(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……
