Guidelines for Control Commission at Rowing Regattas

Control Commission 3 Arrive in time for the morning officials briefing session. Coaches will be wanting to make changes Boats will start getting on the water quite early to warm up Cox & Boat Weighing needs to be available between 1 & 2 Hours before the First Race Marshal Holding area 1Km 2 3 Marshal 2 Bring a clipboard and pen At the control commission, you will be given a copy of the regatta draw to put onto your clipboard 5 1

Control Commission Boat Checks All boats MUST go through control commission before getting on to the water, and they will pass down between the racks to one of the 4 Jetty s where a checker will be waiting. Ensure they come down bow ball/ number first At all times, be encouraging and positive (NOT shouty) There will be a pattern of boats coming down e.g. all the U15 doubles will come down at a similar time BOAT CHECKS Use the bow number, school trisuit and boat class against the draw to establish who you are about to check Always ask them who they are. The stroke or coach should confirm the stroke s name/ school/ etc Check the boat has the correct bow number If not, the coach/ stroke must find the correct one, do not check them out until this is rectified Check the bow ball is white and firmly attached (protects the athletes in the event of a crash) Check the heel straps and shoes (ensures athletes can release their feet should they tip). Detail on next page Check the quick Release, must release both shoe straps with one pull Check bung covers are tightly closed Once you have done all the checks ( ), tell the boat that they are free to row and wish them luck E.g. St Albans Macintosh, you are cleared to row Good luck! Note the time the boat was checked out on your sheet Ensure that all check-out times are communicated to the Control Commission Admin (tick them off to keep track) E.g. Race 4, junior women's U14c doubles, lane 4, Assumption Govender, cleared at 10.35am

Heel straps: Must allow rower to get clear with no delay Best case scenario is a brand new, top of the range boat. Older boats often have their shoes fixed to the boat using string Each shoe should be independently tied (i.e. one shoe can be lifted independently of the other) Heel should lift up, to a max length of 7cm Very old boats have lace-up shoes. The athletes must show you they can release their feet if they tip (call a more experienced control commission person to deal with this) All other shoes should have this quick release capability, where athletes can use one hand to open the shoes (typically Velcro, with a handle to pull open the Velcro) However, it is unlikely any of the clubs will let the U14s row their precious top boats so .. Bow Ball: Must Secure, not be Perished or Loose

Control Commission Administration Example of GROA WhatsApp updates Coaches will visit you all day long to scratch crews or change athletes within a crew Confirm that changes are within rules ask Judge at Control Commission if you don t know Can t change more than 50% of the crew without scratching and re-entering the new crew Can t scratch a crew and enter a new crew in the recently-vacated lane (regatta master implications unless POJ approves the change) Record the check-out time noted for EVERY boat by your control commission team Where you see just one or two boats in a race have not been checked out, ask your team first if anyone assessed them. If not, send someone to ask the relevant coach where their crew is (sometimes coaches forget to scratch a crew). Record them as DNS (did not show) if they did not come through control commission (they will get a yellow card on the water, if they missed control commission) Ensure all officials are kept up to speed Send all crew change details to the Regatta Master via whatsapp Per race, send status update on the GROA whatsapp group about ten minutes before start time of race When all boats are checked out NB keep in race order do NOT jump about as it is hard to keep track on the water Race #- all boats checked out- except #scratched, #stroke changes, #late entries/ & DNS 4