River Closures

jaws said:
By this time I was thinking it was me that was in the wrong and I had got the times wrong. An approaching EA boat then allayed my fears by giving me a friendly wave as I went past Surbiton.
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I think I would have been inclined to call the EA launch over and report my concerns re the abuse received. That should have resulted in the complaint being logged and reported. Will be interesting to hear what response you get from Reading.

I had issues last year with abuse from bike riding coaches. Unfortunately no EA presence so difficult to do anything other than complain after the event.
 
boatone said:
I think I would have been inclined to call the EA launch over and report my concerns re the abuse received. That should have resulted in the complaint being logged and reported. Will be interesting to hear what response you get from Reading.

I had issues last year with abuse from bike riding coaches. Unfortunately no EA presence so difficult to do anything other than complain after the event.
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I thought about it but there was a lot of traffic coming down stream by this time and I had guests that wanted to get to the pub!
 
LOL.. Mr Ramage Jr. (Rebellion) was a bike riding shouting coach on Saturday. I know he did not shout at Jaws .... he would be more likely to try to cadge a drink!! (A true BCC member).:D
 
Actually Rebellion was silently filming crews, since any shouting would have spoiled his filming.

Meanwhile, I was capturing photos of a variety of river craft using the river quite legitimately prior to its 10.30am closure, eg dragonboats, kayaks, narrowboats, 1 or 2 motorboats, and over 150 rowing boats rowing steadily up to the start at Hampton Court, (to be joined by the 20-30 rowing down through the lock from Molesey and Hampton).

It is really rather disappointing to find that the only problems appeared to come from a small motorboat/ speedboat that whilst illegally using the 'closed' river nearly took out a rowing eight full of juniors, being 'on the plane' and seriously exceeding the legal speed limit.

Marian
 
jaws said:
I'm sure someone will correct my if I'm wrong, but is the river kept open during the largest rowing event on the Thames - The Henley Regatta? If so, why is Kingston so special!
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Kingston Head was a head race, which is a timed race with around 200-400 rowers heading through in each division, and the race is usually the majority of the stretch... Not really fun helming if the river wasn't closed anyway.
Henley Regatta is a system of short sprint races with 20-88 races each day, over a distance of 2km. The races comprise of 2 rowers racing side by side, thereby not requiring a river closure.

Symantics aside, Kingston is "special" due to the fact that the organisation was abysmal. The first division in fact overran by about half an hour, hence why you got shouted at. It was far from your fault, the river closure ended at what should have been ample time for all the crews to have finished. There was a massive lack of communication by the organisers, and this year many of my fellow coaches complained about it too.
 
rebellion said:
Kingston Head was a head race, which is a timed race with around 200-400 rowers heading through in each division, and the race is usually the majority of the stretch... Not really fun helming if the river wasn't closed anyway.
Henley Regatta is a system of short sprint races with 20-88 races each day, over a distance of 2km. The races comprise of 2 rowers racing side by side, thereby not requiring a river closure.

Symantics aside, Kingston is "special" due to the fact that the organisation was abysmal. The first division in fact overran by about half an hour, hence why you got shouted at. It was far from your fault, the river closure ended at what should have been ample time for all the crews to have finished. There was a massive lack of communication by the organisers, and this year many of my fellow coaches complained about it too.
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That's a shame and inexcusable for an event of that size.

Perhaps EA could note and comment / give a *******ing at some appropriate time - or the RIver will get taken away from them...
 
TrueBlue said:
That's a shame and inexcusable for an event of that size.

Perhaps EA could note and comment / give a *******ing at some appropriate time - or the RIver will get taken away from them...
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Dont be silly, its too difficult!
laziness.jpg
 
Actually I've seen far worse. The last video was clearly OTT but the others whilst not ideal were not in my opinion too over the top and he was trying to keep clear of the rowers by hugging the bank.

I have been sworn at by a cycling coach on the Desborough Cut as he was on his way back to the club to take down the next boat of rowers. I was the only craft in the cut!!!! Some coaches have taken on the mantle of unofficial unpaid river speed wardens. Please God don't issue them with tickets:eek:
 
dash300 said:
Some coaches have taken on the mantle of unofficial unpaid river speed wardens. Please God don't issue them with tickets:eek:
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and if they did? I wonder if they'd issue tickets to one or two of their fellow chaser boats who can also kick up quite a wash, especially when speeding closely by moored boats, not forgetting the noise pollution at the crack of dawn on Sunday mornings with their shouty loud hailers.
 
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