Henley Royal Regatta

[Withoutmercy]

I will miss Boris he added an additional element that will be sadly missed IMHO. Enjoy your retirement you can't be replaced.
Cheers!!

[Mileage]

There were also a number of crews rowing with Fat C2 blades. Looked like all of the Brookes crews as well as Scotch and Eton in the final of PE. The Fat blade seems to have dissapeared from the senior international scene but maybe will start to come back in a number of years as these younger crews move into senior ranks.

[Chris A]

Boris back at it again

He always finds a way to make it about himself; it’s like the guy can’t help himself

I think it adds to the spectacle! and lets be honest the cox deserved it

We've all had races like this. If as a cox you do nothing you'll make any umpires angry indeed

[Chris A]

Duplicate

[jyjy]

So straight finals in the grand, Queen mother and stewards and yet the winners of the ladies were faster than the GB 8+ Runners up, the winners of the visitors were faster than the winners of the stewards

Even more evidence that the intermediate events no longer need to be separated from the elite, I’d have loved to see Brookes taking on the GB 8+, and the more runs down the course the elites get to do the better imo

Just come on here to make this point but Stelph has already made it for me:
Grand: Disappointing performance by GB (training more geared to WC3 perchance). 1s slower than Ladies.
Stewards: Pointless no contest between GB1 & GB2, 10s slower than GB U23 in Visitors.
QM: No contest between GB and German lwt crew, 9s slower than GB U23 in PoW

In all 3 events the winner of the Intermediate event would have given a better race.

[Stewie Griffin Should Cox]

So straight finals in the grand, Queen mother and stewards and yet the winners of the ladies were faster than the GB 8+ Runners up, the winners of the visitors were faster than the winners of the stewards

Even more evidence that the intermediate events no longer need to be separated from the elite, I’d have loved to see Brookes taking on the GB 8+, and the more runs down the course the elites get to do the better imo

Just come on here to make this point but Stelph has already made it for me:
Grand: Disappointing performance by GB (training more geared to WC3 perchance). 1s slower than Ladies.
Stewards: Pointless no contest between GB1 & GB2, 10s slower than GB U23 in Visitors.
QM: No contest between GB and German lwt crew, 9s slower than GB U23 in PoW

In all 3 events the winner of the Intermediate event would have given a better race.

So the best of the Intermediates should step up. Should Brookes be happy with winning the ladies again? Should the likely U23 gold medal 4- be in the Stewards? Should be noted that 30 years ago the Stewards was won by a young OxfordUL four not dissimilar this years Visitors 4, the the Prince PrincePhillip Open 4+ was won by a ULBC four. I am sure the ULBC could have won the Ladies as they did in 87 but were more ambitious and that led to the 92 Grand crew which was UL athletes 5-12.

The best Club boats should be in the Visitors. and the club events should be won by people who also hold down jobs.

[fatsculler]

One interesting little titbit, Brookes Temple crew were awarded a false start for their semi final, due to “unsportsmanlike conduct” by their supporters as they boated. That was a first for Henley.

[Stelph]

One interesting little titbit, Brookes Temple crew were awarded a false start for their semi final, due to “unsportsmanlike conduct” by their supporters as they boated. That was a first for Henley.

Any idea what that was? One too many chants of Brookes?

So straight finals in the grand, Queen mother and stewards and yet the winners of the ladies were faster than the GB 8+ Runners up, the winners of the visitors were faster than the winners of the stewards

Even more evidence that the intermediate events no longer need to be separated from the elite, I’d have loved to see Brookes taking on the GB 8+, and the more runs down the course the elites get to do the better imo

Just come on here to make this point but Stelph has already made it for me:
Grand: Disappointing performance by GB (training more geared to WC3 perchance). 1s slower than Ladies.
Stewards: Pointless no contest between GB1 & GB2, 10s slower than GB U23 in Visitors.
QM: No contest between GB and German lwt crew, 9s slower than GB U23 in PoW

In all 3 events the winner of the Intermediate event would have given a better race.

So the best of the Intermediates should step up. Should Brookes be happy with winning the ladies again? Should the likely U23 gold medal 4- be in the Stewards? Should be noted that 30 years ago the Stewards was won by a young OxfordUL four not dissimilar this years Visitors 4, the the Prince PrincePhillip Open 4+ was won by a ULBC four. I am sure the ULBC could have won the Ladies as they did in 87 but were more ambitious and that led to the 92 Grand crew which was UL athletes 5-12.

The best Club boats should be in the Visitors. and the club events should be won by people who also hold down jobs.

Crews will enter events they are eligible for, they wont willingly enter a tougher event so how do you propose that happens?

1) Update the rules by saying the rowers have to prove they're in full time employment? -> hard to enforce/justify and it worryingly echos the bad times of the past where crews were being excluded because the athletes involved in manual labour

2) Stewards bounce up crews that they think are too good? -> equally hard to justify, and stewards can't be expected to pick out crews that are "too fast"

As I say, I think the club events and rules are about right other than bringing in some club sculling events and arguably making he rule that if you win a sweep event you can still race a sculling event and vice versa, the current rules are resulting in some great racing - its the intermediate/open split where the current problem is with extremely high standards in the intermediate events and somewhat dull one on one events in the stewards/queen mother/Grand - as has been said, this year had some great giant killing potential if that had happened

[Stelph]

Boris back at it again

He always finds a way to make it about himself; it’s like the guy can’t help himself

I think it adds to the spectacle! and lets be honest the cox deserved it

We've all had races like this. If as a cox you do nothing you'll make any umpires angry indeed

Agree, there have been times in the past where I think Boris has been over zealous but in this case it was pretty clear it was the second day in a row that the cox had not responded, and then to proceed to argue that she was steering whilst being told off....

More coxes should realise its very very easy to tell whether a rudder is on or not when you are behind a boat due to the jet of water coming out of the back

[jeesh999]

One interesting little titbit, Brookes Temple crew were awarded a false start for their semi final, due to “unsportsmanlike conduct” by their supporters as they boated. That was a first for Henley.

Given the behavior of one of their coaches right before the Northeastern semi, I'm not surprised.

[masterscox]

Boris back at it again

He always finds a way to make it about himself; it’s like the guy can’t help himself

I think it adds to the spectacle! and lets be honest the cox deserved it

We've all had races like this. If as a cox you do nothing you'll make any umpires angry indeed

Agree, there have been times in the past where I think Boris has been over zealous but in this case it was pretty clear it was the second day in a row that the cox had not responded, and then to proceed to argue that she was steering whilst being told off....

More coxes should realise its very very easy to tell whether a rudder is on or not when you are behind a boat due to the jet of water coming out of the back

I fully agree that there was hardly any evidence (being generous to her) that the cox had steered in response to Boris' commands, but if her crew was in one of the latest Empachers (I don't remember whether they were or not) - have you seen the size of their latest rudders? I have always told anyone interested (& many who weren't) that the eight is steered with a rudder half the size of a credit card. The new rudders are about 1/4 of that size. So it is almost impossible to make any sudden and significant alteration to the boat's path.

[jyjy]

I would be happy if the Stewards and Grand had half a dozen entries each and some decent racing, but with the current rules, there is very little point in separate open and intermediate events. Maybe next year, being an Olympic year...
The QM is the most egregious though. Fats will correct me here, but it feels like ever since the PoW was introduced, there's barely been a decent race. The QM was a Redgrave/Leander benefit in 2001 and a row over in 2002! Ever since the PoW has basically been a Leander benefit race. The PoW should always have been club level event and until there is one, there is no justification for an intermediate event.
QM entries from 2019 back: 2,2,2,8,2,5,2,7,5,5,4,2,3,2,4,3,4,2(1),2
PoW winners in last 10 years: Leander 7, GBU23 1, USA 1, NL 1

[str8four]

There were also a number of crews rowing with Fat C2 blades. Looked like all of the Brookes crews as well as Scotch and Eton in the final of PE. The Fat blade seems to have dissapeared from the senior international scene but maybe will start to come back in a number of years as these younger crews move into senior ranks.

I noticed this as well and think the Fat Smoothie oars complimented the OB rowing style very well with an emphasis on the start of the drive, rather than the finish. I'm also wondering in the US and German Armed Forces crews in the King's Cup were rowing in white Empachers? If so that is a first for me. I have seen the special greenish thing Empacher makes for the German National Team but never a white boat. Any chance they'll roll that out more broadly as an upcharge item?

[Splashy]

There were also a number of crews rowing with Fat C2 blades. Looked like all of the Brookes crews as well as Scotch and Eton in the final of PE. The Fat blade seems to have dissapeared from the senior international scene but maybe will start to come back in a number of years as these younger crews move into senior ranks.

I noticed this as well and think the Fat Smoothie oars complimented the OB rowing style very well with an emphasis on the start of the drive, rather than the finish. I'm also wondering in the US and German Armed Forces crews in the King's Cup were rowing in white Empachers? If so that is a first for me. I have seen the special greenish thing Empacher makes for the German National Team but never a white boat. Any chance they'll roll that out more broadly as an upcharge item?

King's Cup crews all had Kanguas provided for them as far as I could see.

[Mileage]

There were also a number of crews rowing with Fat C2 blades. Looked like all of the Brookes crews as well as Scotch and Eton in the final of PE. The Fat blade seems to have dissapeared from the senior international scene but maybe will start to come back in a number of years as these younger crews move into senior ranks.

I noticed this as well and think the Fat Smoothie oars complimented the OB rowing style very well with an emphasis on the start of the drive, rather than the finish. I'm also wondering in the US and German Armed Forces crews in the King's Cup were rowing in white Empachers? If so that is a first for me. I have seen the special greenish thing Empacher makes for the German National Team but never a white boat. Any chance they'll roll that out more broadly as an upcharge item?

Emp will do any colour you want. You just cough a bit/lot more.
Most notable example is the GER M8+ which has a long term relationship with Duetsche Telekom so had a pink boat. Ive seen green and white too at the Bosbaan.

Ive been told the Emp yellow is because the gel coat layed into the mould was that colour originally and emp did not want to post spray (as in Filippi and Hudson) as it added necessary weight. Having the gel coat as your visible outer layer also shows just how good your moulds are. No need to fill errors and cover with paint. Not sure if thats 100% true or still the case.