Coxes row novelty race
The coxswains’ novelty race is a “spectacle” set to provide plenty of laughs.
Coxswains will have a chance to get on the oars in a coxed four or quad at the end of today’s racing.
Rowers and coxswains swap roles in the novelty race, which will take place after the Springbok Shield and Levin 75th Jubilee Cup races.
Coxswain weigher Kimberley Pilbrow said it was a fun race, which gave the coxes a chance to row.
The 500 metre race would be run right in front of the audience “so we can all laugh.”
All U18 fours would be off the water before the coxswains were let loose, and there would be a few coaches nervously watching their boats, she said.
Swapping roles can have several challenges.
Rowers -turned-coxswains would need to adjust to facing forwards and looking after an expensive boat. Sometimes schools put their largest rowers in, for extra laugh value.
Rowing coxswains’ size might make getting the oar into the water difficult, meaning they could ‘catch crabs,’ slowing or stopping the boat, or even flipping it.
Crews could be made up of students from several schools, and contain both boys and girls, like in the one Deidre Burke was signing up. Burke is with Onslow College, which had a full boat in the novelty race, but one coxswain left.
She took it upon herself to find her crewmates, and recruited some at Hamilton Boys’.
The Hamilton Boys’ coaches were not keen on letting the coxes out in their boats, but allowed them to participate when Burke offered the use of one of Onslow’s.
Burke said the race was worth seeing. “You get these little guys who really haven’t done too much rowing, hammering it down the course. It’s not sedate. They just go for broke.”
She said it was great to have coxswains in the spotlight, because they sometimes missed out on the attention they deserved. “People that have been rowing for a long time appreciate the contribution that a coxswain makes to the crew. A good coxswain can give you a length in a race.”
Rowers would be relishing the chance to see if the coxswains could put the rowing tips they dished out into practice.
“[The coxswains] are a little bit competent… competent enough not to injure themselves or ruin the boats, but it’s always a bit of a spectacle.”
Jack Donaldson, 17, of Hamilton Boys’ High School was “pretty amped” about the race. He said the hardest parts would be “just not flipping, and also fitness,” as well as working with someone new.
