St Catharine's College Boat Club

Bumped FaT IV

The conditions today were, to put it mildly, far from ideal. After a lot of discussion about whether the boats in the W3 division would be rowing fast enough to avoid drifting back down the reach (it turns out they were, just), and Ivan fitted his new (smaller) shoes, we eventually got the boat out to drift down to Chesterton for marshalling.

The row to the start was scrappy. The starts were pretty abysmal, and the wind on the reach wasn't helping the balance in general. We got to the start in plenty of time, only to find that Caius III had decided not to turn up to chase us. Cowards.

Bit of a shame for them that they didn't. The race saw the worst 10 stroke start that we'd produced for a very long time, with blades missing all over the place and the balance being everywhere but level. By the time the stride came we were a lot more settled, and the half length that we'd lost was recovered in a matter of 5 strokes. 20 strokes later, just before the motorway bridge, it was all over, another very quick bump for Catz II!

However, with the spooning Girton II two places ahead of us tomorrow, we need an excellent start and some brilliant striding to get King's II first. It'll be a challenge, but on top form, one that I'm confident that we're capable of.