We started 2019 knowing that this is a year of “building”. Goal was to broaden the basis of those who race and find new combinations of people who like to row together and thus make fast boats.

During 2019, the club went to more races than ever before:

High Point NC Championships
Richmond
Diamond States (cancelled)
Williamsburg Beak of the Chick
National championships
CHaOS Challenge
Head of the Charles
Head of the Hooch (partially cancelled)

With the exception of Nationals, every race at every regatta ended with the same conclusion: we do not practice enough in the lineup we race in.
This conundrum can only be solved if you pick the people you want to race with and start to practice – NOW. NC Championships are only 4 months away. And I, for my part, want to win the 4+ this time.

Results of the Hooch
The first race Saturday was Masters Men’s 4+ (Kylie cox, Dan stroke, Jason, Richard S, Felix). Except from racing in earlier races this year, we did not practice. The race felt good for the first 3000 meters or so, had a few wobbles thereafter. Kylie steered a perfect course. We overtook boats. After the finish line, we felt really good. The results do not reflect that feeling. Turns out, the under 50 category is very competitive. To do well, we should have been 90 seconds faster. Jason was – with the erg perspective – seeing that as impossible. A few beers and days later, we agreed that we can make that up on finishes, synchronicity, rigging, and relaxed shoulders. Everybody committed to training together over the winter with drills, drills, more drills and challenging everybody we can find on the lake to race us.
Result: 5th in the under 50 category, 13th overall, out of 21

The next race was the Mixed Masters 2x with Maria steering and Bob stroking. A last minute lineup with only one practice row. They did a 360 around a buoy at the start, were plagued with rough conditions thereafter. Boat and rowers made it to the finish line safely. Crew seemed more relieved than happy. Bob called race conditions some negative superlative. BUT: they came in 39th out of 46 boats that finished. At least the strokes I saw looked pretty good. Achieved “Look good and do not come in last” (a motto coined 13 years ago at the Hooch).

The next was the big event, Men’s Masters 8+. The CHaOS boat that saw most training one the water and erg. With Brad setting a national erg records during the last 5K test and Rick spending days to make sure that the Resolute 8 made it to the race in time and in pristine condition. Brad and Hal summarized the rowers perspective in an earlier mail-chain.
Result: 14th out of 17 (20 seconds faster than the CHaOS 4+ but 90 seconds slower (raw time) than the winning team) I would guess that there are also lots of drills on the horizon if this boat is planned to be raced again.

Mixed Masters 4x: Cancelled. Really unfortunate because Rob (stroke) Richard S, Maria, Tracy (bow) really practiced for this one – and were more prepared than in prior years.

Masters Men’s 2x:Cancelled: Again, this cancellation caused big, big frustration, Rick/Brad as well as Tim/Felix had really trained for this one and achieved substantial gains in speed over the last 2 months. It would have been great to see whether we could reproduce these gains under race conditions and achieve Tim’s declared goal to medal.
We will have to try again next year.

The first race on Sunday was Tracy in the Women’s Master 1x. The New York girl was nervous, not the cool, self-confident Tracy we normally see. She chose to race in the open weigh, not the light weight. For once, she did not hit a buoy (but seems to have missed one according to the 20 seconds penalty). Her biggest fear, being rowed through by Richard M and Tim (starting first in the race behind her) did not materialize.
In the end she came in 7th out of 8. And she looked good. Like most of the other CHaOS boats, she just has to find another 9 seconds per 500 meters over the next year. I am sure she can.

The highlight of Sunday was the Men’s Masters 1x with the year’s ultimate match-up between Richard M (last year’s fastest time) and Tim (last year’s second fastest time). Tim was – for the first time ever – faster, but not fast enough to overcome the age handicap. In the final tally, Richard M. took bronze and Tim came in 4th. Congratulations to both. I would guess the analysis of mirror vs. no mirror (mirror won) and high intensity training routine vs. less but focused training with more variety is ongoing.

The last race was Men’s Master 4x with 3 CHaOS entries. Means: 12 CHaOS members racing in the same event. Amazing how our base (and boat park) has grown over the last few years.
The best trained boat was the Freight Train with Curt (stroke), Brad, Ken, Rick (bow). The question was whether the erg workouts applied to water training will produce great results in a race. Unfortunately, we still do not know. Brad injured himself Saturday carrying the Resolute 8+ almost by himself (it is not good to be the tallest). He comments the race: “At the end of the day, I don't know how much the hurt back cost me. I think we all agree that on-the-water training beats erg everyday. I also know that the combination of the two, I'm stronger and have more stamina than I've had since college, and dropped some weight. It's possible the back did it. It's possible that we all over-trained and should have backed off earlier. It's also possible we just got out-rowed”. Rick’s nightmare did not happen. He did not miss a buoy, he did not get a penalty. Congratulations.

Yet another last minute lineup was the Hedi with Brian (the kid) in stroke, Richard S, Bob (the granddad) and Dan(e) in bow. They only got a 40 seconds handicap and we all expected them to do well in the under 50 category, However, they came in 9th out of 10 boats in this category. Nobody was happy. What we underestimated: due to the change in schedule, the open 4x boats that competed Saturday just rowed another race on Sunday, thus making the under 50 category much more competitive than it ever had been (in the last few years, we would always have won this category with our over 50 boat). Lesson learned.

The Australia with Richard M (stroke) Felix, Rob, Tim (bow) only rowed in this configuration twice since last year’s Hooch. Richard M and Tim hot-seated from the 1x directly into the 4x and raced up to the start in record time, just to wait there forever. The goal (dream), of course, was to finally beat the Ridley boat (after coming in 4th, 3rd, 2nd behind them in the prior years). We missed it. There are 4 potential reasons: lack of practice, hot seating, Felix losing an oar, a Junior 4x running into us just before the finish line (somewhere in the Southeast there are 4 high school kids that will suffer from a lifelong trauma after being yelled at by Hockey Tim for blocking us). In the end Ridley beat us by 2.5 seconds, and we beat Catawba by 1 second. Awfully tight for a 5 K race. Overall, we were lucky to win Silver and qualify for next year. If one looks at the pictures, a few more practices would not have hurt and might have helped with the synchronicity.

Overall: not the most efficient Hooch showing CHaOS ever had, but a great foundation for next year. In that sense: mission accomplished.

On the social front:

Tim drove - all alone - the trailer to Chattanooga and back. Without an incident. Thank you very much!
Tim, Richard S., Felix, and Rick (whom we dragged out of bed) unloaded the trailer 1 AM, after flirting with the night shift security lady from UT. Thank you very much!!!

Felix was responsible for Italian night Friday. Before the last guests arrived, the sugo was already gone, pasta, too. Debra’s deserts were devoured next. Lesson learned: 15 rowers can out-eat any portion size recommendation easily. Next year we will have to double the pasta sauce portions (and buy a bigger pan). Thank you very much, Felix.
Saturday night Richard S. provided Greek moussaka. Thanks to the race cancellations (and the happy hour taking place instead) there were minimal leftovers and many, many happy faces. Thank you very much, Richard S.
Kylie steered 2 perfect courses (Dan(e) can show you the date that the 2 races perfectly overlapped).
UNC Women rowing trailererd our 8+. Thank you very much Thomas and Sarah.
Thank you Rick for providing us with the new jackets turning us into “Flying Pumpkins”