Happy supposed-to-be-spring! Predicting snow for tomorrow. Enough already, am I right?
The miserable weather has not deterred many of you intrepid souls from getting your work done. Good for you! But, apparently, we need a refresher in the traffic pattern. I'm going to cut and past language from a few messages that I have recieved from folks recently.
1. The traffic pattern DOES NOT PERMIT PASSING ON SHORE. If that crew in front of you is in your way, bark at them and get them to move over. I'm not going to say that you can't ever give a better line to another crew, but unless there is loud communication on that front, you are just reinforcing bad behavior. And the next boat that overtaking crew encounters may not see it that way, and we may have an accident on our hands. So... pass to the middle. Got it?
2. "But novices are so slow and can't get out of the way so I just go around them." um, no. Give a shout in advance. and pass to the middle. You read #1, right? To quote one of my on-river pen pals, "Plan ahead people! 2 mistakes don't cancel each other out!"
3. Don't turn in front of bridge arches. Turn where the river is wide and where you have visibility. Please.
4. Don't drill by pairs through bridge arches when you have traffic behind. If you're by pairs, get over to the side and try to let traffic move past you.
And on a positive note, I got a note of kudos to an unnamed NU coach who had 2 eights side by side and were in the heat of battle in the powerhouse, and were both going to use the center arch to avoid the high school boat in the right arch and the coach made them correct to move one eight into the side arch. The high school boat heard the NU coach and scrambled a bit to make room, but that is how it is supposed to work.
Safety first everyone! If there are new coaches our there that you think are not recievging these, please send me their emails.
