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Ball Cup Regatta Sunday 9th May 2010
Instructions To
Competitors
Dorney
For those that have never been to Dorney, follow these instructions.
From the west, ignore your intuition , which tells you that Dorney is
on the Windsor Castle side of the M4 !
Exit the M4 at
junction 7, heading towards Slough. After about
half a mile, turn left at roundabout. Continue about a mile to a
further roundabout; turn left, a supermarket at 11 o’clock.
You will pass back over the motorway, going through Dorney
village. The lake complex is then on your right. If you
approach from the Maidenhead Road, you will see the Supermarket
Roundabout, as before. Reverse instructions coming from London.
Parking
Dorney Lake Services are quite strict regarding
vehicles. Please
respect their instructions. Cars should not
be parked alongside
the approach roads on the grass. Enter the trailer park, in which cars
must not be left; you will find the car park in the far left corner. The
trailer park is reserved for trailers only. We allow towing
vehicles to be left attached to the trailers. Parking method on other
sheet, basically, towing vehicle nose to centre line; enter park from
either end.
Tents
Good News !
DLS are continuing permission to allow us to erect club tents
along the ‘Bund’, that is the raised
area to the right of the approach road, alongside and above the lake. There are conditions! The
permission is dependent upon the grass not
being waterlogged – an announcement will be made the day or so
before the event.
Just
like the Nat Schools – A la
Agincourt ! We are not
saying too much at the moment about vehicles associated with the tents,
except to say that supporters
must still use the car parks. Any other
vehicle with the tent area must be parked along the edge of the road on
the lake side, not on the grass, and
so as to leave complete access to
arriving and departing vehicles, including trailers. You must
completely clear up your sites after the event. Future permission to
tent depends on how we treat the site this year.
Tent charge, to
support the event - £15, payable with entries.
Early
Arrivals
Trailers may be left at the Dorney Complex on Saturday Evening. For
overnight camping, Amerden Campsite is three minutes from
the lake.
(
Old Marsh Lane, Dorney, Tel 01628 627461 ) It is a small family
site, immaculately appointed, and will not tolerate noise. Book in
advance. Do not attempt to take a trailer there; you will not
turn to exit! Leave it at Dorney first )
Draw
It
is inevitable that with an event this size, alterations may be required
in the draw. Please email any mistakes ASAP. They may not all be
ours! We
will adjust by race day. Heat times will not change.
Safety
The accident and Red Cross ambulance station is situated at the corner
of the boathouse nearer the car park. Police, Fire and Hospital
contacts ( URN 1633-0103 Tel 0845-8505-505) will be
displayed on the complex notice board at the same point, as will the
circulation plan for boating on the lake. Grid ref is SU
935776. Safety patrol during racing will be by Old Windsor
Life Guards, a professional, fully appointed body.
Facilities
There will be portaloo facilities outside the boathouse.The downstairs
boathouse loos will be locked, but available by key from control for
the disabled. Showers and changing facilities are at the top of
the spiral staircase, as is the cafeteria. Please respect these
facilities. Any school or club abusing them will be permanently
excluded from the competition and reported to the ARA under their
public behaviour ruling. Would coaches please stress this point to
their crews.
Course
Circulation Pattern
To
view the Ball Cup Regatta Circulation
Pattern please click on Ball Cup 2010.
The
Competition
There will be no
paperwork to deal with on the day. Entries will have been paid for and
completed during the week before. ( Won’t they ?!! ) Simply
report to race control, informing of any scratchings. There will
be no crew numbers, only appropriate lane numbers at boating time.
Vital
Boating Instructions
1) All boats
must have an Empacher slot. Taping
of Race Code
and Lane No. on to the side of the boat is a non-starter.
2)
Crews must know their race number. They will be filtered by race
number and event colour code. Coaches please educate.
Crews
will not be called.
There will be a
‘Current Race’ Board in
operation at the filtering area which tells crews how near they are to
boating. This board overrides any potential start time. You should be
available at the reporting area at least half an hour before race time.
The Race Starters will not wait for late-comers. The first 5 races in
each division should report together at the start of the division.
Speed-up
The timetable
operates on a ‘one race per 5 minute’
basis. Please carry your blades to the boating stages before
reporting. You will not be allowed onto the stages without your blades.
Please arrange for helpers to clear blades and boats away from the exit
stage as soon as you finish. The exit stage is somewhat restricted.
Coaches should accompany all crews to the start and cycle during racing
on the
control tower side of the lake. Please advise
crews how to back onto a
starting pontoon in a side wind. Starters will only allow
limited
time at the start for crews that cannot do this. Use the ‘pass
the handle forward’ technique in the bows.
In
addition to the above, we stress that an
adult must accompany all crews
aged 14 and less to the start and during
racing. Verbal assistance may be
given to crews of this age during
racing.
Prizes
may be collected as soon as is convenient after each division.
Competitors will be awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze medallions.
Overall trophies will be presented for Ball Cup points winners and
runners-up. The original Ball trophies will again be presented
for the coxed fours 1st and 2nd events.
Could
any images suitable
for inclusion on our website please be sent to the secretary on CD. (
Not email,
please ). We also run a ‘Boat Mart’, if any of you wish to
purchase or sell equipment.
Constructive
criticism of the event would be welcomed, particularly regarding club
inclusion to The Ball; Schools ‘Rowing
Associations’ , Seat number restrictions etc. The Ball Ethics are
clear – we just need a clear way of formulating them.
What do you think of the 3-session split into boat categories ?. It
allows clubs to take advantage of the low entry cost and put children
into more than one event, as many races are straight finals.
Disadvantage is that it precludes boat sharing for many. The
alternative for sharing boats and double entering in a multilane event
is usually a non-starter, but our committee boat pool might alleviate
the situation.
To
avoid wasting everybody’s time, we shall continue to make no
allowances in the
draw for boat sharing. We sympathise, but there is no multilane
regatta where this is possible.
Does
anybody know of potential sponsors.? The cost of the Dorney facility,
however appropriate, is nevertheless high for a small-schools event.
The Henley Stewards are our annual munificent benefactors, but costs
soar.
Late,
Late, Late Entries When you look at the
draw,
if there are any gaps in races that you would like to fill with
additional entries, let me know by email. Only additional
entries taken; we cannot add heats or change entries.
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