CAMDEN, NJ - The clouds over Cooper River in Camden, N.J., yesterday morning provided some much needed shade from the hot sun that had dominated for most of the week. It was perfect weather for the hundreds of rowers competing on the first day of the 2010 USRowing Masters National Championships.
"I'm loving this weather," said Pete Courtney, 42, who rows for Capitol Rowing Club, in Washington, D.C. "We've got good cloud cover and it will keep things cool.
"I'm just glad I'm not a race organizer."
Courtney could not have been more right. As he was getting ready to row in the first of his six events, chief referee Paul Phillips, was hovering over a laptop computer in a tent next to the finish line tower, watching various weather sites and trying to get a handle on the thunderstorms approaching New Jersey and Delaware.
Any sign of lightening and Phillips would have had to call an end to the racing and boat launching until the storms safely passed by. Putting the event behind schedule from the start would have meant big problems in a regatta that has 1,564 entries.
"We're launching 80 boats an hour and running [races four minutes apart.] That can be really stressful for the officials. We have races finishing with another race already started and on the course behind them.
"It's no big deal, really," said Phillips. "We'll just go right through the lunch break instead."
The weather, however, held off and the racing went on uninterrupted. There was a steady drizzle for most of the morning, but the thunderstorms passed to the south and missed the course. This year's racing began and ended without a hitch.
The afternoon saw the wind pick up and create some rough water near the start of the 1,000-meter course, but nothing stopped the event for the hundreds of people who have traveled from all across the country to do what they love to do.
People like Paul Fitzgerald, 35, of Hartford, Conn., who was getting ready to go to the line for the men's A single event yesterday morning. This is the second USRowing Masters National Championship for Fitzgerald, who is rowing for Riverfront Recapture, Inc.
Fitzgerald rowed here last year and took third. "I'm hoping to medal again this year," he said. "But we have some fast old timers out there right now."
Fitzgerald did make the final, but dropped from second to fourth in the last 40 meters. "It was disappointing," he said. "I just didn't row the sprint. It was a long race and I was just trying to survive and not hit a buoy and while I was doing that, those other two guys were bringing the rate up.
"It's the kind of race where you wish you could get right back out there and have a do-over."
However, like most of the competitors here, he came for both the racing and the atmosphere.
"It's a great course and it's well run," he said. "It's very organized and a lot of fun."
Racing yesterday consisted of morning heats, afternoon semifinals and 51 finals.
The competition continues today through Sunday and rowers like Mary Kay Falconer, 57, of Tallahassee, Fla., will get another chance to race.
Falconer, who has been rowing for the last 17 years, is the only rower from the Tallahassee Rowing Club who made the trip up this year. She rowed in the lightweight women's E single yesterday.
"I've been rowing pretty regularly, and I've gotten competent. I want to challenge myself and see if I can accomplish my goal of being in the final," Falconer said before her morning heat. She made the final, finished fifth, and is now looking forward to rowing her single in an open weight race today.
"I just wished the conditions were a little better. I think I could have kicked it up a little more," Falconer said. "With the waves, it scared me to death. But we ended up doing it and I finished upright and in my boat."