Aberdeen Fours & Small Boats Heads: like Inverness but colder, shorter and harder

(or whose line is it anyway?)

Filled with enthusiasm from our own Fours head an intrepid band of Inverness rowers set out to the east to take on the bridges, stream and hail of the Aberdeen Fours and Small Boats Heads.  This is run in the lowermost reaches of the Dee, racing upstream for around 3.6 km but at high tide which lessens the stream somewhat, depending on the line you take!  Scratch fours were the order of the day for Saturday.  Division one saw us put together some rough and ready rowing to race up the course in a masters 4+ (with a helpfully lightweight cox borrowed from ASRA), beating the older ABC four by 1 min and 20 seconds but not managing to overhaul their full handicap advantage of nearly two minutes.  It was then the novice 4+ in division 2 with our own, slightly weightier but more experienced, cox on board.  Unfortunately a HWBC 4 decided to stop on the start line, and then veer into us after just 200m which was somewhat disruptive to what was already a boat of contrasting styles.  That was not the end of the excitement though with a coxed quad also appearing to be attracted by the gravity of our rowing as we rounded the final but, as our cox informed us, never ending bend (motivation stuff :-)).  Under the circumstances, no shame in a second place, 20 seconds behind ASRA.

Whose line is it anyway – there must be a good line in there somewhere!Sunday was the turn of the set crews, although given one was a single it’s difficult for it not to be set.  Division one had myself racing in the novice 1x and Tim Latham and Adrian Hopkins trying to replicate their R2 2- success of the previous weekends Inverness Head.  The weather started fine but the strengthening wind felt like it was going to bring some more interesting conditions, and possibly snow!  The course had been challenging with a cox, but now coxless it took on a whole new aspect.  However, racing in smaller boats often feels a very supportive experience, as was highlighted by one sculler shouting to me to tell me that I was going the wrong way, or rather taking a pretty bad line.  The wind and the associated chop really picked up towards the end of the course and nearly forced me to a standstill where it was funneling through the King George VI Bridge but once through it was possible to pick it up again with a good run into the finish line.  Tim and Adrian had a strong row in the pair finishing third, but only being 10 seconds off the winning time.  I took the win in the novice single and was pretty happy to also come in ahead of the J18 singles and one of the open category, despite a far from ideal race – practice on more lively water is needed.  While I headed off to Norway, Tim and Adrian went for the full experience by entering the final division in their pair, this time in the open category.  Their perseverance was rewarded by a heavy sleet shower just before the start but they were treated to some exceedingly tight racing: past the boathouses with all three open pairs were head to toe as one passed the other.  Taking second place was a great effort.  A fun head weekend and one that would be great to repeat with some more practiced crews……

Brilliant medals!

Not all Fours Heads get cancelled: why go to the Thames?

(not sure we need the extra boats though!)

The autumnal colours reflected in the Caledonian Canal, awaiting the first division.

As we are perhaps becoming rather too accustomed, the winds of the preceding month dropped, the skies cleared and the rowers arrived.  It must be time for the Inverness Fours and Small Boats Head 2024 which always forms a highlight of the Scottish Rowing Callender.  The popularity of this event seems to just grow and grow with year on year record entries: this year being no exception with over 700 crews taking to the glassy water of the Caledonian Canal and our 4500 m Head Course, with racing was divided into 3 divisions on both Saturday and Sunday.

Perfect conditions greeted rowers in the first division on Saturday with the calm on the canal only being broken by the first boat down the course, disrupting the stunning reflections of the warm autumnal colours.  The first division saw success for Inverness Rowing Club with Steven Andrews rowing in a composite with Neil Paul (originally from the Black Isle) of St Andrew Boat Club who took the masters 2- in a raw time of 17:26. Success continued in the second division with Alan Sinclair taking the masters 1x in a raw time of 17:59.  The Inverness juniors placed second in the J15 2x, stroked by Shay Hammock, and Ciaran McManus also took second place in the masters novice 1x.  Second place seemed to be in fashion for Inverness in the third division with both our masters 4- (17:48) and women’s masters 4x (19:37) both coming home one off the top spot.

Couldn’t have asked for better conditions!

Sunday dawned a little less bright and a few showers cooled things down a little but the rowing conditions on the canal remained good.  In the first division Alan Sinclair took advantage of the conditions to knock 20 seconds of his time from the previous day, this time taking the open 1x in 17:38.  Sam Roxburgh also put in a great time in the J18 1x, coming third in 18:31.  Division 2 saw more Inverness success with Tim Latham and Adrian Hopkins putting in an excellent performance to narrowly defeat HWBC, winning the R2 2- in 19:01.  Wilbur Grant also took gold in the J14 1x finishing half a minute ahead of second in 20:49, and rowing through all of his competitors after starting at the back of the field!  There was one more victory for Inverness, which came in the third division for which the sun obligingly shone: Steven Andrews narrowly pipped a SPRC sculler, by 2 seconds in a time of 18:56, to win the R2 1x after a tough battle all the way down the course.  Inverness also picked up second places in the mixed masters 2x and the women’s novice 4x+.

Busy water coming down towards the finish line

The fastest time of the weekend for the open crews went to GUBC in the R1 4- with a time of 15:14 and for the women’s crews EUBC went fastest with a time of 16:58 in the women’s 4-.  Interesting to see sweep rowing ruling the roost.  The overall winners were George Watsons College based on a metric of participation plus average crew performance.

As always the best performers were really those that do all the hard work to make our Head weekends run so amazingly, from the marshals that spend most of their weekend up at the lock juggling boats, to those that spend weeks beforehand taking entries and organising numbers.