We endeavor to get things right the first time. Usually that's routine, but sometimes we can be as clueless as scholastic rowers.

I was following the third heat of the Men's Intermediate pair (2-) at the 2017 USRowing Club National championships at Harsha Lake on the outskirts of Cincinnati, Ohio. The Midwest region does not have the event volume typical of the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, or Southeast, and the large Summer events like Clubs can frequently be dependent on local Referees who may "not get out much" and travel to other regions to gain experience. Which circumstances can lead to working with local officials of whom it may be said, The Force is Not Strong in This One.

My partner in the pairs race was a local, let's call him Ron. It was a seven-boat race, and I was stationed on the left side of the course, Ron on the right. Approximately 100 meters from the finish line, the pair in lane 3 took a sharp turn to port and collided with the pair in lane 4; clear interference in my view. The crews proceeded to extract themselves and crossed the line in third place and fourth place; had there been no interference one of them might have finished second-the progression was two to advance.

I expected Ron to take steps to restore fairness by excluding Lane 3-but he looked briefly, paused, and raised the white flag to declare the race official. He then executed a wide swing to port in front of me and headed back up to the Start.

No! No, no, no, noooooooo!. What to do first? I raised my red flag as I passed the finish judges and radioed them to hold the results. I chased down Lane 3 and informed them that they had interfered, and I was excluding them. I told Lane 4 of my decision as well. Neither crew had any appeal from my decision; I returned to the finish line and raised my red flag followed by the white flag, to indicate I had taken action to restore fairness, and explained what had happened. Then I went to find Ron.

I found him moseying back to the Start, and I had him stop so I could give him a good talking to. He indeed had had limited-probably no-experience in restoring fairness. Our on-water colloquy was brief, but we had several extended sessions on shore during lunch and breaks. He asked many questions, and I was happy to answer-part of the role of a Clinician-Examiner, one on one coaching. He was very appreciative of our sessions, and he asked other questions via email after the regatta.

The Lane 4 crew that was interfered with won a re-row with another crew from a different pairs heat that was also interfered with and made its way to the Final. We don't have a special brand of karma, but sometimes these things have a way of working out.

Ron is probably a better Referee now than he was then-at least I hope so. As someone once said, "Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement."