Re: Regatta Programmes


"Jay L" <just_j.REMOVE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1138608586.150078@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> old bat wrote:
> > I wonder if anybody can help here. We have just had our first Sprint
> > Regatta of the season (Southern Hemisphere) and I wonder if anybody has
> > a really efficient programme as we always seems to finish late mostly
> > due to boat, crew and equipment clashes. It is a relatively small
> > sport and I was hoping somebody would come up with a foolproof formula.
> >
> Someone mentioned that a good way to enforce people to get to the start
> on time is not to have the 2 minute rule (as we have here in South
> Africa with a 1 false start penalty if in breach of the rule), but
> instead have a say "20 minute before start of race you must be on the
> water" rule. In my opinion this removes the "we'll get to the start of
> the 2000m race in 2 minutes please let us race" events occurring. If
> you're not on the water 20 minutes before the start of the race sorry,
> plan your equipment/crew/boat usage better... This gets stated in almost
> every regatta notice but people seem to ignore that and enter races
> where the same cox is in consecutive races (etc.)

I've organised a number of regattas, and my opinion is that boat clashes are
things I'm prepared to work hard to avoid, as boats are very expensive and
clubs are always struggling to have enough. Crew clashes only occur where
people enter too many events. And vets tend to be the worst! I have run vet
regattas where the info *** says clearly that we will try our best to
accommodate rowers entering up to 4 events, and some big time pot hunter who
wants to win every damn thing enters 8 or 9 and then complains of races
being programmed too close together!

To avoid boat clashes, try not to have events in the same boat class too
close together. It's important to calculate your minimum "cycle time" to get
a crew on the water, get to the start in ample time, race, and be back at
the beach/dock ready for another crew to take the boat. This will obviously
be a lot less in a sprint regatta than a 2000m event, and try to keep events
in the same boat class apart by this minimum amount of time. To ensure
fairness, when there are heats in any one event, these may have to held
consecutively, so for example clubs might have to be told they can enter no
more crews in Women's novice coxed 4s than they have boats for them to row.
But it's not necessary for the organisers to put other coxed 4s events
immediately before or after, as they so often seem to insist on doing, as if
that were cast in concrete.


.

Quantcast