Slop and Chop

On Sunday, June 5th, 2016, we raced at our first official regatta, The Stonewall Regatta at the Anacostia Boathouse in Washington, D.C., hosted by DC Strokes. This regatta is known for a few things, including bottles of wine for the winners, thumping house music during the day, and terrible racing conditions. This regatta did not deviate from the status quo.

The Anacostia Boathouse in Washington, D.C.

We arrived in D.C. early as we had one of the earlier races that day, streaming the IRA finals to our phones as we walked from the parking lot to the boat trailer. The IRA modified their race schedule so that the race day commenced with the finals, as looming thunderstorms threatened to cancel races in the late morning. We rooted for our respective squads and watched as the eventual winners for the heavyweight and lightweight 8+ built healthy margins by the 1,000 meter mark, the distance that we were to race that day.

Our first race of the AM was in the Open 4+, a full race with six boats across. There was a Potomac Boat Club (PBC) boat of guys that Alex knew quite well, who was itching at the opportunity to beat their old teammate. Due to deteriorating conditions, the race officials told us that there would be a countdown start. Once our boat reached the starting line however, we found out that it was actually a quicker start than a traditional one, without the race official lining up or polling the crews, nor even having an actual countdown. This resulted in the crews starting more than a full boatlength apart without straight points, complicating the already windy conditions.

We managed to rip off a clean start, however our coxbox ran out of battery on the warm up, resulting in the bownman (Josh Ruck), calling the race from his seat. It took the crew a bit longer to collect but managed to find a base and sprint, albeit a bit later than we would have liked. The PBC boat did a great job managing the conditions and had built a sizeable margin early in the race so we spent the second half trying to eat into their margin. We managed to reduce it to just over one second at the 1,000 meter mark, when the race ended. 

We quickly hopped off the water and rigged our pairs, which was going to be our second and final race of the day. We broke into heavy and lightweight pairs, for eternal bragging rights as to who truly pulls whom down the course. Conditions were even worse for this race with the same starting conditions. The cross wind pushed the pairs into each other at the start, resulting in quite a few clashes. The lightweight pair clashed with the PBC pair within a few strokes, however the race officials did not call the race for breakage. Both pairs struggled to maintain their point through the race, with the lightweight pair once again clashing with the PBC boat, this time requiring the boat to stop and realign. I believe they disqualified a few boats from the race, which did not truly matter in the end due to the devolving conditions. 

It was definitely a memorable, albeit not hugely successful race. Thanks to PBC for great racing and DC Strokes for throwing a high energy regatta.

An example of the conditions on race day