MIRC put in 5 crews at the first race of the year, a friendly 3 mile invitation hosted by Medway Towns Rowing Club. Gravesend also fielded some crews, bring a total field to 14 boats.
While the thermometer read 2C, it felt like -10C as the crews put the boats together in the bitterly cold wind.
The water looked reasonably behaved despite the wind, and we set off fairly confident that conditions would be kind. However, just after we crossed under the M2, we found ourselves in a fair bit of chop... a surprising and novel experience for many of our novice rowers!
However, once the race got underway and we headed back into the wind, we felt the full impact of wind over tide conditions, and the water which seemed Amber at worst at the beginning of the outing rapidly became flaming Red as the waves crashed onto the side of the boats and into them.
I was in the Vet D 8+, and we kicked off at a good pace. We seemed to handle the choppiness reasonably well (I presume a combination of our extra years and our extra girth helped us sit it better). We were encouraged by coming up to the Medway Town's IM4 8+ very quickly (I think this is the crew composed mainly of boys from the Maths School in Rochester who did very well last season rowing at Novice). As we overtook them we took the full force of the inclement conditions, effectively shielding the boys from the worst of it! I think it took us a full minute to get past them. Once past, we stormed on and were very pleased with our row.
The Novice Vet 8+ had a hard time of it, and I could see them falling back through the field, and being overtaken by a couple of quads. They tell me they were actually rammed to a stop by a MTRC quad and took the best part of a minute to get going again. A tough introduction to 2011. They came off with smiles on their faces having clearly enjoyed the experience. I suspect they won't encounter conditions like that at a formal race.
The Vet E 4x had an interesting one. Slightly overboated, they were fine and dry going to the start, but the wind over tide did for them, and they would have sunk if it wasn't for the Morpheus' buoyancy compartments. Astoundingly, they rowed on (despite the last rat having vacated the ship, and the band having packed up their instruments) and they crossed the finish line heavily swamped but afloat and 8th overall. Brave boys.
I can't report fully on the Senior boats; an IM3 8+ and the Novice 4x, though I did see the quad cross the line, very fast and seemingly full of beans. Our lads came in 1st and 2nd respectively, and with the Vet D 8+ a few seconds behind in third, we had a successful, and strangely enjoyable start to the season.
RESULTS of the JANUARY 30TH MEDWAY HEAD INVITATIONAL
CREW POS TIME
MAIDSTONE 1M3 8+ 1 19.05
MAIDSTONE NOV 4X 2 19.15
MAIDSTONE VET D 8+ 3 19. 23
GRAVESEND VET B 2X 4 20.15
MEDWAY IM4 8+ 5 20. 36
MEDWAY MXD VET 4X 6 21. 32
MAIDSTONE VET NOV 8+ 7 22. 17
MAIDSTONE VET E 4X 8 22. 48
MEDWAY M VET 4+ 9 23. 03
GRAVESEND W 4+ 10 23. 36
MEDWAY MIX 4X 11 24. 11
GRAVESEND VET 4- 12 25. 13
GRAVESEND MIX 4+ 13 26. 10
MEDWAY W 4+ 14 27. 25
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