Time Honored
The other day we were preparing for the Covered Bridge Regatta. The varsity squads had pulled down several boats and quickly de-rigged them to help ease the crunch for the following day. When they'd finished, I had them help me pull out my eight and set it up so I could take care of it the following afternoon but instead they attacked it and got it striped down in under 5 minutes.
While I was impressed by their speed and thoroughness I was somewhat disappointed. One of my favorite things to do is to come down to the boat house early and de-rig. It's time consuming to do it on my own but it's sort of my own personal time and space with the equipment. It also allows me to spend time checking over the equipment, replacing as needed, adding as needed - we are notorious for misplacing lock washers, nuts and washers - and cleaning as needed. I check tracks, foot stretchers, the coxswain seat, back stays or back braces, etc. I don't mind having help but again, it's one of the simple pleasures in life - in my opinion - spending 45 minutes going over a boat with a fine toothed comb.
I bring this up not because of the regatta but because last night after a discussion with the rest of the coaching staff and the board president and treasurer, I ended up with a "new" eight; new in the sense that it's new to the novice men. The novice men's boat has been slowly falling apart and recently that deterioration has picked up speed.
A list of what the novice eight needs:
* 16 nylon foot stretcher end plugs
* 7 new size 15 shoes (one set replaced last year)
* 6 pairs of tracks (34" to replace the 31.5")
* 8 pairs of bracing under each track
* 8 new back stays/back braces - hardware included
* 8 new oar locks or oar lock gates
It doesn't sound like a lot but that's about $1000 dollars right there to get the boat back up to speed. We don't have $1000 dollars lying around - if we did, we wouldn't need to repair the boat - and because there's so much that needs to happen to make this boat both race worthy AND more importantly, safe for athletes to use, it's more economical right now to move to a better boat that's not being used. So we are. We're taking over the varsity women's Empacher because they've been going out primarily in small boats - fours, quads, doubles, singles - and won't be racing an eight any time soon.
I'm apprehensive about taking over the Empacher. On one hand we have a beautiful new boat that's lighter and a better fit for my guys - the Vespoli we were using is built for guys over 200 lbs and we top out at 180. On the other hand, I've been told that Empachers are notorious for needing constant maintenance - no big deal - and that bad strokes can really torque around your settings - bigger deal. Add to that the fact that I have zero experience working with Empacher settings and it's going to be quite the learning curve over the next two weeks.
The idiosyncrasies aside I'm very excited to take hold of this boat. I often say that it's not the chariot but the horses but in this case, the chariot was just a little too big and heavy for these horses and the Empacher really does make a lot more sense and will allow us to better apply our power. Even if the boat itself doesn't change our speed, the boost that the guys will get mentally might very well make the difference. Confidence in your equipment and a strong belief that it will carry you the rest of the way can do wonders.
While I was impressed by their speed and thoroughness I was somewhat disappointed. One of my favorite things to do is to come down to the boat house early and de-rig. It's time consuming to do it on my own but it's sort of my own personal time and space with the equipment. It also allows me to spend time checking over the equipment, replacing as needed, adding as needed - we are notorious for misplacing lock washers, nuts and washers - and cleaning as needed. I check tracks, foot stretchers, the coxswain seat, back stays or back braces, etc. I don't mind having help but again, it's one of the simple pleasures in life - in my opinion - spending 45 minutes going over a boat with a fine toothed comb.
I bring this up not because of the regatta but because last night after a discussion with the rest of the coaching staff and the board president and treasurer, I ended up with a "new" eight; new in the sense that it's new to the novice men. The novice men's boat has been slowly falling apart and recently that deterioration has picked up speed.
A list of what the novice eight needs:
* 16 nylon foot stretcher end plugs
* 7 new size 15 shoes (one set replaced last year)
* 6 pairs of tracks (34" to replace the 31.5")
* 8 pairs of bracing under each track
* 8 new back stays/back braces - hardware included
* 8 new oar locks or oar lock gates
It doesn't sound like a lot but that's about $1000 dollars right there to get the boat back up to speed. We don't have $1000 dollars lying around - if we did, we wouldn't need to repair the boat - and because there's so much that needs to happen to make this boat both race worthy AND more importantly, safe for athletes to use, it's more economical right now to move to a better boat that's not being used. So we are. We're taking over the varsity women's Empacher because they've been going out primarily in small boats - fours, quads, doubles, singles - and won't be racing an eight any time soon.
I'm apprehensive about taking over the Empacher. On one hand we have a beautiful new boat that's lighter and a better fit for my guys - the Vespoli we were using is built for guys over 200 lbs and we top out at 180. On the other hand, I've been told that Empachers are notorious for needing constant maintenance - no big deal - and that bad strokes can really torque around your settings - bigger deal. Add to that the fact that I have zero experience working with Empacher settings and it's going to be quite the learning curve over the next two weeks.
The idiosyncrasies aside I'm very excited to take hold of this boat. I often say that it's not the chariot but the horses but in this case, the chariot was just a little too big and heavy for these horses and the Empacher really does make a lot more sense and will allow us to better apply our power. Even if the boat itself doesn't change our speed, the boost that the guys will get mentally might very well make the difference. Confidence in your equipment and a strong belief that it will carry you the rest of the way can do wonders.
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