Oh Dear! Rowers again...

No Regrets

No Regrets

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So there we were, moored up on Friday night in Windsor, just outside Cafe Barry, all nice and quiet like, when I heard the sound of a small but strained outboard, followed by a lot of creaking, rolling and smashing up against the moorings.

A quick peek from betwixt the blinds showed me the arse end of one of those long but narrow Rowers coach boats hammering past, sadly too fast to throw anything heavy at, as he was going so fast.

The next evening, now moored on the island near the Asian Barbeque area, and accompanied by a couple of Bray boats, we were enjoying the last of the summer sun, when yet another one came past, followed by another, and another....

In most cases, there were no rowers involved, nor was there a race, so we primed our cameras and waited...

Sure enough, a steady stream of the little blue perils came hammering past, so we got a fair few piccies, and some nice video footage of the wanton scum driving these hateful little things past us, and in fact shouted at them (There were now no less than eight of us involved in this amazing display of recklessness) to slow down.

We managed to get a couple of little Tarquins to pull over, and explained there was a 5mph limit in force, and there had been many occurrences of speeding, mostly only five feet away from our moored vessels, causing us potential damage and discomfort over and on top of the already law-touting manners.

In fairness to the Public schoolboy types, they were polite to a fault, and said they would go back to base to inform the people in charge of this fact.

Nevertheless, at least five more times saw the same thing happening, and the worst offender was a fifty year old man who must have been doing over 10mph at least, which was quite shocking considering I could have actually swiped him with a standard length boathook he was so close!

There were cruisers and barges moored nose to tail on both sides, so there was really no excuse.

The EA hotline has been used by at least three different boats Skippers, and I'm going to follow this one to the death, i'm so angry.

It really goes to show what a total shower most of these rowers are, and really does tempt me to sink a few of these hateful little scum next time I'm in Windsor....

:D
 
There seems to be so many differing boaty type people and none like eachother.........very strange breed, indeed.:D
 
'In most cases, there were no rowers involved, nor was there a race, so we primed our cameras and waited...'

So in truth it is the inconsiderate coaches in their rowing cats that you're complaining about.

As a considerate river user, of many kinds including rowing, I find your thread title inappropriate in this instance. :(
 
Most of them were driven by young lads who were Rowers taking them for joyrides, and the rest were driven by the people responsible for ensuring the behaviour of said rowers. :eek:

Now if you don't like that, you know exactly what you can do don't you? :rolleyes:

I was very very specific about the factual content of my thread, and it's down to the people who read it to decipher it as they want to. My opinion of rowing clubs and the idiots who inhabit them is at an all time low at the moment, so please don't start bleating...:mad:

The problem is, that apart from you, the whole rowing fraternity appear to be a total bunch of ne'er do wells who do not practise what they preach.

Trust me, what I wrote was a fraction of the remainder of the utter rubbish we had to watch:

1/ Rowers stopping dead in front of motorised vessels who had to take severe evasive action to stop in time.

2/ Rowers undertaking, when it was quite clear the vessels in question were attempting to moor up!!

3/ Rowers colliding with other rowers...cretins...

4/ Rowers smashing their oars into moored boats.

5/ Rowers using the wrong side of the river for no reason whatsoever.

Something has to be done about this...:confused:
 
Well done lets hope action is taken, we have had to shout many times at them ourselves when moored on the Brocas!

French Brothers next!

Chill
 
OK, you appear to have raised a number of valid points.

Please remember that all newbies have to learn and practise on the river, with its unpredictable eddies and currents.

In your situation, you would probably be most effective by looking at the club markings, (from your photos) and make a complaint, with photos, to the club. An appropriate telling off would usually ensue in the better clubs.

My crew call me the Peacemaker, I often wondered why! ;)
 
Did you make a note of the club code, or can you read them in your photos?

3 Letters followed by 3 digits uniquely identify every club and boat, should be clearly displayed on both sides of the boat, and you can check which club on the Thames HERE

As SnowCat says, the most effective route for complaints will probably be directly to the club(s) involved quoting the date. time and ID code for the offending boat(s).

At the recent RUG 8 meeting we were told by senior EA management that, wherever possible, the EA expect river users to assist each other by endeavouring to resolve these issues through the River User Groups (RUG's). The Windsor stretch is RUG 7 which covers Boulters to Bell Weir which has a representative from Bray CC and I also attend as TMBA.
 
Last edited:
SnowCat said:
OK, you appear to have raised a number of valid points.

Please remember that all newbies have to learn and practise on the river, with its unpredictable eddies and currents.

In your situation, you would probably be most effective by looking at the club markings, (from your photos) and make a complaint, with photos, to the club. An appropriate telling off would usually ensue in the better clubs.

My crew call me the Peacemaker, I often wondered why! ;)
Click to expand...

The trouble is M, I tried talking to the guys! Half of them stopped, listened, and then went on to do it again, the other half waved abuse and carried on :(

You know I always treat Rowers with respect on the river (In case I run one of yours over :D) but this was a baaaad weekend!

Darren and Paul L were watching too ;)
 
"little blue perils "

Can you post one of your pictures of the offenders here? I don't know what sort of motor boat the rowing, (associated), people use so struggle to quantify your complaint.


Thanks.
 
SnowCat said:
Obviously, not keen readers! ;)

Getting warm. Not sure that I have any piccies of the boathouse, and
I'm sure that it was up for sale last time I went through....
Click to expand...


As a sixteen year old I used to ride my Yamaha DT50MX over that bridge and acclerate past the occasional moaning copper!

But I do my boating on a more select part of the river. What are these dreadful blue boats all about? The ones that upset the big motor boats?
 
SnowCat said:
OK, you appear to have raised a number of valid points.

Please remember that all newbies have to learn and practise on the river, with its unpredictable eddies and currents.

In your situation, you would probably be most effective by looking at the club markings, (from your photos) and make a complaint, with photos, to the club. An appropriate telling off would usually ensue in the better clubs.

My crew call me the Peacemaker, I often wondered why! ;)
Click to expand...

Hmmm- interesting points - Do rowers get taught about the rules of the road? I'm not trying to be clever, its a genuine question that my years of observation of the sport still leaves me up unclear on.

CJL
 
CJL said:
Hmmm- interesting points - Do rowers get taught about the rules of the road? I'm not trying to be clever, its a genuine question that my years of observation of the sport still leaves me up unclear on.

CJL
Click to expand...

Based on going out with a female rower (some years ago, not now)
No
 
CJL said:
Hmmm- interesting points - Do rowers get taught about the rules of the road? I'm not trying to be clever, its a genuine question that my years of observation of the sport still leaves me up unclear on.

CJL
Click to expand...

When one of my sons started rowing all he was told was to ignore other boats and stay on the right. He was told he had right of way. :rolleyes:
 
I am not sure whether most are told much. However, Rebellion and I have undertaken many water-based training courses on a wide variety of crafts and so, yes we do.

All of our rowers receive the benefits of our knowledge, whether they wanted it or not! Tee hee!:D
 
The lads said they were from Rafts boathouse, which is an Eton college place as far as I know, and the blazers were the same as Etons rowing blazers.

Boats name was John Cork II I think, something very much or exactly like that...

These were the pencil thin things with two seats in tandem, and an outboard mounted two thirds of the way down the hull. Colour White topsides, pale blue hull...;)
 
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