper.

so you are calling rowers from a specific school cheats? I expect to see GoPro footage to prove this as I am guessing you were coach of a rival boat. In your youth you may be forgiven for such hot-headed comments but my advice is to temper your comments about specific crews. The wind was blowing crews all over the wretched course. Oh and maybe lose the Star Trek stuff, that's just sad.

 

[behindtheshed]

Ill have you know that the reason why the "St Josephs 3rd VIII" was removed was because they are plain, dirty cheats with no respect towards other crews. This is evident as THEY were the ones responsible for a crash between the Riverview 3rd VIII and themselves. It showcases how incompetent their coxswain is and school morals. Furthering this, when the Joeys 2nd VIII bowman caught a crab - instead of trying to fix his error, he quit. This then lead to 2 seat and 3 seat stopping and eventually the whole boat. This is unacceptable behaviour and I congratulate the marshals for their keen observations. Good luck to all crews at the HOTR. Live long and prosper.

btw the past tense of the verb to lead is "led" . I'm guessing you're not from Grammar.

 

[fpiglet]

Oh dear - someone who can't get over a bad past experience! Probably on a 100-0 hiding in the 14Gs. Here's an oar from the late 70s to today....

 

[behindtheshed]

"Your clearly" ????

What's my clearly??? Who is im???

By all means enlighten me.

I am obviously the first real button-presser you've encountered. I won't be the last, but I am definitely the best.

"Pink is for girls". Aw.....bless! Enjoy living in the 1950s while you still can! The day you start work and your boss is a woman or (horrors!) a gay man, can I buy tickets to watch you burst into flames?

A little tip from me to you: when you mention the Nazis, you've lost the argument.

 

[behindtheshed]

Oh dear - someone who can't get over a bad past experience! Probably on a 100-0 hiding in the 14Gs. Here's an oar from the late 70s to today..
View attachment 7471

Fascinating, fpiglet! Hats off to you as the keeper of cultural memory. What year was the one with stripes and when did they stop making them like that?

 

[SBrow]

What is with the results showing that St Josephs 3rd VIII being 'REMOVED FROM RESULTS"?

Regardless of what happened on the course, it was obviously not the problem, as they were disqualified for foul language on the finish line, which was audible from the shore. Without making an attack as our friend from the SIC 3rd VIII has, I must say, if this were to come from any school, I am not surprised it is Joeys...

As much of a spectacle as it is, rich in tradition, Gold Cup is a huge waste of time, particularly in weather like yesterday.

 

[Geoff Geoff]

There's a certain duality to Gold Cup i.e. you must love it and hate it at the same time, when you accept that premise you can make it through the day with your sanity intact

looking at the weekend, again some strange results and makeup of crews differing between finals and heats, I'm not sure but in a few races it definitely didn't look like the same kids from a couple of metres away and results would suggest as such, not that times at gold cup can be relied on... Sitting on the water watching and note some schools entered different boys in heats and finals again. I guess the "we have to succeed in something at our regatta" won out.

There's an allegation floating around that at one school in particular a coach demanded to "keep his guys" i.e "stacking a crew" . The story goes that when they got moved up on merit suddenly his boat got slower so he chucked a tanty and things were reversed. How would the kids feel knowing they are rowing down a division to "win"? I guess these things will become obvious at HOTR. It does pain me though that some are missing the point of competition to the detriment of all.

Starting procedures?? Complaints all around of starting immediately after asking crews to tap around. I know they are on a tight 4 min rotation so I guess you have to laugh at this - no fault no foul.

on the positive the VIII's are getting much tighter than early season so looks to be an exciting HOTR on the horizon

I'm sure all have a balance of horror and success stories from the weekend so again the "love it hate it" duality can serve you well

my 2 cents

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Here's an oar from the late 70s to today..
View attachment 7471

I wonder where mine is from the mid 70s - moving house soon might see if I can find it

 

[fpiglet]

IS should have kept it on the mantle piece like I did! Until my son collected four and still counting.

Joeys just did one lap of Iron Cove this morning. Perhaps tapering down for the HOTR. I think Newington have made some drastic improvements over the last couple of weeks. Good to see. I think there will be a squeeze on places 3-5 by HOTR time. I'll put it out there Shore will execute a great race plan, even though they've baled the last few events (for whatever reason). There is always a great sense of expectation now that we go into radio silence. Crews pouring over tactics, carbo meals down the shed, secret race starts up Duck Creek, crews told not to play touch football or walk around barefoot, coaches seeding notions of making the impossible possible. It's what makes the sport truly great.

 

[oarsome]

Hello gentlemen, taken a bit of a sabatical from the 2016 rowing forum but the upcoming Head of the river has brought me back.

On the topic of Gold Cup, it was my second faviourite event on the Schoolboy rowing calendar back in my heyday - behind hotr and in front of the Head of the para. It is quite a buzz when you walk you boat down to the water from the top oval through the school and off their jetty and boathouse. However, the racing is a bit of a muck - restarts.. crashes and fairly dubious staggered starts. Whilst it isn't always the best indicator of a crews ability due such volitile conditions... it's always fun to compete in.. especially when you pick up a few silver oars...ha ha ha (joking... but seriously).

Head of the river - no excuses. There's always a chance of an upset in the fours and no guarantees for a podium place in any race. Let's see who turns up and puts on a show. I wonder if the Shore 1st VII can go sub 5:48? Pretty big ask but DJ would surely be licking his lips at the prospect of it.

Also, does anyone know if members of the GPS VIII's are going to give Australian under19 trials a crack? There is always a couple of very good rowers who may not be in the most successful crews that can move a scull very well and could be interesting to see how they size up against the rest of Aus.

 

[stern-bow]

Broken rigger? I have heard of the carbon riggers on those USPs not being able to handle a crab

No not rigger, however that is true they break extremely easily, i believe the 6 seats slides broke as well as his seat halfway through the race and no replacement could be found because the shore 1st VIII use some special Hudson boatworks / croker seat that none of the other shore crews use

 

[Edgar Ijmuiden]

Hello gentlemen, taken a bit of a sabatical from the 2016 rowing forum but the upcoming Head of the river has brought me back.

On the topic of Gold Cup, it was my second faviourite event on the Schoolboy rowing calendar back in my heyday - behind hotr and in front of the Head of the para. It is quite a buzz when you walk you boat down to the water from the top oval through the school and off their jetty and boathouse. However, the racing is a bit of a muck - restarts.. crashes and fairly dubious staggered starts. Whilst it isn't always the best indicator of a crews ability due such volitile conditions. it's always fun to compete in.. especially when you pick up a few silver oars.ha ha ha (joking. but seriously).

Head of the river - no excuses. There's always a chance of an upset in the fours and no guarantees for a podium place in any race. Let's see who turns up and puts on a show. I wonder if the Shore 1st VII can go sub 5:48? Pretty big ask but DJ would surely be licking his lips at the prospect of it.

Also, does anyone know if members of the GPS VIII's are going to give Australian under19 trials a crack? There is always a couple of very good rowers who may not be in the most successful crews that can move a scull very well and could be interesting to see how they size up against the rest of Aus.

Both Syd Uni and Sydney have assembled a group of GPS folks to go to the AUS U19 trials. Most of those entered at Nationals in the prospect boat class. Examples are Syd Uni: 2 doubles and quad with a Riverview and Scots sculler, Sydney entered one half of the Shore 1st VIII in a U19 quad, which also competed at States and did a 6:08. Sydney Uni rows also a sweep group with a former Joeys boy (still U19), 2 current Joeys and a Scots boy in a straight four (see Reindeer Regatta or U19 2- & 4- at Nationals).

Interesting to see that some are looking to scull at Worlds level, which hasn't happened in recent years. The qualifying times RA are asking for are pretty steep and people seem to pick and choose: 1x 7:12, 2x 6:37, 4x 6:05, 4- 6:11, 4+ 6:30, 8+ 5:51, 2- 6:45

 

[fpiglet]

Heard Scotch College were training up at Nepean, finessing their plan to take on Shore in the Schoolboy Head of the River. Shore may be laying claim to winning both conferences this year, the SHOTR and GPSHOTR. Scotch can only compete in one, so Sunday will prove to be the only opportunity to match race and see who is fastest this year. The Mexicans are having their HOTR at the same time as the Nationals. Interesting to see who wins out on Sunday.