[CUCBC Captains] Response to safety concerns regarding evening rowing

[Isabel Nimmo]

Dear Gareth,

Your e-mail regarding evening hours and coxing safety was passed to me as
the relevant committee coxing bod. I'm copying in all captains since you
are representing a number of them and we would prefer to keep everyone in
the loop.

As the coxing rep, I'm afraid I reject your premise that this is a safety
matter and therefore think this is not something CUCBC should be imposing a
solution on.

Any cox who is unable to navigate the reach safely in the presence of small
boats or novice coxes has no business coxing a senior crew with ambitions
to do rate work. *At any time.*

Further, CUCBC evening hours only apply to college crews in any year. We
have neither the power nor the desire to dictate to CRA clubs as to who
they may boat and when. Therefore as a practical matter, college crews have
always encountered significant numbers of town small boats, town novice
crews and town crews who are moving slowly while doing tech work. Their own
work schedules usually precludes them moving all training to the mornings
to accommodate college crews. If you lack any cox capable of safely
navigating the river under those circumstances then I'm afraid I can only
suggest investing time in cox training and spending more time in small
boats yourself. I'm happy to discuss cox training with your cox captain if
that would be helpful.

If, on the other hand, this is not a safety matter, but rather a desire to
maximise the training opportunities for a specific group of senior VIII+s
then that is something which Captains can reasonably discuss and vote upon.
I would note that it will involve a significant trade off in the ability of
crews to train for equally prestigious small boat and IV+ events, as well
as compromising the ability of many clubs to maximise training for novices
and the consequences for the 2021-22 standards of college rowing. I would
further note that senior crews looking to do rate work on quieter stretches
of water still have the option of training over the lock. But if this is in
fact not actually a safety issue then I don't see a problem with captains
expressing themselves as peers and coming to a decision which the executive
committee will be happy to implement for you all.

Isabel Nimmo,
CUCBC Coxing

From: <magdalene.men at cucbc.org>
> Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2021 at 13:52
> Subject: RE: [CUCBC Captains] Updated minutes.
> To: Limeng Zhu <limeng at cucbc.org>, Conor Burgess <conor at cucbc.org>
>
>
> To update you on recent discussion between captains, there is particular
> concern from boats at the top end of the men’s division (voiced notably by
> Pembroke, Emma and myself) that a men’s VIII tearing down the reach does
> not mix well in terms of safety with small boats and other VIIIs which will
> be coxed by novices. No captains from the women’s side yet voiced their
> view, but I should hope that it would be similar. The evening hours are
> there for a smooth flow of VIIIs to appropriately practise race pace. There
> is ample opportunity during mornings for small boats to train. I am very
> appreciative that you suggested having a poll to decipher the
> interpretation of the recent vote when the regatta proposals are released,
> but the vote’s intention was first to decide whether novices should be
> allowed on the river and secondly to decided whether men’s and women’s
> hours should be mixed. The vote was not to open the
>
>
>
> I will certainly be monitoring and asking for feedback in terms of safety
> from other captains. If the river is seen to be swiftly filling with small
> boats in the evening when term starts, it will no longer be productive to
> train in an VIII without endangering others, which will not aid the
> standard of rowing on the Cam or the planned end-of-term regatta.
>


> Thank you both again for your efforts.
>
>
>
> Gareth
>
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