Coxswain! Check your course!

As some of you may know, I was recently in a crew that was in a boating accident, whereupon a Trinity VIII was swept over the weir at Islandbridge. As a result our VIII now lying by the boathouse, roughly smashed into a III and a V. Naturally, the wanton destruction of the the boat, and the trauma that that has inflicted upon the cox and crew, has been a subject of much discussion in the last few weeks. As the discourse on great rowing smash-ups developed, reference was made to this spectacular crash at Henley.

I suppose what makes this video so funny and amazing to watch is the the cox is entirely oblivious to the danger which she is placing her crew in (which rings very familiar for the crew of that infamous Trinity VIII). The coach in the launch can clearly see the post ahead of them, and is bellowing “COXSWAIN, CHECK YOUR COURSE” repeatedly, but to no avail. Eventually, realizing that it’s too late to get her to steer out of the way, he screams “STOP ROWING! STOP ROWING! YOU’VE GOT TO STOP ROWING”. Still, nothing.

And then, with amazing succinctness, the VIII ploughs straight into the post, snapping all of the oars on bowside. The poor crew, they had obviously no idea it was coming, and you can see the shock as the blades are snapped in their hands. Also funny to watch, is Three Seat, who gets physically turfed out of the boat, and ends up going for a swim. The coach in the launch going “Oh my God!” They were so lucky they weren’t seriously injured on killed, but it makes for one funny video!

I wonder how long it was before that cox was given her P45…