[CUCBC Captains] Lents Bumps 2013 Marshals

[Tom Grimble]

Dear all

A few reminders about common sense and keeping things moving in the busy
mornings. Please pass this on to coaches etc in your club if they are not
on the coxes list.

*Crossover Points*

Crews travelling *UPSTREAM* have priority at both crossing points. Upstream
means going from Baitsbite lock back towards the boathouses. If in doubt
throw a twig in the river and watch which way it goes (small twigs only
please - before someone throws a tree stump in on CUCBC recommendations!)

If you are going downstream and see another crew coming, STOP and WAIT.
There have a been a lot of incidents of crews attempting a quick crossover
ahead of an upstream crew as soon as they see them coming. This normally
ends in both crews crossing to the same side and they end up on a collision
course. Hence cue a few minutes of disentangling blades with lots of people
waiting....

When you crossover you should do so quickly and you should also make your
manoeuvre at the position of the signs that mark the points, not 50+ metres
early as you come out of a corner as this is also likely to lead to
collisions and confusion for concoming crews.

*Spinning Points*

Crews should queue on the correct side of the river and spin 1 at a time
once it is clear.

Please make sure that when you spin, you spin quickly, especially on busy
mornings like today and get moving to clear the way for the next crew as
quickly as possible.

Please do not pull in to the bank in the spinning areas and especially do
not sit in the middle of the river to have a chat with your coach for a few
minutes.

When you are queueing to spin please keep control of your boat and stay
tucked into one side of the river. By all means do exercises to keep warm,
but not ones that involve your boat moving around while waiting. If you are
skewed or on the wrong side of the river (2 or 3 cases I saw this morning)
boats cannot get clear to allow others to spin. Therefore you are going to
be sitting in the cold for longer. Rowing VIIIs are not that compressible,
you have to let some out before you can fit more in to spin!

An even more heinous crime is to suddenly decide your crew doesn't have to
wait in the queue and then spin in front of and block everyone trying to
ecape the spinning carnage. I would class this in the same category as
people who steal your food from college kitchens and those who tell you who
got fired in the Apprentice as you're about to watch it on iplayer...
basically the worst kind of people. Don't be that person!

Please let's try and make mornings more bearable as its only going to get
worse in the run up to bumps.

*Racing Starts (and slow exercises)*

It's the time of the year that everyone is practising their first few
strokes of bumps starts. If you're just doing the first 1-3 strokes,
stopping then doing it again it would be helpful to confine this practise
to the long reach. The section of river up to Baitsbite lock is narrower
and it is sometimes practically impossible for people to overtake due to
lots of traffic. This is basically the recommendation of adapting your
outing plan to fit how busy the river is and considering that other crews
might want to do do a race piece rather than matching your stop start
rowing.

If the river is empty behind you by all means do stop-starts to your
heart's content. If you're holding up any number of cold, miserable and
tired crews who just want to get moving please let them pass or get moving
yourself. You've almost all certainly been in that position yourselves so
please think of things from other's perspective.


In summary... Please play nice with others!


Tom Grimble
CUCBC Honorary Secretary
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