A gathering effort to assign a formulaic time adjustment to early spring races account for climatological variations among rowing schools stalled last week when crews from areas that do not face serious winter conditions protested.
"Saying that four northeasters in three weeks is worth a length or whatever it is is ridiculous," a Sarasota rowing coach said. "They're not losing practices to Dickey Betts waving firearms around."
An Orlando coach voiced a similar dissent.
"Try training down here during breaks in the northern school calendars," she said. "During spring break, with all the planes coming down here, that is when they sneak in all the chem trails. And the New Jersey teachers convention weekend is even worse; even chem trails are better than Jersey kids renting paddleboats all over the place."
Northern crews that do two trips were have enjoyed lesser handicaps, an idea that also met resistance. A coach from the Mid-Atlantic region summed it up thusly: "I have only two words for you: Gasparilla. We got there the afternoon of the peak celebration, and we have the science to measure it and found that recovering from one day of that can cost you weeks of training. Good thing we had a lot of chocolate milk."