I bet those are going to be expensive... [lots of pics!]

[shiato storm]

thanks to the atrocious weather the other weekend there were a few breakages in the rowing world...
firstly a sculler who's come a bit unstuck:


and then an eight thats got caught out too...
here's the article:

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THAT...

Last Saturday's Avon County regatta didn't escape the bad weather hitting the rest of the country and the chaos level rose considerably after a gust of wind blew an eight and a four into the bank.

The four eventually got themselves sorted and finished the race, but the (Bournemouth University?) eight wasn't quite so lucky after it got wedged in a tree on the bank... but that was only the start of their troubles.

About five to ten minutes after they got stuck, a 'safety' boat turned up to 'help' and positioned themselves at right angles to the stern.

doomedThe launch driver then put the boat in reverse and manged to break the bow section of the eight. All the time the crew of girls were still in the boat... He then realised what was happening and put it into forward gear and opened the throttle up!

Yes, you can guess what happened next... This sent the launch flying at high speed towards the bank (but thankfully parallel to the eight) and our intrepid launch driver landed his vessel on the bank with the prop still turning.

Thankfully it didn't go through the eight or I dread to think what would have happened, as it was the blades were left with marks all down them.

Following the regatta the slug overheard a conversation between a spectator and a marshall, who was keen to distance himself from the launch driver ... ' that man has nothing to do with us'

Alas, the identity of the 'safety' boat driver remains unclear, however the slug suggests it might be a good idea if he sticks to land based activites from now on...

and here are some pictures...:




there are a few more pics of us snikering but figured that was just mean.
having learnt about the ineptitude of the launch driver I couldn't believe it, what an utter muppet, its lucky noone was seriously injured!

[turkster]

Looks like fun

How fragile are those boats when stressed in the wrong place?

[MD]

I remember when I snapped my school's K1 canoe a race, right down the middle, was a big rock I hit though, was class crossing the finishing line actually floating down the river holding onto the two bits,

Mine was worse though, as it was not repairable, the above maybe.

m@

[shiato storm]

Looks like fun

How fragile are those boats when stressed in the wrong place?

side on: very
end on: quite strong