Hanover

We were fortunate enough to get invited down to Hanover this weekend to take part in the Dartmouth heavyweights' training leading into IRA's next weekend. Our 4x has been getting smoother and more refined as we have begun to put in specific miles together, but paddling is paddling, and we were all eager to get a sense for how the boat feels at and under pressure. This was a perfect opportunity for us to push out of our comfort zone and take notes on what we need to improve upon as we meld as a crew leading into 4x trials. We left Craftsbury around 7 am and arrived in Hanover in time to rig and launch around 9.30 for the start of the pieces. The format was 4 x 3 min. Holy Cross was also in attendance. So we had 7 boats, Holy Cross 1v, 2v, 3v,  Dartmouth 1v, 2v, 3v, and our quad. Needless to say, it was not a dream come true for Peter, steering our boat, but he was up to the challenge. We knew that Dartmouth and Holy Cross both went around 5.46-7 at Eastern Sprints the weekend before, and that for us to be very competitive on the world stage we will need to be knocking on the door of breaking 5.40.

Over the course of the four pieces, we were able to try some things and learn quite a bit. On average, I'd say we were getting about 2 seconds in front of the eights. Our sprint piece was the most encouraging when we moved out to open water ahead of the eights. Not bad for right out of the package, but looking at the video, there's a long way to go for us to be as polished as we need to be. The good news is that the meat and potatoes are there. This week we will probably slow things down, lengthen it out, and keep searching for inches per stroke. 

Boats lining up before the first 3 min piece.