2009 World Outgames – Day 3
This morning’s coach and coxie meeting had many empty seats. To accommodate the full complement of races, the meeting started at 08:00h. so it was understandable that some couldn’t get there right on time. To the enjoyment of everyone at the meeting, the chief referee had a wry sense of humor and he would slide in comments to break up the formality of the regatta rules: “…50% crew changes are of course permitted except of course in a single…”
Using a super complicated excel spreadsheet, it appeared that there would be no race conflicts but soon the ugly truth came out: some crews had to scratch or move to other heats in order to make the quick turns. With a limited supply of boats, crews had to ‘hot boat’ with entire teams jumping out and in of a boat at the dock.
The weather in Copenhagen and Denmark for that matter is kind of like Chicago, only more dynamic. The usual phrase of ‘…don’t like the weather? Wait five minutes…’ turned into ‘wait wait, it’s going to be rainy, windy, stormy, sunny, um … well it’s nice now.’ The forecasted building strong winds did hold for part of the day as boats fought to back into their handheld starts.
There was one very long restart, after the mens master double had reached 500m, all crews were called back for another start. The reason: one boat was on a collision course for the shore and two other boats barely missed a major collision. There was one carry over from the previous day, the men’s double open which had be called the previous day due to equipment problems. Fitting the race in sounded easy but it became a case of nope, nope, nope. Finally, the LA solution appeared: everyone else wait, we’re going.
The mens and womens open eight finished the days competition and the medal ceremonies bounced around from silvers to golds to bronzes but everyone had fun and the GLRF announcer commentary kept some faces in a continual state of bright rouge. As a community, some rowers have shared a few intimate moments with one or more … View the medal pics .
After a quick clean up and a row to stow event by an all-hands effort, crews headed home to primp and dress for the evening’s celebratory Sailor Splash party at the Danske Studenters Roklub . It was amazing how many donned various styles of Naval uniform to get a free drink. The club was decorated like a setting from a Harry Potter novel. Bars with hot bartenders served strange sounding drinks while wearing very little. A small choir enchanted the dinner guests. Decorations adorned every corned of the club. Once the buffet was cleared away, the party guests began to pour in. Pulsating, multi-colored lights shone across the open boatyard as rowers and guests gathered for some open air dancing which headed inside at midnight and continued until 5 am. Those Danes really like to party. See the party pics .
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