I am one of the least competitive people in the world, but I stand in awe of idiots who enter events like the
Red Bull X-Row last weekend. Crews had to row from Lucerne to Zug, towns 30km apart on completely different lakes so they had to portage between the two. For some reason the organisers added another portage to cut a corner on Lake Lucerne as well.
There were some ingenious methods of carrying the boats, as regarding the portages simply as 'carrying the boat from the water to the boathouse, but longer' was obviously not going to work. Most teams seem to have had six people carrying the boat and a couple for the oars. A German crew called the Marcel Hacker All Stars won, and the Strength and Purchase crew from England came third. The picture shows a team from Austria - more pictures
here.
Despite my lack of competitive spirit, I have signed up for the
Great River Race in London next month. I went out training in our Solent Galley Bembridge on Sunday, heading for Itchenor (you can see the satellite track
here).
3 comments:
Glad you enjoyed the photos of the "X-Row"!
Only the Viennese attempted to carry the boat using "specialised equipment". Everyone else just carried it normally. Indeed, by the second and the third land transfers they had abandoned their bits of wood and straps.
The most efficient were the "All Stars" who carried the boat with four and regularly swapped those doing the carrying over.
Those are great pics, Nicholas. Sorry for just linking rather than full credit but it was getting late and it had been a hard day.
Looking back, 'specialised equipment' for a few bits of wood was overstating it a bit, but it was late etc...
No worries! Glad you enjoyed the images. We'll have to see which lunatics turn up next year!
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