Into The Semifinals!

Hey all, we are now into the business end of the racing. We now have two more races between us and the Prince of Wales trophy. We are racing at 11:50 and I think you can follow online by the Regatta Radio.

We had our first race at 7pm on the Thursday evening. It was a day where we had far too much time to dwell on what was to come. The best and worst thing about coming all the way over to Henley is that you never know how you stack up until the racing is under way. Our first crew was the University of London and lining up against them brought along all sorts of insecurities. Have we done enough training? Are we ready? Do I look good in spandex?

Learning how to tie a tie for the Stewards

Once you are down at the start, you realise just how important tradition is to this regatta. No starting lights or buzzers here. Instead you are told by the upright Steward how they will start the race, and then they raise the flag.

Go. Such a great word. A motivating word and an unleashing word. Starts are one of the most favourite and dreaded things in racing. If you have a fast start then you feel that an early advantage gives you a boost, while a slow one means that the slog begins early. Henley, as many people will tell you, is about the start. Get out fast and you have the advantage of the cleaner water, and if you get far enough in front then you can put a safe margin between you and the wooden booms.

So far this regatta there have been quite a few clashes with the dreaded booms. It is death. All over. I have been practising sitting just on the booms on both sides for the last week trying to get my eye in. The only thing is that it is much harder to steer when you are slowly pushing yourself into a coma.

The crowds are building

We started off strongly against the University crew and in the very strong head conditions we just kept it on the legs and inched away. These are the kinds of races that you want, a clear lead so that you don't have to use too much energy. Today we were lined up against the same crew from Imperial that beat us at the Marlow Regatta only a short time ago. This time though, we were confident that we had made improvements.

At the start line we were out quick, even. Then after a few hundred the other crew began to drop back. Once we had about a length or so we kept the work rate even. Again, no wanting to waste too much energy going into the weekend. In the final 500m or so the other crew took their rating up and started to pull back on us, but we didn't feel under pressure so we didn't take it up.

At the beginning

Tomorrow is the semifinal. Four months of work has gone into this. We are up against a fancied crew from Durham University. The problem with Henley is that you never know how the other winners really raced so again on the start line, it's all even. The only thing you can do is just go, and keep going until you hit that finish line.