Three weeks ago, our noble captain, ever the optimist, suggested I entered my novices into Winter Head. Fire had demonstrated their immense strength in a 90 second race, how would they adjust to rowing for 11 minutes, and in water 😰.
Truth be told, Fire's first race on the water was absolutely a success! Spurred on by the 10 year olds we were chasing, Fire ploughed down the river, holding a pretty spicy rate 27. The 0.9 second gap to the only other Cambridge college novice boat was misleading. After a catastrophic crab/crash as we came under the Railway bridge, Fire lost possibly 40 seconds. To compete and beat university 8s in their first race on the water (and Dave's first outing as a bow-sider) (and Joe's first outing as a stroke sider) was amazing!