[CUCBC Coxes] Fairbairn Cup 2015 - Pre-paddling in the morning on the days of the Fairbairn Cup (continued.)

[B. Gallant, Fairbairn Cup Secretary 2015]

Dear all,

Sincere apologies for having to contact you all once again.

This email is concerning the section of my previous email setting out 
the rules regarding pre-paddling for the Fairbairn Cup on Thursday 3rd 
and Friday 4th December. I feel I owe you all an explanation for the 
barage of emails regarding this and so I have set this out below, 
however I'm sure most of you will not be interested and so, to cut to 
the chase;

**We are going to have to revert to the interpretation of the rules 
regarding pre-paddling as enforced in previous years, which means, any 
crew may boat in the mornings on thursday and friday at any time, so 
long as they are within the CUCBC rules, etc., before 8:45am**

The busy and/or disinterested please stop reading here!

The following is an explanation of why you have been receiving 
contradictory emails about this!
The reason I originally wished to rule out all pre-paddles was as 
follows:
I actually believe it is fairer not to allow any pre-paddles. Having a 
pre-paddle is a benefit (especially for crews in the first division of 
the day!), so if only certain crews were able to have one and others not 
then that would be unfair. This is the case for many crews as a direct 
result of the two boat rule. Particularly for larger colleges with 
multiple crews it is inevitably the case that some crews will not be 
able to have a pre-paddle whereas a direct competitor from a smaller 
college would be able to, simply because they have fewer boats entered. 
This would be unfair in my eyes. Further, with crews in a single 
category competing across a range of divisions, again some might be 
allowed a pre-paddle ahead of others based on their division, which is 
arbitrary in terms of the results. This was the premise upon which I 
based my original stance.

However. I foolishly partially conceded to the position set out in the 
email previous to this one, under request, but thus (unintentionally) 
ruined the logic set out above regarding negating the impact of the two 
boat rule. Furthermore, the CUCBC committee have quite rightly taken 
umbrage at my enforcing Fairbairns rules outside of the times of the 
regatta (although I'd note there is no reason in the rules why entrants 
cannot be asked to behave in a certain fashion outside of the racing 
times, in the interest of fairness or any other reason) and, in light of 
the original benefit of the rule change being ruined, it is obvious that 
the best course of action is to return to the original interpretation of 
the rules.

Once again, I must take full responsibility for this and I am very sorry 
for all the inconvenience I have caused you all.
I hope everyone is looking forward to taking part in the regatta on 
thursday and friday! Please continue to send me requests r.e. the start 
order - I will continue to do my best to accommodate them! Happy 
paddling!

Best wishes,
Ben Gallant

Fairbairn Cup Secretary 2015


On 2015-11-29 16:13, B. Gallant, Fairbairn Cup Secretary 2015 wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> START ORDER:
> Due to a general wish to give you all more time to peruse this and
> ensure everything is as you would want it (I've had a lot of requests,
> almost all of which I was happy to accommodate, but I'm sure I will
> have forgotten one or two so please check - Sorry in advance!) I've
> put together a provisional start order a couple of days earlier than I
> promised. It can be found here:
> 
> http://jcbc.jesus.cam.ac.uk/old/fairbairns/start_order.php
> 
> As already mentioned, please please have a good look over this and
> check that all your crews are where you expected. If you let me know
> over the next couple of days I've made a silly mistake I'll happily
> change it. If you let me know on the morning of the regatta I won't,
> sorry.
> 
> PAYMENTS:
> As this list is published before I originally promised, I have
> generously included on it one or two crews who I've still to receive
> payment from... You probably know who you are and there's probably a
> good reason why you haven't paid, but I haven't heard it, so please
> either pay immediately or let me know why immediately, thank you.
> 
> PRE-PADDLING:
> Now, this has become something of a contentious issue... I have told
> several people who have contacted me that they may not pre-paddle on
> the morning of either day of the regatta (not even seniors on novice
> day), as this is clearly set out in the rules and regs. However. After
> an animated discussion with my own men's captain this morning, I have
> decided to partially waive this rule for this year only. To be clear:
> 
> ***Having short outings (pre-paddles) the morning of the regatta day
> upon which you are due to race (i.e. no seniors on novice day, please,
> as the novices will be out), so long as you are back at your boathouse
> by 08:30am at the latest, will now be allowed and will not lead to
> disqualification. Please bear in mind, however, that both the hours of
> darkness and the two boat rules are still in effect. Any crews found
> downstream of the combined boathouses (Cantabs excluded) later than
> 08:30am will be subject to the same rules as usual.***
> 
> If anybody has any queries regarding any of this, please just let me
> know! Although I'd gently request you to check on the website to see
> if the information you require is on there (the 'News' section is a
> good place to look!) before you contact me, please.
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Ben Gallant
> 
> JCBC Fairbairn Cup Secretary 2015