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| Ben & Rob |
I took up rowing in the Covid-winter of 2021. After beating Martin Thirlwell’s 21k indoor ergo time by a fistful of minutes, I knew I was ready to try out the boats at Victoria Lake Club’s Ravens boat house. Several months later, I was pinballing my way down the lanes in a solo scull trying to break 6 minutes for the 1k.
“You go under 6
minutes for the 1k,” said my mate Ben Burnand, “and you’ll be ready for 3rd
div racing.” My PB at that time was a disappointing 9 minutes. I had work to do.
My son, Jake, and
Ben’s son, Daniel, qualified for the St Benedicts First Team. They would race
in October in the United States at the New Hampshire Rowing champs and at The Head
of the Charles. The HoTC is the world’s largest annual rowing regatta and takes
place in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“We should
enter those races too,” said Ben. “Bragging rights and all that.”
This sounded
like it would test our mettle. So we entered. The HoTC works on a lottery entry
system so it was with much excitement that we found out a few weeks later, that
our entries had been accepted.
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| New Hampshire Champs (The Merrimack River) |
New Hampshire was all mist and winding Merrimack River banked by leaves dappled with the colour of a thousand shades of yellow and orange from the October fall. After loaning some boats from the Amoskeag Rowing Club in Hookset, our home away from home, we were all set for the race. There were 5 of us in the over-50 sculls race. Ben came a close 2nd in a time of 17m22s. I was 4th in 18m34s. The St Benedicts crew won their eight event with a dominating 13m16s. The fast moving river current aided our quick times.
We heard a lot of “those-South-African-boys-sure-can-row”
from the riverbank. 
St Benedicts First Eight after their win
A week later, Ben and I were at the start of the Head of the Charles in our borrowed Hudsons loaned from the Harvard boat house. There were 125 racers in our heads race. Heads Race means you go down the course one-by-one based on your seeding from the previous year. So the 2021 winner went first. The guy who got silver went second. And so on. Ben was seeded 65th. I was seeded 113th.
We seemed to be
the only South African scullers in the race which attracted quite a bit of
attention. It’s a great way to meet people from all over the world. All you
need is your opening line “Are you here for the regatta?” and off you go.
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Head of the Charles traffic jam
The river races are 3 miles (4.8ks) long. So endurance and strength are mandatory. You work on a pacing strategy which I like to refer to as controlled oblivion. One of the legends at VLC, Graham Cooke, gave me a very helpful tip for river racing, “Don’t eat all your sandwiches at first break.”
Whereas the
Merrimack is quite a relaxed river, the Charles runs through Boston underneath
7 bridges, some originally built around 1662. The bridges have narrow curved
arches. Navigating through the bridges backwards kept me up at night. There was
little room for error.
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Mission
accomplished! |
Aside from the occasional crab and navigational error, I finished the race after having bled every inch of power I could muster into the footboard and blades. Ben was saved from a collision with a bridge when a spectator called to him during the race, “Boat 65! You are about to hit the bridge!” Ben slammed his blades into the water to avoid the crash. A close call.
The 60-year old
winner of our Grand Master Race won in a time of 18m27s. He works, lives and
trains along the Charles so knows every bend and turn. Ben was 48th
in a time of 21m16s. I was 97th in a time of 23m24s. The standard of
racers in this event was remarkable with a number of high-calibre ex-Olympians
and International racers in the mix.
St Benedicts, seeded
in 71st place, finished their race 31st in a time of 15m37s. Not bad
for a young crew and especially after an entanglement with two other boats at
the two mile mark. The winner’s time was 14m23s.
A week after we
returned to Johannesburg, there was a race at Roodeplaat dam. I was keen to see
if this full immersion into international rowing had improved my 1k time. Prepping
myself at the start line one of the rowers called out to me:
“Are you one of
the guys who got top-100 at Head of The Charles? That’s a quality field. You
guys should be proud.”
It was amazing
that word of our racing in the US had spread around so quickly in the rowing
community.
I managed 4m28s
in the 1km. Good enough, just maybe, to get me an entry into a division 1
Master’s final.
All this rowing is with an aim to race at the World Rowing Masters Regatta taking place at Roodeplaat, South Africa, between 21st to 24th September 2023. It’s the first time the event has ever been held in Africa – quite a coup for South Africa - and is an event that is open to everyone 27 years and older including seasoned rowers and novices. There is plenty of time for any novice who is keen to race World Masters to learn how to row by September.
And we all
know, that’d be bragging rights for life.
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| Man and ManChild |
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Jake and Natalie (mom) in the Harvard boat shed |
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