Steering the Tideway Head
We hope you found our steering guide for the River Thames and the articles by expert coxswains useful.
Let us know how you did out on the water on race day. Do you have a video or audio of yourself coxing that you’d like to send us? We would love to include it on Coxmate’s Resources for Coxswains page. This page is all about you, everything a cox needs to improve skills, get new ideas and learn more.
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Best wishes in rowing,
The Rowperfect Team
Steering the Tideway Head - part 4
Hello again.
The Tideway Head is drawing near and we want you to perform your best, so we’re offering you a discount on any Coxmate product you buy.
Get a discount off any Coxmate products of 5% if you buy as a result of reading this email.
The voucher code is TIDEWAYHEAD use this at the checkout to receive your discount.
Coxmate products are in the Rowperfect online store under the category 'Coxmate'.
Enjoy your shopping and up your boat speed management game before the big race with our GPS speed measurement products.
Best wishes in racing,
The Rowperfect Team
P.S. The small print: this discount cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion. Rowperfect UK reserves the right to amend, alter or refuse to honour your purchase.
Steering the Tideway Head - part 3
Being fully prepared will give you the best chance of the perfect race for your crew.
The Rowperfect team has pulled together some other articles that may be helpful for your preparation. They are all about head racing and the role of the coxswain.
1. Rowing Related interviews Phelan Hill of the British Rowing crew about head racing and his advice.
2. The Regatta Ready Coxswain - a handy check list of what you’ll need on the big day. Written by Rob Colburn who coxed for Turkey and Columbia University New York, USA.
3. Kevin C Murphy is an American cox and he writes a blog called Ghost in the Machine
His advice in a nutshell:
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steer aggressively
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set up your moves (pushes)
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be creative
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be ready for anything
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be careful
4. And lastly, Seamus Labrum is another American from the Huskies Crew who writes about what he learnt in public speaking class to moderate his voice using his diaphragm to help his coxing calls have authority and get the right response from the athletes.
Again, good luck for your own race,
The Rowperfect Team
Steering the Tideway Head - part 2
Hope you got the steering instructions for the Tideway Head - now you'll be needing some good electronics.
 Did you know the boat slows down every time you steer? - Do you know how much your boat slows?
- And what it takes from the crew to get back to race speed afterwards?
Learn how to optimise your steering and the crew’s efforts by tracking the speed using the Coxmate SX with GPS and keep the crew on top of their game. If you're in a coxless boat, use the Coxmate GPS - it's 'distance per stroke' measure will show you if you slow down due to steering, tiredness or lack of skill with the oars.
The Coxmate SX is the most sophisticated of all the rowing amplifier units on the market. It has an in-built GPS, and displays rating, stroke count, time, speed, distance and cover. And The Coxmate GPS is similarly useful - you can download the speed graph of your race afterwards using the online software and see where you got slower and how your numbers contributed to your race result.
If you'd like to try one, we're happy to lend you any Coxmate product for a fortnight - test it for yourself.
Click here to enquire if you'd like to try a Coxmate .
The Rowperfect Team
www.rowperfect.co.uk
Steering The Tideway Head - part 1
Hello and thanks for signing up to get your free Steering Guide to the Tidal Thames Championship Course!
It’s printed below. The best way to use this guide is to use it to refine and improve your own race plan which you will work out with your coach and crew.
If you haven’t yet watched the official video Guide “Coxing a Tideway Head” it is on YouTube - well worth 10 minutes of your time.And the excellent Slides How to steer the Tideway - navigation rules and advice. A self-teach training course.
We also recommend you print out a map of the course and have it to hand as you read the Steering advice below. Here’s a good Tideway Map with course distances (you want page 2) from Mortlake to Putney. Note the island called “Chiswick Eyot” is sometimes pronounced ‘Ait’ rather than ‘ay-yot’.
We hope you go well in the race.
With best wishes
The Rowperfect Team
How to Steer the London Tideway Heads By Martin Haycock
From Chiswick Bridge to Barnes
Aim to be in the middle of the river 50:50 on either side of you.
Approaching Barnes Bridge
Aim to shoot the middle arch slightly left of centre, with your bows aiming towards the Bandstand as you come out of the bridge. i.e. you must steer before the bridge. Reason for this is to avoid shallow water on
Surrey shore just after Bridge.
From Barnes Bridge to start of the Crossing over bend
Watch at the bridge and estimate the distance between you and the Middlesex shore. Keep the same distance between you and Middlesex to beyond the Bandstand. After the Bandstand, you can begin slowly to drift towards the centre of the river so that when you start to steer the bend you are 50:50 in the river.
Crossing over bend to St Paul’s bend
Aim to remain 50:50 throughout this part of the river. As you come round St Paul’s, beware of cutting the corner and steering straight for the bridge. You must go round the bend, it is not a straight line.
Approaching Hammersmith Bridge
Everyone knows the ‘second lamp-post’ steering rule. However, the main current is closer to the Surrey bridge pier than you think. Therefore, imagine Boat Race day – two eights shooting the bridge with the second lamp post between them. The one closer to Surrey is slightly more in the stream. That is where you want your crew to be – as if you were an eight and keeping the lamp post between you and the other crew. Remember also that Bridge is not quite perpendicular to the river so you need to be pointing at a slight angle towards Harrods as you go through.
From Hammersmith to the Mile Post
As you come out of Hammersmith aim to stay parallel to the Surrey bank and not be drawn across into the middle of the river. Keeping one third from the Surrey shore. Imagine you have room for two eights
comfortably side by side between you and the Surrey shoreline at lower tide, 3 eights-worth of width at high tide, but be careful not to be too close to the shore.
From the Mile Post to the Black Buoy
From the mile post, keep in mind that the bay at Barn Elms is shallow but so is the water by Fulham football ground. Start to drift a little further away from Surrey. Again, because the scouring action of the river, the main channel is now closer to Fulham Football Ground than it used to be,
but do not cut the corner, sweep round towards the black buoy. When you are at Barn Elms rowing club – if you think you are on course to hit the Black Buoy, you are too close to Surrey so drift further towards the
middle of the river.
The Black Buoy to Putney Pier
At the Black Buoy, the channel and current are towards the centre of the river. Imagine an eight having room to row comfortably between you and the line of boats. Along the line of boats, steer with the line of boats, i.e. parallel to them on this course, until you get to London Rowing Club – the last of the line of boathouses. Then start to move towards the centre of the river and steer straight for the centre of the centre arch of Putney Bridge.
Martin Haycock coxed the winning Cambridge Blue Boats in 1993 and 1994, and went on to cox medal winning crews for Great Britain and England between 1993 and 2002. He has twice won at Henley Royal Regatta. This included a victory as coxswain of the record-breaking 1995 NCRA Ladies' Plate VIII containing Steve Trapmore. Their crew still holds the record time to Fawley of 2.55. Martin is a Life Member of London Rowing Club with 25 years of Tideway experience.
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