A mixture of boats in these shots hopefully demonstrating the races. The boats go down the river in 'divisions' of 17 crews, starting in the morning with the slowest crews. They turn around and pull into the bank separated by 1.5 boat lengths. Timings are signalled by a cannon which is fired under the motorway bridge (and it's loud especially when you've mis-timed covering your dog's ears). About 30 seconds before the starting cannon the boats are pushed away from the bank - this job is vital as you want to be parallel to the bank (more about this in my other shot). You can see middle left the man holding the 'bung' on a chain. This has to be held above the water as you can cheat by putting your hand under the water and letting go if your bow starts to go off course. On the signal everybody goes hell for leather and tries to catch the boat in front before being caught by the boat behind. A bump involves actual physical contact with any part of the boat including hats that have fallen off! The girl bottom left should have signalled but didn't so I'm guessing some sort of fine will be coming in her direction - hopefully you can see the panic in her face! Crews that have bumped acquire bits of tree from the towpath and celebrate. They swap places with the boat they bumped and start further towards the front of the division on the next day. If you finish at the front of a division you row at the back in the next race (of better boats) the same day, if you finish last you row at the front of the lower division the next day. The idea is to finish at the Head of the river - the front of the top division. So the last races on Saturday will be the best women's and best men's boats - very slick crews unlike the ones featured here! There was almighty chaos in one of the races which resulted in some very strange movement up and down the order (once boats have bumped they move out of the way and the boats behind can chase boats way ahead - this can result in 'over-bumps' if the back crew is very fast.
I don't think this makes any sense at all!!
Wonderful collage but I haven't much idea what actually happens....all good fun though& I'm sure we would get the hang of it if we actually watched it...great traditions alive in Cambridge still!
