It was another beautiful day at Redwood Shores, surprising some of the locals who had seen how windy it was all week. After Saturday's mild wind and calm waters few expected that conditions would actually improve for the final day of the Windermere Collegiate Crew Classic. This was certainly welcome by the participants, and the phrase I heard more than once from rowers was "This is the best regatta I've ever been to."

With fewer races today and many of the big matches already finished, the event had a slightly less hectic feel. Nevertheless the Navy vs Penn race was highly charged, coming down to a .7 sec margin and a confusion over which team had actually won (Navy). Other than this there was some excitement in the WV race between Cal and Virginia, which had several moments that looked as if Virginia was going to come back.

The Wisconsin MV8 also turned some heads with a very clean race against Stanford, moving well together to pull out the win.

Cal coach Steve Gladstone had this to say about the regatta: "The logistics and course are just perfect, with the hotel at the finish and the best dual racing course I've ever seen. We've had wonderful support from Windermere Realty and this is a wonderful opener"

Coaches and rowers alike were also quick to praise Stanford Coach Craig Amerkhanian for his work organizing the event. Coach Gladstone summed up the sentiment with "Hats off to Windermere, hats off to Craig."

Overall the talk of the weekend was the Stanford Women's V8, which impressed with 3 victories and the largest total margin, placing them first in the competition. Also winning all 3 WV8 races were USC and Cal. The focus of this weekend was to get west coast crews racing other teams from around the country, so we'll have to wait to see who comes out on top within the Pac 10. In any event it will be an exciting final at San Diego, especially with Washington coming down.

Rowing legend Lou Lindsey, present for the races and for a boat dedication in his name by Stanford, was pleased by the way the event turned out: "This was an unusually great opportunity to see the preseason conditioning of the competitors." This is certainly true, and it was clear in some races which teams had spent more time on the water training.

In the end it seemed that all involved were satisfied by this inaugural attempt at the largest collegiate preseason regatta. In light of the apparent success it's expected that efforts will be continued in future years.