When Canley Gives you Lemons…
So this past week a squad of neon green took the Royal Canadian Henley by storm. That is to say Craftsbury entered 41 events with 16 rowers. Why, you might ask.
Because we were making lemonade.
Normally we are known as the Small Boats Training Center, and we mainly scull in singles, doubles, and sometimes quads. When we went to enter these boat classes for the Canadian Henley on the day of the entry deadline, about a week before the regatta, we were informed that they were already full and many events had substantial waiting lists!
After an emotional post-dinner meeting in which we hashed out the possibilities, we entered a number of sweep events that we don’t normally train for, such as eights and straight fours.
Meeting. Spirits are low.
Post meeting. Spirits are high.
It took some finagling to make sure that everyone was entered in a normal amount of races because we kept finding out that other races were also full. Additionally, it was important to ensure that events did not conflict with each other. Most races have heats, semifinals, and finals, so it is especially important to check the schedule for the entire week. Becky put her master planning skills to work on cardboard and after more than two hours of discussion we finally came up with a solution to the puzzle and left the meeting with new-found energy to start training immediately in boats we don’t normally row.
Heading out to practice our Senior 8+.
A few days after our meeting, a few places on the waiting list opened up and the official regatta office added more spaces on the schedule for competitors. We were offered ten spots in different sculling events. Instead of scratching the events we had already entered and paying the additional $50/event fee, we decided to see how it would work out by racing all the events we were entered in, which for some people meant more than ten trips down the race course during the week.
Coach Steve carrying oars for Brett/Amy Under 23 Pair race.
The regatta turned out to be a blast racing in some of our standard events and some not so standard events. SBTC rower Amy Ludovici easily stepped into the role of coxswain for our two 8+ events, as well as rowing port, starboard, bow, stroke, sweep, and scull positions during the week! Our women’s 4x of Sonshine, Jamie, Becky, and Liz rowed themselves to a win to defend their 2013 title. Most of the GRP advanced to at least four finals. The Phils took home the gold in the Men’s Lightweight pair with a large margin of open water over the field. The GRP women + Amy won the Senior Women’s Eight and took second in a tough Championship Eight race (with SBTC rower Brett Simpson). Lightweight sculler Sarah Keller won Henley gold in a heavyweight sweep event. The GRP straight four of Keziah, Jamie, Sonshine, and Emily triumphed in the 4- race. Full event results can be found at: http://www.henleyregatta.ca/en/henley-results (though it might be hard to navigate because the regatta had over 2,000 entries).
Coxie Amy
Pre/Post race erg.
Coach Judy giving off positive race vibes!
Kez/Jamie 2x leaves the dock.
Sarah going to race the LW1x.
Happy Phils
Women’s 4x wins gold!
4- going out to take care of business.
Senior 8+
This Canadian Henley was definitely one to remember and a success for the GRP/SBTC in more ways than one. To cap off the week we placed second in the “Efficiency Trophy” standings, which is a measure of how successful a team is in all entered events over the week. A big thank you goes out to our coaches for the week Dick, Judy, Steve, and Troy for all their help! Now most of the GRP is headed to different parts of the US for vacation before we reconvene for the head racing season in the fall.
Loaded trailer heads home to VT!
Photo credits go to Judy Geer.