Channel row
Crew: Dan, Ben, Yicheng, Robbie, Hal, Henry, Phil, Tom, James
To celebrate 700 years of Oriel and to raise a humble one million pounds as an endowment for Oriel Boat Club, six crews rowed across the English Channel from Ramsgate to Dunkirk. Why not the shorter Dover-Callais crossing you wonder? Well, the French gave us a nonchalant ‘Non’, and we want it to be a proper challenge, don’t we. Among our crews was also the first ever all-women crew to complete this route. Special mention in our crew go to Dan and James, who flew in from America to take part.
At first I wasn’t sure if sending small boats ‘the other way’ sends the right signal. I also was not sure whether waves greater than two inches constitute rowable conditions.
Looking back, this was a most wonderful experience. I cannot think of other boat clubs that would pull off such a feat of collaborative effort and make it a joyful endeavour from start to finish.
The conditions were fabulous. The week before we set off saw a fierce Easterly wind. Luckily they eased just in time for our crossing, leaving plenty of swell, but that is actually quite good fun. It feels like rowing through a landscape with gently rolling hills. In the middle of the channel is a long stretch where neither England nor France are visible. Much longer than I expected. That, too, was really special and felt surprisingly liberating. Just us, our pilot boat and the occasional seal.
Download: channel.gpx
Robbie developed a sophisticated rotation pattern, which worked out well for us. The six rowers are split into two groups of four. Three rowers and one spare in each group. The three rowers take turns being swapped with the spare. This way only one seat needs to swap, while the others keep rowing and everyone get to row in each of the three seats in the end.
| Seat 1 | Seat 2 | Seat 3 | spare/cox |
|---|---|---|---|
| __________ | __________ | _____________ | _____________ |
| A | B | C | D |
| D | B | C | A |
| D | A | C | B |
| D | A | B | C |
| C | A | B | D |
| C | D | B | A |
| C | D | A | B |
| B | D | A | C |
| B | C | A | D |
| B | C | D | A |
| A | C | D | B |
| A | B | D | C |
| A | B | C | D |
| __________ | __________ | _____________ | _____________ |
And repeat. Simple :)
With 30 minute shifts, this covers 6 hours with each getting 3 times half an hour rest.
There are competing philosophies to navigation. Lance’s dad is old school and uses his intuition for what the fastest route is, given wind, water and tides. Lance likes GPS auto pilot. We end up doing a longer distance than the other boat piloted by Lance’s dad, yet we are faster. Shorter need not be faster (i.e. shorter through water on a moving tide), and I’d like to credit our crew’s effort rather than GPS.
