Cambridge, MA - For the 46th running of the Head of the Charles Regatta, event organizers are instituting a number of changes in order to shorten the long day of racing. In 2009, the Saturday events ran from 7:45AM until 6:15PM (well after civil twilight). Regatta officials conducted a thorough review of the 2009 races and instituted the following changes for 2010, all of which are intended to optimize the racing schedule and remove much of the social 'idle time' OTW between race events.
Change 1. All races will be reverse-seeded and the starting gap interval between boats will be reduced to under one length. The Directors' decision to seed the slowest crews first and the fastest crews last will reduce racing time by up to 4.5 minutes per sweep event-division. When reviewing a race schedule of more than a dozen sweep events each day the end-of-racing is estimated to be very close to 5:22pm on Saturday and 4:43pm on Sunday. Anticipating numerous passing situations, Regatta Officials remind competitors that despite the elimination of the Aggressive Pass Penalty, no oar should be used in anger.
Change 2. Qualification times required. All applicants for non-guaranteed entries will be required to submit 2k erg scores for all athletes (with the exception of the Alumni 8). These will be analyzed and used to generate a 'fast field' profile for each race division. In addition to erg score, other criteria (as developed by the Harvard School of Public Health) required is: average shoe size, arm span, and muscle/fat ratio. All first place finishers from the 2010 Dad Vail in Dubai are also guaranteed entry to the event-division of their choice.
Change 3. The Alumni Eight will be scheduled prior to the Ernestine Bayer Race on Sunday morning as data proves that these hulls require the most time launching/landing and navigating the course. Regatta Officials declined to comment whether quality of rowing factored into the decision to move the popular event-division to an hour with minimal visibility but noted that the spectator experience won't be diminished by the inability to actually view bodies or bladework. The early hour is optimal as participants will likely still be awake and fully fueled from the previous night's alumni activities. Alumni are advised that Reunion Village tents are not meant for "camping."
Event organizers are confident that these efforts will be quickly mimicked by other Head races throughout North & South America.
Please submit all comments and feedback to HOCR intern, Katherine Broderick: [email protected].
Comments | Log in to comment |
There are no Comments yet
|