Re: Regatta capacity (English and Welsh bias)


A Marshall wrote:
I suspect that it is a combination of factors.

Most Juniors, whilst they may no longer be Novice, will have 0 points

From my experience, this differs considerably between club and school
juniors; at school, we tend to race J18/16 when we can (ie at smaller
regattas), and in senior categories at high standard events, so the
only points in the school squads currently date from one successful day
at Reading Amateur a couple of years ago; in contrast, many of our
peers at clubs (rowing at a similar or lower standard) have several
points, either from rowing in adult crews, or racing S4 at small
regattas.

In the Thames Valley, which accounts for 41% of Registered members, the
standard of the top Junior crews is such that they are likely to be
competitive even at S2

This means that the senior novice, having won his novice pot finds
himself facing crews who have three or four years of racing under their
belts. For some adults, the concept of being soundly beaten by J16's or
full juniors is enough to drive them out of the sport.

The other factor is training inflation. As has been discussed in other
threads, the commitment requirements necessary to win at S2 level and
above are such that many look for an alternative activity that does not
demand 15hours of training a week.

One solution might be to amend the qualifying rule. Perhaps a S3 event
should be qualifying when there are three crews and S2 this should be
moved up to four etc.

With many more and more crews racing in multi lane regattas, another
way to look at the problem might be to grade the number of points you
get on the basis of the crews that you beat. A win in a six lane final
with out heats = 1 point. In an event with more than seven entries, ie
heats and finals = 2 points for the winner and 1 for second place. This
would apply to open and S1 events only.

The problem I have with understanding the status system is the
tremendous difference in standard of the same status event at different
regattas, which as far as I can see is entrenched; we would tend to
race at S3 or so at various provincial regattas (shrewsbury,
bridgnorth etc.) but, (last year at least) at wallingford we just about
made the final in Novice, and were well back on the first few (with the
winners apparently being approximately a school first 8)

Surely this contributes to the problems of novice or S4 events being of
a very variable standard, and also means a point has very varied value,
in terms of difficulty of earning it?

Peter Ford

.

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