Re: Boat Race gets 7.6m peak

c.anton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On 1 Apr, 12:55, "Alistair Potts" <alistair.potts+use...@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Various sources are showing 7.6m peak ("for 15 minutes from 5:15" - ha ha!)
/ 4.4m throughout the show.

The Boat Race people and ITV will be chuffed. It puts the Boat Race company
in a strong position with the contract being up for renewal in 2009, and ITV
will be happy too to squeeze more out of the advertisers. The BR audience
demographic is very appealing (the mean YOU!)

On the other hand, with the BBC blowing all its cash pinching F1 from ITV,
maybe ITV will be the only party interested...

Anyway, very good news for the race.


Indeed. Perhaps they turned off once they realised no-one was going to
sink. It's interesting what all the presenters meant by "sink" though
because I'd very much doubt that the boats used nowadays were capable
of sinking.

All shells will sink somewhat, according to the dictionary definition "to descend, go lower". They will sink a bit as the crew get in. They will sink completely beneath the surface if under-buoyant & swamped with their seated crew in place.

Sinking is not an absolute term. You may accurately say, "the boat sank low in the water" or, "the boat sank until almost submerged".

Sunken boats may rise (the opposite of sink) when the burden on them is lightened - as in jettisoning cargo as a last resort in a storm & pumping out water to alter displacement - customary with floating docks & various other industrial & constructional devices.

Only the real bastards among UK rowing's officialdom would seek (as they did) to present the swamping & sinking of an eight which caused the death of a rower as "definitely not sinking".

The real benefit of all that has been done over the last few years to promote shell buoyancy, despite the ARA's cynical opposition at every step of the way, is that top class eights are now made fully buoyant so that they do not now sink below the surface when swamped but remain completely rowable.

So I was amused to read the suggestions in pre-Boat Race bull*** that it was developments in technology over the "last 30 years" which meant that the eights used would not sink. What utterly pretentious bollocks! Watertight compartments were probably a technological fact before the time of Noah. Only a technologically backward sport like rowing would have taken so long to grudgingly accept them as essential.

Similarly I was amused by the implications that "it was all down to pumps". No, it wasn't. Those pumps are completely incapable of dealing with the kinds of sudden influx (several tonnes/minute) which swamp a rowing shell. What they are good at is keeping down the water burden in non-swamping conditions, & at slowly removing excess water after a swamping. But if the boat was underbuoyant at the time the swamping occurred, the pumps would be incapable of reversing that situation without the crew first disembarking, since with the boat full to the tops of the saxboards the water would always flow in as fast as they pumped it out.

I do hope that aids clarity?

Cheers -
Carl
--
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing Low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: Harris Boatyard, Laleham Reach, Chertsey KT16 8RP, UK
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.