Purdey
New Member
I row on the Tideway (between Putney and Richmond) which can be a very busy in summer with rowers, sailors and motor boats. I must admit to being sometimes very grumpy with some motor boats, but also, I have to say, I have pleaded very sweetly with some motor boats to slow down, and it rarely works..possibly because I can't be heard over the noise of the engines, in which case I do reserve the right to swear when I nearly get drowned.
I recognise that rowers must come across as an arrogant lot, and we may act like we own the river, but that may be a result of the fact that for a large proportion of the year, the rowers are the only people on it. When you've frozen your way through the cold, wind and rain in February, you really look forward to sculling along on a pleasant summer's evening, and often have it ruined by being swamped by wash from a large ocean going vessel. It would be nice if we could all enjoy the river together, without being a danger to each other and upsetting each other. IMHO, the main problem seems to be that we have a speed limit and not a wake limit on our inland waterways. An American rower posted to the rowing site that in the USA a wake limit is the norm. This seems to me to be sensible. On the Tideway, a set speed limit seems silly when the impact of any given boat is multiplied by wind against tide, high-tide and previous wash. So the wash created by a MoBo at 4 knots at low tide on a still day might be no problem for me to scull through, but at high tide it can turn what was flat water into something that resembles the Atlantic.
I actually find that I yell at other rowing coaches much more than MoBos, on the grounds that they are going much quicker to keep up with their eights. They don't mind me swearing at them as they know me, and will fish me out of the drink if they tip me in, and they know what danger they are putting me in. What I find scarey though is that the wash that must look teeny to you guys atop of your flash vehicle, is enormous to me, and you probably don't realise just how scarey it can be. Recently I was sculling at top tide near Hammersmith, it was wind against tide, but I was competant to deal with the conditions, until I encountered some boats coming the other way. The first was a tourist barge, they go pretty slowly and are generally quite considerate to rowers, but they can set up pretty nasty standing waves at high tide sometimes, but I can usually deal with that too. My problem came when this tourist barge was followed by a big Mobo...well it seemed big to me anyway. Despite the condition of the water, and my pleading (I did plead, and not swear) the boat continued at its previous pace and sent a huge 4 foot wave careering towards me....a tsunami to rowing boats. I turned my bows into the wave and just hoped. The wave broke over my head and swamped by boat. Luckily my boat has good buoyancy and stayed afloat, but that is where it started to get really scarey, because then the water became really dangerous. I was in the middle as I had been travelling with the stream (there is a special dispensation on the Tideway to allow us to work the slacks), but just above Hammersmith bridge there are piers and I was quite close to a moored barge which I was being swept towards. The waves kept sucking my blades (oars) under the water and it took all my strength and skill to stay afloat. The incident had been witnessed by two men on the pier who kept talking to me to keep my spirits up for the 10 minutes that I battled to stay afloat and keep from being swept under the barge. As soon as the water had flattened enough for me to row to safety on the far bank I turned towards it, but I had been trapped in tumultuous water unable to move for all that time. After 14 years of rowing, this incident was the one that has scared me most of all, and the boat that put me in that position was not even speeding. I really could have been killed, not because I did anything wrong, but because the wake from two boats compounded on top of the weather and tide to turn flat water into a death trap in a matter of seconds.
So, I admit that we rowers do shout and swear, but names will never hurt anyone, whereas Mobos do have it within their power to kill rowers, even if we are all exactly where we should be, and you are all confining yourself to 4 knots. And even when we aren't in actual danger of drowing, I'd bet you'd swear if someone tipped a bucket of freezing water over your head with no warning, it's pretty hard not to. The rowed-rage that occurs sometimes is the result usually of having a training piece ruined. If you are rowing hard, you've got loads of adrenelin and testosterone pumping around your body, so rowers vent their spleens pretty easily if disturbed when training. Once we've calmed down we are generally quite nice people. We would also say 'thanks' if we had realised that you had slowed down for us, but we are concentrating so hard on what we are doing that we really only notice the wake, rather than the absence of one. It doesn't mean that we don't appreciate it. Rowing is actually a lot harder than it looks, and you do feel very vulnerable. This country is actually pretty damn good at rowing, even though rowing is the only Olympic sport that shares its main training ground with a potentially lethal predator. To us, it's a bit like if you asked runners to train on a grand prix track -well maybe not that bad, but you get the analogy.
Anyway, you should all try rowing at least once, you'll probably like it. I like drinking G&Ts on Mobos!
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I recognise that rowers must come across as an arrogant lot, and we may act like we own the river, but that may be a result of the fact that for a large proportion of the year, the rowers are the only people on it. When you've frozen your way through the cold, wind and rain in February, you really look forward to sculling along on a pleasant summer's evening, and often have it ruined by being swamped by wash from a large ocean going vessel. It would be nice if we could all enjoy the river together, without being a danger to each other and upsetting each other. IMHO, the main problem seems to be that we have a speed limit and not a wake limit on our inland waterways. An American rower posted to the rowing site that in the USA a wake limit is the norm. This seems to me to be sensible. On the Tideway, a set speed limit seems silly when the impact of any given boat is multiplied by wind against tide, high-tide and previous wash. So the wash created by a MoBo at 4 knots at low tide on a still day might be no problem for me to scull through, but at high tide it can turn what was flat water into something that resembles the Atlantic.
I actually find that I yell at other rowing coaches much more than MoBos, on the grounds that they are going much quicker to keep up with their eights. They don't mind me swearing at them as they know me, and will fish me out of the drink if they tip me in, and they know what danger they are putting me in. What I find scarey though is that the wash that must look teeny to you guys atop of your flash vehicle, is enormous to me, and you probably don't realise just how scarey it can be. Recently I was sculling at top tide near Hammersmith, it was wind against tide, but I was competant to deal with the conditions, until I encountered some boats coming the other way. The first was a tourist barge, they go pretty slowly and are generally quite considerate to rowers, but they can set up pretty nasty standing waves at high tide sometimes, but I can usually deal with that too. My problem came when this tourist barge was followed by a big Mobo...well it seemed big to me anyway. Despite the condition of the water, and my pleading (I did plead, and not swear) the boat continued at its previous pace and sent a huge 4 foot wave careering towards me....a tsunami to rowing boats. I turned my bows into the wave and just hoped. The wave broke over my head and swamped by boat. Luckily my boat has good buoyancy and stayed afloat, but that is where it started to get really scarey, because then the water became really dangerous. I was in the middle as I had been travelling with the stream (there is a special dispensation on the Tideway to allow us to work the slacks), but just above Hammersmith bridge there are piers and I was quite close to a moored barge which I was being swept towards. The waves kept sucking my blades (oars) under the water and it took all my strength and skill to stay afloat. The incident had been witnessed by two men on the pier who kept talking to me to keep my spirits up for the 10 minutes that I battled to stay afloat and keep from being swept under the barge. As soon as the water had flattened enough for me to row to safety on the far bank I turned towards it, but I had been trapped in tumultuous water unable to move for all that time. After 14 years of rowing, this incident was the one that has scared me most of all, and the boat that put me in that position was not even speeding. I really could have been killed, not because I did anything wrong, but because the wake from two boats compounded on top of the weather and tide to turn flat water into a death trap in a matter of seconds.
So, I admit that we rowers do shout and swear, but names will never hurt anyone, whereas Mobos do have it within their power to kill rowers, even if we are all exactly where we should be, and you are all confining yourself to 4 knots. And even when we aren't in actual danger of drowing, I'd bet you'd swear if someone tipped a bucket of freezing water over your head with no warning, it's pretty hard not to. The rowed-rage that occurs sometimes is the result usually of having a training piece ruined. If you are rowing hard, you've got loads of adrenelin and testosterone pumping around your body, so rowers vent their spleens pretty easily if disturbed when training. Once we've calmed down we are generally quite nice people. We would also say 'thanks' if we had realised that you had slowed down for us, but we are concentrating so hard on what we are doing that we really only notice the wake, rather than the absence of one. It doesn't mean that we don't appreciate it. Rowing is actually a lot harder than it looks, and you do feel very vulnerable. This country is actually pretty damn good at rowing, even though rowing is the only Olympic sport that shares its main training ground with a potentially lethal predator. To us, it's a bit like if you asked runners to train on a grand prix track -well maybe not that bad, but you get the analogy.
Anyway, you should all try rowing at least once, you'll probably like it. I like drinking G&Ts on Mobos!
/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
