Open Water Rowing

[Autoland]

I discovered a community on the water rowing club the weekend before last and signed up for a week long 8-man sweep boat training program that started this Monday. This is on the St. Mary's River off the Patuxent River, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.

I started erging in the summer of 2020 and have not been on the water until now.

What a revelatory experience! There is so much more to think about and the scenery is spectacular.

So glad I discovered this. The club also does sculling and participates in regattas.

[Autoland]

Correction, the St. Mary's River is off the Potomac River a few miles northwest of where the Potomac meets the Chesapeake Bay.

[Tsnor]

I discovered a community on the water rowing club the weekend before last and signed up for a week long 8-man sweep boat training program that started this Monday. This is on the St. Mary's River off the Patuxent River, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.

I started erging in the summer of 2020 and have not been on the water until now.

What a revelatory experience! There is so much more to think about and the scenery is spectacular.

So glad I discovered this. The club also does sculling and participates in regattas.

Excellent. Totally agree with you, OTW is really fun, especially sweeps where a team works together. I'm farther north on the Hudson. Maybe see you in Philly at regattas in a year or two.

Some things you can do with your erging to help OTW
1. Mark where the chain goes through the slot. Keep the chain at exactly the same level while rowing. This will help you keep your hands level at the catch -- many new rowers lower their hands to get more room at the catch which upsets the boat. Or move their hands in a curve "skying" the blade. You want your hands to follow a nice straight line from release to catch. Same thing on the drive to control blade depth in the water.
2. Try to control your stroke rate. Do erg pieces that prescribe the strokes/min. Also try some higher stroke rates (25-30) using fast "hands away" to get the faster recovery while staying slow on the slide.
3. Look at the "Force Curve" display and try to make as smooth a curve as you can. In an 8 you'll need to match your stroke to the rest of the team. A clean force curve will help.
4. Keep your knees down as long as you can during recovery. Don't blur your back swing and starting knees up. This keeps your weight lower in the boat while the oars are out of the water and really helps balance the shell. You are likely going to do "pick drills" learning to row that emphasize this. Do pick drills at home on the erg too as a warmup.
5. don't stop your erging. Just mange the load so that if you do a hard OTW session you don't do a hard erg session the next day, likely this means most of your erg sessions are long/slow once you get out OTW. Erging keeps you strong and safe and fast.

[Autoland]

Thanks for the tips Tsnor!

I definitely hope to make OTW part of my routine. The small club I'm working with was just at a regatta on the James River last weekend. I'll ask if they've ever been up to Philly.

While we're working with an 8-man shell, only yesterday did we have all 8 of us pulling strokes simultaneously. We started with 2 of us pulling stokes and the other 6 setting the boat. Then moved to 4/4 and 6/2 before we went all in.

Lots to learn. I tend to drive the blade deeper then I should and my OTW form is so far lacking because I'm thinking about oar control and synchronization. Feathering is going to take some time to get used to.

So much fun!

[PaulG]

You can tell the competence of an organization as to how it reacts to sudden change. The Head of the Weir race held on October 8th this year and sponsored by the Hull Lifesaving Museum (https://www.lifesavingmuseum.org/) underwent some significant last-minute changes that the HLM was able to adapt to on short notice. A few days before the race we received an email saying that the launch area and time was changed, the registration time and location was changed, the marshalling area was changed, and as a result, the start line was changed. Apparently, the marsh area where we used to launch had undergone some significant erosion and hauling 40+ boats up on the marsh along with their crews tromping all over it was not helping any.

So, we all met early on the morning of Oct 10 in the parking lot of Jakes Restaurant near Steamboat Wharf in Hull. Thanks to Jakes (https://www.jakesseafoods.com/) for letting us use their parking lot and restrooms. I dragged my technical support team (my brother) out of bed to get there early because I was not sure how things were going to go with all the changes. As my brother will probably never let me forget, we got there in plenty of time and had to wait in the car for over an hour before I launched.

As we waited a car pulled up to us with a Maas 24 on top and I said to my brother, “Well that’s the end of my race.” Then a 6’4” lean young man (younger than me) unfolded himself from behind the wheel of his VW Jetta wagon and I knew my race was over. He was from Belfast Maine, and although he said didn’t have much experience in open water, he was younger, taller, and had a faster boat than my 19-foot Peinert Zephyr.

At the launch ramp the race director came up to me and said, “You know, it’s going to be pretty rough near Sunset Point with the wind and tide opposing.” Yeah, I knew that. “Do you feel comfortable going into the race in a sliding seat boat?” Yes, I do. Why was he asking me these questions? Do I have my shoes on the wrong feet? Are there holes in my boat I don’t know about? Do I look incompetent? Or was he concerned about my ability to safely finish the race. And, why me?

After reassuring him, I launched from Steamboat Wharf and paddled the 1.25 miles down to the new marshalling area and start line. There was a strong NW wind and I noted for the race that I was going to try to keep in the lee of the Worlds End peninsula. I was soon joined by Mr. Belfast and we nudged the bows of our boats on the flooded marsh and (without causing any erosion) and waited for the on water coxswain’s meeting and the start. There was nothing new in the cox’s meeting except they emphasized that we were rowing under the inland rules of the road and a boat being overtaken has the right of way. While waiting, I said hello to Rich and Jeff, the two best dorymen in New England.

I got in line by start number but then heard them calling my number at the start line. I may have been a little late at the start because a few boats in front of me did not start. Mr. Belfast had the same problem as there were missing boats between us. In the narrow portion of the Weir River near the start there was little wind, and my plan was to go hard in the calm water because I figured I could recover when I had to slow down in the rough water. As expected, Mr. Belfast rowed though me relatively quickly after the start and I continued with a firm hold on second and last places because we were the only two single sliding seat boats.

As the river widened the wind picked up and I hugged the shore near Worlds End. Apparently, I was not the only person who did not need a weatherman to know which way the wind was blowing. At one time four boats were in close proximity to me but we did not have to resort to the rules of the road to get ourselves sorted out.

Then the river opened out to the northwest near Sunset Point. And it did get rough. There were confused seas but I never felt like I was going over. I shortened my stroke and was taking spray over my port bow but I had the knowledge from past races that this would be the worst part of the race and as I got in the lee of Bumpkin and Peddocks Island things would smooth out. I discovered that if I altered my course more to the northwest I would be going directly into the wind and the ride would be a little smoother, even though the waves were from all over. However, no matter how appealing a NW course was, that was not going to take me to the finish line so had to continue take the wind and water over my port bow.
At this point I had little to row for because Mr. Belfast was out of site. However, I saw from my stroke coach that I might finish under 60 minutes if I picked it up a bit. I did and soon I could hear the horn from the finish line. I rowed 8,200 m in 57:47 with stroke rate of 23.5/min and a distance/stroke of 6.3 m. I thought my distance/stroke would have been longer, but I had some short strokes in the rough water. Interestingly, the stroke rate was fairly consistent throught the race.

After crossing the finish line near Hull Gut my brother waved me over to an empty spot on the beach. He started to wave more vehemently as I strayed near the strong outgoing current of Hull Gut and I almost got spit out the gut into Boston Harbor like a watermelon seed. It was beautiful early October afternoon and we enjoyed the chili and other great food served by the HLM volunteers from the old Coast Guard Station. I rehashed the race with Mr. Belfast and Jeff and Rich, the two best dorymen in New England. With our backs against the weatherbeaten boards of the old Coast Guard station and our faces in the sun, my brother and I decided that if you stay out of the wind and in the sun and you’ll always be warm.

[Yankeerunner]

In addition to having to admit that you are a better rower than I am I'll have to also admit that the Amlong brothers would be insulting me vociferously for skipping this one because I thought it would be too hard. I'll take the insults and bask in the knowledge that I made the right choice. Doing it with you in 2019 could be chalked up to 'ignorance is bliss.' This year I would have had no such excuse.

Well done on going where wise men fear to tread. I don't know what will entice me to try another open water race, but this story isn't that thing. As much as I admire your skill at successfully negotiating rough water I fear tipping over and not being able to get back in. Maybe someday when I'm older and more experienced.

[pagomichaelh]

You can tell the competence of an organization as to how it reacts to sudden change. The Head of the Weir race held on October 8th this year...against the weatherbeaten boards of the old Coast Guard station and our faces in the sun, my brother and I decided that if you stay out of the wind and in the sun and you’ll always be warm.

Hi,
Thanks for the write-up. As I don't have anyone here to compare with, when you say 'strong wind', what would that be in knots?

TIA,
Michael

[PaulG]

Michael:
Now that you call my bluff I have to admit the wind wasn't that bad compared to what you might see in American Samoa, probably 15 mph, 13 kt. However the real issue was the waves in the restriction between Sunset Point in Hull and Worlds End, Hingham (you can find these locations on Google Earth). The finish is near Hull HIgh School and the start was upriver near Lyfords Lyking Park. There can be up to 3 m tides in Massachusetts Bay and we were racing in a strong ebb tide and hit the wind near Sunset Point causing white caps and very confused seas. In a low freeboard sliding seat boat it doesn't take much to fill the cockpit and I had to open my self-bailer. A few times I lost the handle on my oars, and at least once on the recovery I smashed my thumbs between the oar handles as they came in at the same time and at the same elevation.

I never felt that I was going over which is probably due to increased confidence in my boat and experience. I have gone over before and there is a write up of that earlier in this thread when I first attempted the Minots Light Roundabout.