| At sea. Atlantic Rowing Race: Team C2 asks why is support yacht Sula heading north? |
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| Friday, 13 January 2006 | |
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Helena Smalman-Smith: Some supporters have asked why support yacht Sula has headed due North out of Antigua when the fleet is due East. I suspect the reason is that it's quite hard to sail straight into the wind and get anywhere, so by going North and effectively doing 2 sides of a triangle they'll be able to sidle up on the wind and hope it doesn't notice them coming and sneak back out to the fleet. But this could be totally wrong. Chris Andrews Rewards Chins, demands Hard Crew Sins, engages in Wars inc Herds and would like to Rid Ass Wrench. Clint Evans, on the other hand, Can't Snivel and has an Anvil Scent. Both hope that their destination, English Harbour, Antigua is more than an Inarguable Orangish Hut. Ornithology Update: those fantastic chaps at the RSPB Wildlife Identification Unit for working out that the pterodactyl-like creature the boys reported flying around yesterday was not the product of diseased imaginations but probably an example of the Magnificent Frigatebird, which could now possibly also be known as the Magnificent Oceanrowingboatbird. Messers Cracknell & Fogle are a touch younger than C2. It seems that both James and Ben would qualify for the youngest category, Veteran A, in ARA Veteran rowing events, while Chris and Clint are a couple of years into Veteran C territory. There is an established handicapping system which allows veteran crews of different ages to compete against each other, which basically compensates for loss of strength and flexibility with age. You should have seen the Vet I singles at the most recent World Masters' Regattas.... but I digress. The size of the handicap depends on the length of the race, obviously, so over a 1'30" or 500 metre sprint in river boats, the Vet C crew would get a 4 second head start over the Vet A one (leaving aside, for the sake of argument, the wise advice meted out by the Veteran Rowing Commission that handicap races should only involve crews in adjacent age categories), while over a 20 minute head race, the A crew would have to be more than 42 seconds faster to win. Multiplying this up, the handicap is 50 mins 24 sec per day, or 1.75 days over a 50 day race that an A crew would have to beat a B crew by to be constituted as having won. So C2 might just have them yet on a technicality! C2 is crewed by Chris Andrews and Clint Evans from Kent UK http://www.rowatlantic.org.uk/ Event website http://www.atlanticrowingrace.co.uk |
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 13 January 2006 ) |
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