By Chris Lang, USRowing Referee Southeast Region

One of the many challenges a crew faces on race day is the floating start. The floating start is used on courses without a fixed starting platform or stake boats. Crews are brought up to the line by referees and aligned for the race by a Judge at Start/Aligner stationed to the side of the course calling out commands to the crews.

First, the job of the referee at a regatta is to provide a safe and fair day of racing. After the equipment and environmental conditions are deemed safe, crews can launch for their races. The second part of the referee’s job is fairness where fairness is defined by the Rules of Rowing. The Rules of Rowing define a fair alignment as:

2-304 Alignment

(a) Before the start, the Judge at Start shall cause the bows of all boats to be aligned with the plane of the starting line.

(1) If wind or other conditions make alignment difficult, the Judge at Start shall use best judgment to determine when alignment is as correct as possible under the circumstances.

(b) When the Judge at Start is satisfied with the alignment, he or she shall so indicate by raising and keeping aloft a white or fluorescent green flag. If proper alignment is lost thereafter, the Judge at Start shall lower the white or fluorescent green flag and, if necessary to gain the Starter’s attention, shall raise a red flag.

With a floating start, the referee who is assigned as Judge at Start will use the provision of “if wind or other conditions make alignment difficult, the Judge at Start shall use best judgment to determine when alignment is as correct as possible under the circumstances.” This means the crews may be a foot or so up or down on each other at the start of the race.

Crews, particularly coxswains, can assist the Judge at Start. Before launching for a race, the crew and coxswain must know the following information: what race they are in, event number and heat, their lane assignment, their steering target, and the scheduled start time of their race. Another valuable piece of information to have is to know the two races before, so the crew will know when they need to be in the starting area. Coxswains can write the information down on a piece of tape with a Sharpie marker and stick the tape on their leg. Once the crew has launched, finished its pre-race warm up, and is approaching the starting area, the coxswain should remind the bow pair or four that they will be instructed to row directly by the Judge at Start/Aligner. The bow pair or four should look for the Judge at Start/Aligner, so they will know which direction the commands to row will come from.

Referees have two different ways of gathering crews for alignment on a floating start. One way is for the crews to be called to the starting line and each crew rows up independent of the other crews in their race. The second method is to collect all the crews in a race about 100 meters behind the starting line and bring them up together. Either way, the bow pair or four need to be listening for their lane number and or their team name to receive instructions from the Judge at Start/Aligner.

The Judge at Start/Aligner will be calling out several orders. Each crew needs to listen for their name and lane and quickly respond. For example, “Green Lake, lane 2, bow pair one stroke, Ashland, lane 5, bow four one stroke, Mt. Baker, lane 1, hold water.” A race where all crews respond quickly to the orders can be aligned and started in a short period of time. Crews slow to respond slow down the alignment process, which in turn will mean a longer time sitting on the starting line.

On the line, the coxswain should be checking his/her steering point and making corrections to keep the bow pointed at it. If the coxswain says, “bow give me a stroke,” this will cause the shell to not only move towards the coxswains steering point but also move the bow forward. When this happens, the Judge at Start/Aligner has to re-align all the crews again. To keep the boat from moving forward but still getting the bow pointed down the lane, a coxswain and crew should scull the boat around. To do this, the coxswain will say, “bow hand two seat your oar, two seat scull x number of strokes.” Two seat will hand his/her oar handle to three seat to hold onto and take bow’s oar handle. Two seat moves the handle around so the blade of the bow oar is next to the shell, the oar is almost parallel with the shell. Two seat will take small, pick-like strokes. To move the bow in the other direction, two seat will hand his/her oar to three seat. The key to sculling the bow is keeping the blade as close to the shell as possible so the bow moves side-to-side and not forward. Coxswains and crews should practice sculling the boat around prior to race day.

If there is a cross wind that pushes the bow off course, the coxswain should keep the shell’s bow pointed approximately 10 degrees into the wind while approaching the starting line and while sitting on the line during the alignment process. Getting a fair alignment in a crosswind is difficult to keep for any period of time.

Coxswains and crews need to be ready to race before they approach the starting line. Last gulp of water, hair in ponytail, and rowers stripped down has to be done before the Judge at Start/Aligner starts giving commands. Coxswains need to anticipate their steering point as they approach the starting line and make adjustments as they are rowing.

Anytime a coxswain is making an adjustment on the starting line, the bow rower’s hand and arm need to be raised high. This is telling the Starter the crew is not ready to race. If another adjustment is needed on the starting line, have bow raise his/her hand high, give the quick sculling command to your rowers, execute the strokes and get your rowers back ready for the start. Most of the delays on a floating start occur because coxswains raise a hand, wait several seconds before deciding what command to give, and the rowers are slow to respond. The alignment is lost and the process starts over.

When a Judge at Start/Aligner has a fair alignment, he/she will raise a white or fluorescent green flag to notify the Starter that the race can start. A member of each crew should be assigned to look for the Judge at Start’s flag and notify the rest of the crew that the race is aligned. The crew’s attention can then focus on the starter’s commands.

Prior to race day, coaches should run their crews through a race day skills checklist, which should include aligning next to other crews, learning to hold a steering point in a cross wind, sculling a shell and responding quickly to Judge at Start/Aligner commands. On the days practice starts are scheduled, a coach can put his/her crews through the skills. Coaches also can invite referees to their practices to run the crews through mock starting line procedures. USRowing referees and contact information are listed in the back of the Rules of Rowing.