For two months now, Huggy and Henry have tried to tame the beast that is the Empacher. They have different approaches. Huggy thinks they have been found out. The Roger Mobbs was a docile boat that hid their flaws, and it's age has loosened it up a bit that gives the oarsman quite a bit of slack. "No Excuses" conversely takes no prisoners, it's totally rigid, allowing you to get more return on your stroke, but at a price - it's hard work! It's also harder to balance, bladework has to be precise, timing - perfect. Huggy is forever complaining it is down on strokeside due to Henry's lazy hands.
And it refuses to turn - Empachers are built to go straight. The two H's have not had the time to replace the fin with a smaller one, so getting round the sewage works bend now requires a high rating 20 stroke firm pressure push on one side, and even then it doesn't hug the corner. Worse, despite all this extra effort, the boat slows down! The boat is fitted with one of these propellors on the hull which measures boat speed. In a straight line they get around 7.5 metres per second, round bends it drops to 6.5.
Henry just thinks he needs a bigger, stronger partner, who is a better steersman...
The glory of the Masters Championships seems a long, long time ago.
And then there is the recent dominance of the Vet Fs (Robin Chapman and Tony Marshall). You see it goes like this: in the days before both crews upgraded their boats, the Vet D's would come in even when giving the Vet F's a 40 second headstart over the SBH course - that is pretty much equivalent to the age handicap. Then Tony fixed his iron lung, pacemaker, or whatever it is, they bought themselves a Stampfli and BANG, the difference suddenly became 25 seconds. Enter the Empacher and the difference became 20 seconds as the 2 H's struggled to cope with it.
2 months later, neutral third parties confirmed that the boat does indeed drop to strokeside. Very reluctantly, Henry worked a deal: he would try to keep his hands together coming forward, but only if Huggy threw away the "rabid nonsense" that is British Rowing Technique and they re-adopt the good old 'long and strong' philosophy of rowing as in their Curlew days.
Things have started to improve. It doesn't look pretty, but the Empacher is slowly being tamed and the gap with the Vet F's has started to improve, 25 seconds, 30 seconds... and so to the Autumn SBH race. The windy conditions certainly favoured the heavier crew, and Huggy steered his first decent course in weeks. Both crews won their respective events: the Vet F2x ran in with a creditable 11.16 min, and the Vet Ds... 10.32 - that's... 44 seconds faster. Oh yes my son, the boys are back in town.
Or are they?
One final tweak. Henry has at long last got a bigger, stronger steersman... himself. Unfortunately it means that the smaller, weaker partner is stroking it. Heh, heh. Early days, but some positive signs: Henry's levers are turning the boat better from the bow seat, and Huggy is finally getting maximum power on, as the strokeside dip is less prevalent.
So to the Pairs Head this coming Saturday. 479 boats. 4 k. Will Huggy maintain a decent rating? Will Henry steer a decent course? We shall see. They and our other crews will be pitting themselves against some of the best in the country.
Also going are Robin and Tony as Vet Fs, James and Mark T as a Vet B 2x, and Hugh and Charlie in an IM2 2-.
Let's pray for calm winds.
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