2003 Eight Bites the dust!!!

Unfortunately while having a heavy battle last week at Shawnigan Lake in the eights, our Under-23 coxswain steered the winning 2003 shell over a stump that was hidden just under the water and it took a huge gouge out of the boat!! It tore a strip about 1cm wide and about 2.5 metre's long right down the middle of the boat.
It started to take on water and within 2 mins the stern was almost under water. Our coach took his boat over and removed 4 guys from the crew and the other 4 moved to the front of the boat and rowed it home to the boathouse. Luckily we were only about 1km away.
To make matters worse, as they were coming into the dock the cox was not using his brain and was coming in too fast.....couple that with a boat full of water which is sitting low in the water......next thing you know the bow rigger hits the dock and it gets torn clean off the boat!!
So now we have a shell with huge tear in it and a rigger that has been smashed in two!!
Thankfully we have a good boatman in Victoria and he said that he can fix it by removing the damaged area and put new carbon fibre on the shell. We'll have to order a new rigger though to the tune of $500!!

Anyway....he should have known better as we have been up and down that lake hundreds of times and we both know the stumps are there, guess he just forgot. It was a little reminder to me though....take stock of where the steel buoys are and always know where you are steering.
I haven't hit anything for 8 years! (knock on wood)
8 years ago while I was filling in as the cox of the 2000 Olympic training camp boat I hit a big plastic buoy at Elk Lake. There was no damage, other than to my ego!! Unfortunately I had been having a great row, but when you make a big mistake like that.....all they remember is your mistake.