Tin Fish Tales: Success at Skibbereen Regatta

Another long day at the NRC. Another successful day for UCCRC. The plan for the weekend was to run combinations to see what is what. The plan has been executed, now the data will be munched..
Today started with a straight final at 0805 for the Women's Intermediate 4+. The first ever race for this crew and the first ever 2k race in a sweep boat for Nichola. Good start backed up by good middle and coped very well with the not entirely helpful tailwind. Result, a win by 10 seconds. Mark then continued his pursuit of sculling glory with a good heat- excellent racing experience in the challenging conditions. The morning's finals kicked off with the Novice 8 taking on UCD and NUIG. A straight final is a good opportunity to practice getting it right first time and the crew did, rowing very well in the last 500 through rough water to win by just over half a length. Mark then had to sprint to his single and race to the start of his final. He'll be less than happy with the result but it's great to see another athlete desperate to get race experience.
The morning's UCC finals were rounded off by the Intermediate 4+ gaining a good win over NUIG- although the coach was slightly concerned about the St Michael's crew lead until he noticed it was a coxless 4 racing for 'time-only'.
In the afternoon the UCC women got into their singles and managed not to sink in some delightful conditions for sculling. Deirdre gained revenge over Nichola to make it 1:1 over 2k for the weekend. The Intermediates put in some improving performances with Niamh getting stuck into some great racing before catching a crab or two.. Linda came out on top in the heats, gaining a place in the B final with just one intermediate in front of her. Over the weekend it has been plain to see just how much these athletes are moving on.
In the afternoon's finals the Novice 4+ managed a 0.6 second win over NUIG- I think they would like me to edit out the fact that some school boys crossed the line first- not in our category though....
The last race of the day was UCC's dip into Div 1 VIIIs with a straight race off between ourselves and NUIG. A good race was developing before the crustaceans attacked to give NUIG a comfortable win. Frustrating on our home water but we will now take this experience, and many others on camp to Enniskillen as we now have 7 days of 'finishing camp'.