At Craftsbury, the first time you go down to the dock, you get into a rowing shell at the dock, they push you away from the dock and you intentionally swing over the side into the water. Then you get to practice getting back into a rowing shell from the water. This is *not* a no-brainer: Craftsbury’s written procedure for “Getting back into the boat from the water” is 13 steps and a full page in a small font!
At home I row a very stable, open water shell that can be rowed by one person or two and I had never been in a “real” single before this weekend. (Yep, the genie is definitely out of *that* bottle!)
On the first day at Craftsbury, I rowed a Maas Aero: length, 21' 3"; beam on deck: 25"; beam at waterline: 19". » http://maasboats.com/shells-2/aero/
The second day I moved up to a faster, less-stable boat, the Maas 24: length: 24'; beam on deck, 20"; beam at waterline: 14". » http://maasboats.com/shells-2/maas-24/
For our last time on the water, I had a real racing shell, a Peinert X25: length, 25'; beam at waterline: 10½". » http://peinert.com/peinertx25.html
I flipped before getting much more than a 1,000m from the dock! It was one of those “slow-motion moments”: the result is a certainty but there’s no way to avoid it. I flipped again another 2,000m later. After that, I managed to row the 3,000m length of the lake — including backing to the dock — without flipping a third time.
I have much to learn, but it was a great weekend spent with my friend, Roland. We are anxious to go back next year, with our wives!
Retired economics professor (“dismal scientist”). Married 40+ years to the love of my life; we have two grown daughters, both married, two granddaughters and a...
Wonderful shot, Thom! If you're interested in some serious rowing, you might want to consider the "Head of the Charles Regatta", held every year on the Charles River in Boston - thousands of people come to row or watch this event - it's just wonderful
@sparkleplenty1 HOCR is the largest regatta held in the US. I think it would be a blast to attend, but the timing isn't conducive to taking the days off work to get there and back. Probably a retirement trip to take … and visit our daughters!
![Sigh. [Travel-day]](https://media.365project.org/1/9428160_bfilmqru48_sq.jpg "Sigh. [Travel-day]")