The Thames Rowing Club steering test
Administrative Prerequisite Questionaire
Name of Assessor coach | J Bloggs |
Qualifications of coach either formal or by experience | IA |
Name of steersman/woman | TRC Bloggs |
Has candidate read mandatory files on website http://thamesrc.atics.co.uk/cms/safety.html? | Yes / NO |
Has an email confirming this been sent to Chris George with the right wording? “I confirm I have read the mandatory files on website http://thamesrc.atics.co.uk/cms/safety.html " | Yes / NO |
Is the candidate a fully paid up member? | Yes / NO |
DO NOT DO THE TEST UNTIL ALL THREE ANSWERS ARE YES!
This test is in the form of two parts, the practical water assessment and a theoretical test.
Preamble
In principle, rowing or steering on the Thames is no different to driving a car. It is safer to take test and have lessons and it is downright dangerous if you do not. By virtue of its name, the Tideway is subject to Maritime Navigation Laws. The Port of London and Authority (PLA) police these.
Practical water assessment.
We operate between Tower Bridge and Teddington Lock. Our most usual water is from Putney to the Pink Lodge.
Test one
Can the steersman ensure his or her boat is sufficiently close to the bank going against the stream/tide such that no boat coming from behind can "undertaken him " and yet sufficiently far from the bank to avoid the shoals, spurs trees and other dangerous, buried objects? | Yes NO - if so, carry on with the test for training but fail them at the end Advise on what retraining is needed |
Grade mark them. 5 / 5 is very good. 1/5 is a pass but only just |
The law (NOTICE TO MARINERS No.U6 of 2002) requres the boat to "keep as close as is practicable to the .... shore" [my later emboldening]. This is where most coaches fail to obey the law as they are far too tolerant of crews wandering out. The general guidance I use to communicate is a "boat width" and that is defined as the distance from blade tip to blade tip for the boat concerned.
Generally speaking, at anything above quarter tide, a half to three quarters of a boat's width distance from the bank is ample. At high tide, and all the way down to near the base of any embankment, is only necessary to be a metre or two from the bank - the closer in the quicker the boat goes. Clearly, judgment needs to be made with trees and other obstacles! This test should be carried out until the assessor is satisfied that the examinee has gone round several bends, spurs in the river and other obstacles in a safe, competent manner, maintaining an appropriate distance from the bank at all times and states of the tide.
The classic danger points, starting from the club and working away upwards on the Surrey side, are "Kylie's rock" - the shoal at about quarter tide that appears 25 metres downstream of Barn Elms Boathouse (named after an Aussie lady cox who wrote off a TRC boat in the late 1990s), the bend just before the mile post, Harrod's wharf, the approach to Hammersmith Bridge, particularly at low tide where the centre arch has to be used, and at other than low tide through the inner arch of Hammersmith Bridge, where there is a spur 10 metres upstream, which tends to push the unwary steersman out from the bank. The assessing coach should be in a launch immediately behind and if this happens, show the candidate why he or she has 'failed' by going out into the stream at this point. The definition of failure is if a launch with its deep engine can safely, without touching the bottom, ‘undertake’ i.e. pass on the inside, the steersman who has drifted out into the stream. Carrying on with a list of hazards; St Paul's slip, at low tide the spur of land some 200 metres immediately above St Paul's slip, the outlet drain, the crossover, (examiners should note that an early crossover is a failure and that the best crossover occurs FROM about 100 metres around the bend to the small poplar tree). Note if the steersman looks at regular 5 to 10 stroke intervals as he crosses. Absence of a good look out is a failure. If he stops to wait when there are crews coming down rather than go beyond the crossover point - that is a bonus point in his favour. The next danger point, particularly at low tide, is just before civil service, where it is necessary to steer out well in advance in order to take the bend and cut in to the shore under Barnes Bridge. If the test is going all way to Chiswick, again, the examiner should determine how the Chiswick crossover is done with particular reference to stationary scullers and river traffic coming down the middle. Needless to say, if any sculler chooses to go up to Tideway Scullers and through the Middlesex arch of Chiswick Bridge and spin round, that is an instant fail.
Test two
The emergency halt.
Broken down into its six simple parts, this consists of the following:
On the order "Hold it hard.”
- Spin the hands away till the arms are straight and ‘slap’ the blade flat on the water at the angle provided by the gate (4°).
- As instructed on the back of every safety information sheet, signed by every member on joining the club (the green form), CAREFULLY rotate the blade anticlockwise (viewed from the blade tip - i.e. such that it travels from an angle of 4° with the leading edge above the trailing edge to an angle of 0° i.e. exactly parallel with the water), until the blade JUST enters the water as you are traveling along.
- With the blade parallel to the surface of the water, or perhaps a degree or so cutting in, RAISE THE HANDS slowly and progressively to insert the looms at least halfway into the water. [This alone will stop the boat very quickly, and for novice or inexperienced oarsman, that is all that is necessary until they are skilled enough to…]
- Whilst the blade is buried under water, rotate the handle in the same direction, anticlockwise, VERY SLOWLY, to increase the surface area of the blade acting as a "brake". This must be done, very carefully, and only after plenty of practice and experience. Novices should be introduced to it over a period of weeks, rather than days.
- The very act of turning the blade into the " back it down position" will cause the blade handle to be forced from straight-arm position back toward the chest. The oarsman to be progressive should control this process; otherwise he will catch a crab and end up out of the boat.
- Once the blade is in the back it down position with the blade handle on the chest. The boat should have stopped or will stop very very quickly. At this point, dependent on the orders of the Cox or if coxless an assessment of the level of emergency by the bowman, the sixth and last stage of the emergency halt can be applied - or not. This consists of an emergency back it down with full slide. It would be used under circumstances when a cruiser, or Imperial College eight doing a full course is bearing down on the crew having just done the emergency halt.
Any attempt by the examinee to turn the blade into the normal squared rowing position and dig it into the water, is an instant failure.
Steps 1 to 3 | Pass /Fail there is no compromise here. It must be good |
Steps 4 to 6 | Pass /Fail there is no compromise here. It must be good |
A pass on steps 1 to 3 allows the steersman out but only with a coach
To go out alone needs a full pass to step 6.
Test three
The Imperial College "get out of the way" test.
This is a hypothetical situation, whereby by accident or for whatever reason, a steersman finds that he or she has drifted out into the stream and is now in the middle of the river proceeding against both stream and tide. [Before you laugh, I have seen members of all squads in this position over the last seven years.] The test is to determine how quickly, and by what means, the steersman get out of the way and into the bank, having been given, say, a warning shout from an IC viii. That is doing a full course and is NOT going to stop. The rower (normally bow) FURTHEST from the bank tells the stroke man to "easy three strokes." and rows full length, with full slide as far front of the rigger as he can to get the optimal angle to swing the boat round out of the stream towards the bank as quickly as possible. Once the boat has traveled 30° or 40° from its normal path, he tells the stroke man to "row hard." and they rower three or four short, hard study strokes to get clear of danger. But this point, they can relax and the bowman can easy, while the stroke man rows full-length strokes to straighten out back on station tucked safely into the bank.
Ideally, this exercise should be done on both sides of the river, so that both stroke and bow are practiced at pulling in quickly.
Failures are not using full slide but pecking at backstops
Not reacting quickly
Holding it up.
Bow steers – no cox. Test done on Surrey bank | Pass / fail / not done |
Bow steers – no cox. Test done on Middlesex bank | Pass / fail / not done |
Cox – test done on either bank does not matter | Pass / fail / not done |
Test four
This consists of the manoeuver necessary for a boat pair or four to move from close to the bank to the middle of the river, and vice versa. It happens in the middle, and at the end of every outing. It should be done, such that the boat starts close to the bank and moved out into the river as close to 90° as possible describing a tight semicircle. What is to be avoided is a gradual drift out into the middle of the river at an acute angle over a long distance and then a spin turn in the middle. Similarly, if the object is to go from the middle of the stream and tuck into the bank, it should be done as directly as possible with a semicircle. At each point of the turn and 90-degree straight line to the bank, followed by another 90-degree turn to go parallel to the bank. These maneuvers are best achieved by rowing one side only, and the other side holding the blade lightly (i.e. flat in the water), such as to effect the maneuver smoothly. Any form of "drift" into the bank over a long distance is an instant failure.
Test going from bank to centre of stream | Pass / fail Grade out of 5 |
Test going from centre of stream to bank | Pass / fail Grade out of 5 |
Test five
Full slide spin turn on the spot. | Pass / fail |
Failure of this is not a failure of the test as whole but can be used as a training and enhancement tool If this is done really well you can give a better grade overall If badly it does not mean failure. |
Final OVERALL ASSESSMENT | PASS / FAIL |
GRADE OUT OF 5 5 GOOD I PASS BUT NOT GOOD |
STATEMENT
I the assessing coach of the above candidate steersman confirm that I have assessed as above and that in my opinion he/she named above is in one of three categories
Fail – more training needed and reasons given. CAN ONLY GO OUT WITH A COACH ONE TO ONE | Signed and dated by assessor |
Probationary pass – can ONLY GO OUT WITH A COACH IN A GROUP | Signed and dated by assessor |
FULL PASS WITH GRADING 5 TO 1 | Signed and dated by assessor |
The theory.
This has yet to be written, but will consist of:
A map of the river on which the candidate shall mark all the crossing points, the optimum course to travel at various different stages of the tide, mark up all the danger shoals between Wandsworth Bridge and the pink Lodge.
The various questions on navigational laws, with particular reference to the star that rule, deep draught boats, and the Thames lower region Council advice on overtaking published in their "code of practice" or guidance document.
It is envisaged that the paper will have perhaps five or six blank maps on which we can superimpose a scaled flimsy with the limits of the correct course indicated by two lines, one on Surrey, and one on Middlesex. Any candidate, indicating that the optimum course falls outside these lines, for example by going across the Fulham flats, will fail.