Personal opinion - I thought this was a disaster.
THE PROBLEMS
ENTRY RULES
The rules were weird. Each kid could only row in one race. Normally each kid rows a Quad, a double and a single.
For this regatta, we could only enter one (or possibly two) boats of each size in each age category AND each kid was only allowed to row in one boat.
This means that we had to discuss who is going to row in which boat. ie crew selections. But the crew selection thought process being biased becaue the thinking inevitably turned to what selections would result in the most overal points for the school.
ROWING
The regatta started OK but although it was a lovely sunny day the wind was fierce.
The regatta had been organised in a way where there were 'club' races in the morning and the aforementioned trophy races in the afternoon. This was a noble attempt to ensure that the kids excluded from the above selection process could have a row. By lunch time though, the wind had risen to the point of concern and they cancelled the single and doubles races.
PROBLEM #1 - Not all schools and coaches were in the loop on the decision.
PROBLEM #2 - They then changed some race times and did not communicate that to everyone and apparently some kids missed their races.
PRESENTATION
In my view the most saddest part of the day was the presentation. For individual races, they presented one trophy per crew. It looked like they had dug around in the scrap box and found some random old trophies and not enough of them. They did nt even have GCASRA on them nor the race nor the position. The sad looks on the kids faces said it all.
Then they announced the winning schools and Brigidine I think were about 5th. Later on various people retrieved the race results from rowing QLD web site and recalculated points. One of the difficulties was that the actual points rules seems unclear or not easily obtainable.
WHY ARE WE HERE
Upon reflection, I think the organisers forgot why we were there. I think they maybe tried to create a grand final event or possibly put school glory in front of child experience.
WHAT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED
Every kid row quad double single as normal.
Present medals or pennants for winning 1,2,3 places. One per kid.
Do some maths to work out winning schools or whatever agregate prizes one wishes to award and award them.
Back at the shed was a bit more enjoyable
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