My brother-in-law, Scott Humphrey, rows for Pelham Community Rowing Association (PCRA); Mimi and Scott and their four children live in the house Mimi and I and our siblings grew up in, in Pelham, New York. With his PCRA compatriots Scott has rowed in the Head of the Charles more than a few times in a 4+. Any time he has rowed, I've been an Umpire on the scene.

Conflict of interest? Well, no. It used to be that there was a custom for a Referee not to follow a race in which a club they were affiliated with was racing. Similarly, when their relative-son, daughter, parent (it happens)-was racing. But with the growth of the Referee Corps from parent volunteers this custom became harder to enforce strictly. The current guidance from Internal Operating Procedures 26 says:

The presence of a crew from a rowing club or school with which a Referee has an affiliation does not preclude such Referee from officiating that race. Such Referee should use good judgement to avoid the appearance of partiality. If practicable, USRowing Referees should not be put in positions where they must exercise judgement involving crews in which close family members are participating.

For the HOCR, this guidance proves impractical, and to many people "brother-in-law" isn't considered "close family."

In 2017 I was the Lead Umpire at Cambridge Boat Club on Saturday when Scott and his crew rowed by, making the tight turn to port to head under the Elliot Bridge. They were close to another crew behind them and they were a bit slower and not yielding. For any potential situation emerging in the Station's area of responsibility, there's one or more sets of Umpire eyes taking note. To me it appeared that Scott's crew was guilty of a Non-Yield penalty but I let the other Umpires weigh in about what they saw and what we should do about it. The consensus was to assign a penalty, to which I added my concurrence-60 second penalty.

'Did I feel bad? Well, sorta.' PCRA looking to make up two minutes in the last 800m in 2017

Did I feel bad? Well, sorta. But there's piece of "Plebe Poop" (mandatory memorized knowledge) from West Point that has stuck with me, lo these many years: But an officer on duty knows no one-to be partial dishonors both himself and the object of his ill-advised favor. Which is how I would revise IOP 26 if I had the opportunity; it never crossed my mind to give Scott's crew a pass.

But if I had felt bad it turns out it would have been unnecessary; further downstream Scott's PCRA crew collided and interfered with two other crews and the contretemps was photographed by the mother of a coxswain in one of the crews "aggrieved" by Scott's boat. The Lead Umpire that day on the upstream side of Anderson Bridge assessed the PCRA crew a 60 second penalty for Severe Collision.

(You can see the full collision sequence here.)

I hadn't realized until I caught up with Scott later that night that the penalty we doled out at CBC was not the sole cause of his angst; the penalty previously imposed essentially knocked them down from 26th place to 33rd, and the brother-in-law penalty knocked them down further to 38th place. More importantly the second penalty knocked them out of the time range off the winning time guaranteeing an invitation to next year's event. PCRA had borrowed a coxswain who appeared to know what she was doing but who obviously had some further skills to acquire.

Scott and I are on good terms, and we can laugh about this. Given the inside knowledge he's acquired about Umpiring operations, last year he had me draw up a fake penalty form to show to his NYAC buddies that evening putting their crew out of contention in the same event.

But whenever we discuss rowing Scott always wants to know, "When can I get my two minutes back?"