On 22nd May Lancaster held its annual regatta, hosted by Lancaster John O’Gaunt Rowing Club. Competing clubs included the host club, Lancaster Schools’ Rowing Association, Lancaster Royal Grammar School, Lancaster University Boat Club, Windermere Rowing Club, Trafford Rowing Club and Agecroft Rowing Club.
There has been a gradual decline in clubs travelling to local events within the region with many local regattas experiencing much reduced racing programmes. Other events have introduced round robin racing such as at Northwich where all crews race at least twice, even if there are only two crews in the event! In Lancaster we have come up with a unique system to counter reduced entries. This is to time trial all crews prior to the main side-by-side racing, to then get ranked accounting for boat type, gender and age. Crews are then batched into groups of 4 based on their rankings to race in semi-finals and then finals with the best crew from each batch of 4 winning a prize. All of the races are handicapped to account for the different classes of boats that race each other.
The format of racing that we have in Lancaster makes for more exciting racing than at other events as much of the racing comes down to the final 100m of racing. Competing crews set off at different times, based on their relative boat speeds, this means that a faster crew is only just catching or passing the leading crew at the finish line. Elsewhere, the best place to sit is usually at the 200m as this is the point at which the competing crews start to come off their starting piece and settle down to their race pace. From this point 80% of all races can be called.
By the end of the day’s racing joint honours for the Victor Ludorum where shared between Lancaster Royal Grammar School and Trafford. Other winning crews:
- Small Boat Division A: Lancaster Royal Grammar School Male J15 1x
- Small Boat Division B: Agecroft Female J14 1x
- Small Boat Division C: Trafford Female J13 2x
- Small Boat Division D: Agecroft Female 1x
- Small Boat Division E: Agecroft Female J13 1x
- Small Boat Division F: John O’Gaunt Female Masters F 1x
- Big Boat Division A: Trafford Female J14 4x+
- Big Boat Division B: Lancaster Univeristy Male 4+
- Big Boat Division C: Lancaster Royal Grammar School Male J15 4x+
Full Results can be found here.
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