HRC Members at World Masters ‘22 Libourne France.
By Mark Oliver.
We the six intrepid rowers (Lou, Bill, Robyn, Dom, Ruth, and Mark) who represented HRC at the Rowing Masters Regatta in Libourne France in September, thought we might share our experience at the Regatta in case others are wondering whether to attend similar future events.
Well, the initial obstacle turned out to be getting there on time with all our bags. An impossible feat as it turned out with late arrivals by plane and the Olayos bag taking 48 hours longer to get to Toulouse than them. Fortunately, they had wisely planned for that eventuality, carrying spare and rowing clothes in the carry-on baggage.
We turned up Day 1 to a magnificent setting extremely well laid out. About 4400 competitors from around the world – with many ex-Olympians and ex world champions, too often in our races!
DAY 1:
Mark was the first to race, in a single scull; F Class, his time was: 4:24, which put him 65th out of 126 competitors. Just below average but he is used to that!!
DAY 2:
Mark and Bill raced an F Class double, and rowed a 3:57 (although the Speedcoach recorded 3:55!), which put them at 67th out of 101 entries. Suffice it to say it was an ex-national rower crowded field. Rumour has it, Bill was glad Mark was in the boat for a change.
DAY 2:
Ruth, Lou, Dom, and Robyn rowed an E Class quad, which was one group younger than they were eligible to row (for practice). They rowed a 4:08, which put them 46th out of the 59 (younger rower) boats. Staggering for a crew that hasn't rowed together for over two months, in a boat they have never tried, against crews up to 10 years younger and most of whom have trained together for a long time, and many of whom have achieved at the highest level in their sport earlier in their lives. And this was their practice run and was in pretty rough windy weather.
DAY 3:
The girls rowed again, this time in the age-appropriate F Class. Things were looking good but unfortunately they caught a big crab, which gives no chance in such a world class field. But despite that, they managed to catch and pass another boat in their heat, and finished 25th out of 37 in a time of 4:12! It was an excellent result.
DAY 4:
Ruth and Lou raced an F Class Double, but unfortunately, they had trouble with those large local “crustaceans” again. Despite this, they also managed to pass another crew in their heat, and the crew they passed reportedly had a rower or two from Footscray in it! They rowed a 4:38, including kicking the crab out of the boat.
On the same day, Bill squeezed into his Hawthorn Zootie, dusted off his water wings, and had a go at a G Class single. He managed to stay dry, and rowed a 4:47, after changing overall oar length, inboard length, rigger width (pin to pin), and footplate height, following a disturbing practice session the night before. While he was fairly happy with the time, the rest of the team was extremely relieved no swimming was involved. He finished 65th out of 82 rowers in total.
DAY 5:
This was the final day and most of the team had spent the previous evening on some serious preparation, which included drinking lots of French red wine and going to bed late.
Ruth and Mark were first in the "divorce double" (mixed double with a husband and wife in). The previous night’s preparation seemed surprisingly good as they finished third in their competitive final, against class competition, in a time of 4:01 and less than two lengths behind the winner. Overall they finished 18th out of 65 entries. They were quite pleased as they had only ever rowed together in a double scull a few times 5 years ago and they got the slight impression that the other crews had all practiced a bit more than that!
Louise and Bill followed with a gutsy but less obviously rewarding row, under a challenging "Hot Seat" changeover scenario. So, they ended up in with the wrong oar lengths in a boat too heavy for them. That being said, there are no divorce proceedings under way with either couple.
The final row was an F Class Mixed Quad, with Ruth steering, Mark in stroke, and Bill and Lou in the middle of the boat providing all the power. They rowed a 3:48, which put them 4th in their heat, and 14th out of 31 entries. A very solid top half of the field effort for a scratch crew at a world rowing masters regatta. They had never previously rowed together as a crew and apparently the other crews had…
LESSONS:
1) We turned up a day before the event started but on reflection would make it 2 days before next time and perhaps have gone earlier to do some rowing together in the vicinity the week before.
2) Have a support team of non-rowers (see below). Ours was superb and saved the day numerous times.
3) Book your accommodation carefully and well ahead of time, so you can get a good choice. Ruth had cleverly booked a beautiful place with a large central kitchen area which turned out to be a great meeting and recovery area after the rows.
4) Plan on the first day doing your registration. This is a requirement before you can row in anything and can take a surprisingly long time.
5) Take driving licence as your ID, otherwise you may have to have your passport on you whenever rowing.
6) Arrive at least 2 hours before you are due on the water to set up your hired boat and oars. We regularly had to change, shoes, footplate distance, rigger distance and of course oars every time. Even when we set them up the night before they could go missing. For a final race at 2pm on the last day we guarded our oars for 2 hours and 8 times people came up to try to take them!
7) All boats were reverse rigged so get some experience on that set up before attending.
8) Bring 5m tape measure and screw drivers and know the exact settings of your oar lengths – in board and outboard and rigger setting, as well as your footplate. It makes a difference.
9) Bring a blue and white cap.
THANK YOU
We want to first thank our great support crew:
· Sebastian Oliver (Ruth and Mark’s eldest son)
· Mark Spangaro (Lou’s brother) and his partner – Gianna
· Christine Betremieux
For their brilliant support. We really could not have got such good results without you.
Secondly, we want to thank Guy Besley, Eve Williamson, Tiffany Rimmington and Catherine Ashley for their excellent support and insights in helping the women’s team get the practice and attain amazing fitness levels in preparation for what were hard races. The women’s team were still very fit despite travelling around Europe.
And Guy the team was so impressed with your insightful encouragement throughout the Regatta. It boosted their confidence no end.
Lastly a thank you to those at HRC who were so engaged and encouraging throughout the regatta from afar. Standouts include Catherine Ashly, JB, Richard Blackwell, and a particular thanks to Noel for all his great coaching.
Your interest and encouragement really made a difference.
SUMMARY
All in all, it was a brilliant experience. The camaraderie amongst the athletes was very real and the races were replete with ex this or ex that; Olympic champions and medallists, European champions, national champions, and just superb rowers and strong athletes at club level.
But we were still able to get into the top half of the field with a scratch crew. There were also a small number of “tourist” crews competing who many crews in HRC would beat. To us it showed how much HRC has progressed in the last few years, and we would like to thank HRC as a whole for helping us do that, and Pat for his superb work over the last few years.
We learnt some key tips about competing at the highest level. And there was no shortage of great technical advice and racing support either, as well as random pearls of wisdom from complete strangers.
Our experience strongly suggests that any rower, at whatever level, would gain from the experience in a World Masters Rowing Regatta.
So, we encourage all of you who wish to experience a rowing event at its best to start training now for the World regatta in Brandenburg, Germany in 2024.