[CUCBC Captains] Heel Restraints

[Mark Jacobs]

Dear All,

After the Head-2-Head last weekend, I've received reports that a number 
of college boats were found to have inadequate heel restraints.

Heel restraints are there to make escape easy in case of capsize. They 
should prevent the heel of any shoe from coming above the horizontal 
when lifted. British Rowing and CUCBC require that they are fitted to 
all boats, and they they are robust (i.e. not likely to snap when you 
try to escape). Concept2 style footplates should not be used in an 
unmodified form - please contact me if you would like further information.

In Michaelmas term each club submitted an annual safety statement, which 
explicitly stated that all of your boats were appropriately maintained. 
I'm disappointed to hear that this is not the case for a small number of 
clubs, and will be making individual contact with those concerned.

Regards,

Mark Jacobs
CUCBC Safety Advisor