stories / The First Ten FISA Veterans Regattas
by Norman A. Thetford
1. First FISA Veterans Regatta – Heidelberg, Germany 1981
2. Our First FISA Medals – Amsterdam, Holland 1982
3. Behind the “Iron Curtain” – Prague, Czechoslovakia 1983
4. YOFRA Joins NHRC – Ghent, Belgium 1984
5. CA Henley, FISA and the Masters Games – Toronto 1985
6. Back to Eastern Europe – FISA in Bled, Yugoslavia 1986
7. First Time in Scandinavia – Lila Edet FISA 1987
8. On to Scotland – FISA Strathclyde 1988
9. Two International Regattas 1989
10. The Second World Masters Games
11. FISA Vichy 1989
12. First Time in Italia – FISA Viareggio 1990
1. First FISA Veterans Regatta – Heidelberg, Germany 1981
The year 1981 saw a significant increase in the competitive membership with the arrival of experienced college oarsmen, such as John Brackett and Rick Dyer, and former athletes in other sports, such as Kris Keggi (fencing). Kris became interested in rowing through his daughter Mara, who was rowing in prep school and joined the club to continue practice in the summer. Mara eventually made it all the way to the Olympics in the pair!
The regattas we competed in at that time were typically a home-and-home with the Hartford Barge Club, the Northeast Regionals, the Head of the Connecticut and the Head of the Charles. Kris, who had lived in Germany, heard about a regatta for veterans in Heidelberg in mid-September and suggested that we attend. This was a significant undertaking for a young club, both competitively and financially, but Kris was able to obtain some funding from one of his hip prosthetic companies. A group of four of us (John Brackett, Kris Keggi, Norm Thetford, Rick Dyer) started training, with some occasional coaching from Dave Vogel. We had been rowing with a former Yale coxswain, Guy Gregoire, who was very good, but we thought (incorrectly, as it turned out!) that we had to have a coxswain that was the same average age as the four rowers. So, we recruited Tony Marks, a former Navy coxswain, to take Guy’s place.
To save money, we booked flights on Icelandic Air from New York to Luxembourg, with a stop in Reykjavík, Iceland. We arrived on Wednesday, September 9 and rented a van in Luxembourg, put the oars on top, and drove east towards Heidelberg, with Kris acting as the tour guide! Our first stop was Trier, where we explored Roman ruins dating to 2BC. Then it was on to the town of Bernkastel, a very picturesque town on the banks of the Mosel River. We arrived at dusk, and Kris took us to an old (1639) weinstube located in the middle of one of the streets where we had some fine wine and cheese, and where Tony practiced his German!
After dinner, we continued on, arriving in Heidelberg after 11pm. Kris thought his travel agent had made reservations at the zum Ritter Hotel, which dates to 1592, in the center of Heidelberg. We discovered, however, that the reservations were actually at the zum Ritter Hotel in Neckargemuend, some 8km farther on! That hotel was even older – built in 1286! We all slept soundly that night!
On Thursday, we went to the course and registered. Our rental boat would not arrive until Friday, but we were able to borrow another boat to go for a row, which was very helpful in combating jet lag. After rowing on the Neckar River, we had time to explore the city and had several beers at the famous “Red Ox Inn,” which was popular with students and tourists. This was the first trip to Europe for two of us (John and Norm) and the first in many years for the others.
Friday, we returned to the course and discovered that the rental boat that had been allocated for our use was a very old design with immovable riggers, making it impossible to adjust for our sizes. Fortunately, since Kris spoke German, he was able to talk to some other local rowing clubs and get us a better hull to race in.
Saturday was race day, with the first race at 8:00 am and every five minutes thereafter until 6:00 pm. Our event was the C4+ (avg. age 38-44) and we started at 9:55 am. We were in lane 3, with Worcester RC of the UK in lane 1, de Maas of Holland in lane 2, Kassel RC of Germany in lane 4, and de Hoop of Holland in lane 5. We had a fairly good race, coming in second to Worcester by 0.9 seconds, about one seat difference.
After the race, we met the fellows from WRC and de Hoop, and the friendship that developed has lasted for over 30 years! The coach for the Worcester club was Barrie Burke, and for many years he adopted us every time we came to Europe to row. We also purchased some attractive sweaters that the WRC fellows had brought with them as a fund raiser. We admired their crest, which had been embroidered on the sweaters, and decided that we needed something like that for our club. (On our return, there was a club-wide meeting to design the NHRC crest.) The fellows from de Hoop told us about their regatta the following weekend in Amsterdam but we could not change our tickets at that late date. In future years, we did compete at the de Hoop regatta after going to the FISA regatta if it was in Europe, which was a lot of fun. We also tried to sell our oars, since we were the only club with fiberglass oars, which were much lighter than the wooden ones that were in general use at the time, but there were no takers. We did better in future years – maybe because we won more often!
On Saturday evening, there was a big party for all the rowers and their friends at the castle on the hill overlooking Heidelberg. The castle’s origins date to 1214. In addition to the usual banquet, they had two dance bands – one for the younger set and one for the more mature rowers! They also had tours of the restored parts of the castle, including the Great Tun – an enormous wine barrel capable of holding 58 thousand gallons of wine! That was to provide sustenance for the castle occupants in the event of a long siege!
Toward the end of the evening, they staged a recreation of the storming of the castle by the French in 1693. It was very impressive, with sheets of flame streaming down the walls and other pyrotechnics as well. We were all in the courtyard, and it seemed as if we were part of the action since we were so close to the fireworks. (Today, they have the same presentation, but spectators have to stand on the Alte Brücke—a quarter of a mile away!)
On Sunday morning, the organizers closed off the street in front of the boathouse and provided a Dixie Land band. All the rowers and their significant others spent a wonderful morning dancing and talking with fellow competitors. The equal emphasis on social activities as well as on competition was a hallmark of the early FISA Veterans regattas. That balance has eroded over the years as the regatta has grown in size (now up to five days!) and the competition has intensified.
On Sunday afternoon, we had an opportunity to do some more sightseeing. Kris took us first to Freiburg to see the cathedral, and then to the ruins of the Hochburg Castle, near Emmendingen at the foothills of the Black Forest. It is one of the largest ruined castles in the Upper Rhine Valley, second only to the Heidelberg Castle. Kris had lived in the area and took us on a lengthy walk through fields and vineyards up to the castle, telling us that that was the only way to get there. Once we arrived, we discovered that there was now a very good road leading up to the castle! To finish the day, we all went to the casino at Baden-Baden and were able to “piggy-back” on Kris’ wagers at the Blackjack table. He was successful, and we all were very satisfied with the day’s activities.
On Monday, we checked out of the hotel and took Kris to the Frankfurt airport so that he could get home early to do some surgery. The four of us then continued driving west, stopping at Mainz, where we discovered we could take a short cruise on the Rhine from Mainz to Bacharach and back again.
That was quite interesting, and we all climbed up to the Schloss at Bacharach to take pictures of the Rhine valley. After leaving Mainz, we continued west along the Mosel River, stopping at a B&B along the way for the night. On Tuesday, we turned in the van and flew home, along with the oars.
Our experience on this trip convinced us of several things: we needed to do this again, we needed to get more rowers (and wives) to join us, we needed to train harder, and we needed to plan for a two-week trip to take advantage of all the sightseeing and rowing opportunities!
2. Our First FISA Medals – Amsterdam, Holland 1982
After our successful trip to the FISA regatta in 1981, there was substantial interest from other club members in going to the next FISA regatta in Amsterdam. As a result, we doubled the number of competitive rowers and nearly tripled the total number of people attending! By adding Steve Flagg, Ed Offchiss, Ned Williams and Hugh Thompson, along with Jim Segaloff as our coxswain, we were able to enter a C4+, a D4+ and a C8+. (C=average age 38–44, D=average age 45–51)
Since this FISA regatta took the place of the usual post-FISA Amsterdam regatta, we elected to go to London for a few days before traveling to Amsterdam. We arrived on Thursday, September 23, and stayed at the Penn Club, a modest B&B on Bedford Place in the Bloomsbury area of London – a great location to use as a base for seeing London! Through the good offices of one of John Brackett’s colleagues, we were also able to make arrangements on Friday to borrow a four-oared shell from St. Paul’s School and row on the Thames from Hammersmith Bridge to Chiswick Bridge – about half of the course that Cambridge and Oxford compete on each year. (The boat that St. Paul’s provided for us had seats that did not have the usual holes for the ischia tuberosities, and Ned developed several blisters as a result, which he still remembers!) Rowing on the Thames really made us appreciate what a wonderful venue we have in Connecticut!
On Saturday, we took the train up to Worcester for a scrimmage with the Worcester Rowing Club, whose coach, Barrie Burke, had “adopted” us after we met him in Heidelberg the previous year. WRC rows on the Severn River, which, due to a fair amount of rain the previous week, was higher than normal and had a pretty swift current. We even saw some good-sized trees and a few dead sheep floating by as well! The course there is wide enough for only two shells to race, similar to the course at Henley, so you have to row a series of elimination races. We combined the two clubs’ members into fours and eights and had about a dozen races to get to the winner. Steve Flagg was the only one of NHRC who made it through the races in a winning boat. The WRC boathouse was interesting in that the upper level was both a club room and a well-stocked bar! The rowers there appear to use beer as a training beverage, and, according to Barrie, they drank enough to pay off the mortgage from the bar proceeds!
On Monday, we took the 7:40 pm train from Liverpool Station to Harwich where we boarded the overnight Stena ferry to the Hook of Holland. There, we boarded the train to Amsterdam, arriving at 9:00 am on Tuesday. To keep costs manageable but still be comfortable, we arranged to stay in four-person cabins on the ferry. It was just as well, since there were dozens of apparently inebriated soccer fans stretched out all over the lounge area!
In Amsterdam, we stayed at a classic Dutch hotel: Hotel “de Lantaerne.” The hotel was centrally located near the Leidseplein, the main center for nightlife in Amsterdam. It also had very steep staircases and no elevator. It was a good thing that we were all relatively young and in good shape!
After checking in, Rick Dyer and Norm Thetford obtained a map of Amsterdam and located where the de Hoop boathouse was. They headed over there, assuming that was where the regatta was going to be. Upon arriving at the boathouse, they discovered that the races were going to be held at the “Bosbaan,” which was a purpose-built rowing course some 3.5 miles southwest of the de Hoop boathouse. Fortunately, there was a class of novice rowers who had just graduated from training, and two of them gave Rick and Norm a ride to the Bosbaan to see the facility.
The course at the Bosbaan was much better than the course at Heidelberg: no bridges, no current, no commercial traffic, dedicated launching and recovery docks, a grandstand, a multi-bay boathouse, and lots of lawn space for boat racks. There was also a path along the edge of the course where the coaches could follow the progress of rowers while riding a bike. It was too early to get access to our rental boat on Tuesday, so we spent the rest of the day getting familiar with Amsterdam.
On Wednesday, we were able to borrow an eight to go for a practice on the Bosbaan course. Our “adopted” European coach, Barrie Burke, had come over separately and was able to follow us along the course on his bicycle. He thought we appeared to be rowing better than when he had seen us in Heidelberg the previous fall.
On Thursday, we were able to register and finally meet Meta van Dijk and her husband, Wim. Meta was the secretary for the Dutch Rowing Federation (the equivalent of our USRowing) and handled all the entries and the scheduling of the races. Norman had corresponded with Meta over several months about our entries and had had several early-morning phone calls as well, when time was getting short. Wim was the director of the regatta as well as a FISA referee. They were a delightful couple, and that was the beginning of a 30+ year friendship!
On Friday, we had another good practice and felt that we were ready to race! We commented to Meta that there were only a few clubs setting up tents and rigging their boats, despite the schedule calling for over 110 clubs to be racing the next day. She said that all the Germans (who were more than half of the entries) would arrive during the night – and she was right. Saturday morning, the racks were full of boats, and it seemed as if a thousand rowers had suddenly appeared!
Racing began at 8:00 am and ran on five-minute centers. Our first race, at 9:45 am, was the C4+ with Hugh Thompson, Ed Offchiss, Norm Thetford and Ned Williams, with Jim Segaloff as cox. There were six boats in the race, and we were in lane 2, with German crews in lanes 1, 3 and 5, a French crew in lane 4, and our friends from Worcester in lane 6. We started on time, but the crew in lane 3 broke its rudder and had to drop out. The restart was good, and we had moved out a seat by the end of the starting sequence. By 500 meters, we had almost a length lead over the German crew in lane 1, our closest competitor. They took the rating up with 400 meters to go and started catching up to us. With about 100 meters to go, they were just about even! Jim had us really bear down in the last 15 strokes of the race, but the finish was too close to call from the water. The judges had to review the video multiple times, and it was several minutes before they declared us the winner by .03 seconds – about five inches! It was the closest race of the day. Worcester finished four lengths back, so we were definitely faster than the year before!
After putting our shell away, we rested and then prepared for the race in the C8+ at 1:30pm. For this race, we were joined by John Brackett, Rick Dyer, Steve Flagg, and Kris Keggi (who would row the D4+ later that day). We were in lane 4 with German crews in lanes 1,3,5, and 6 and a Dutch crew in lane 2. We had a good start and were right in the thick of it for about 600 meters, but the strain of the earlier race began to tell, and we finished about a half-length behind the strong German crew in lane 5.
Once back at the docks, the D4+ fellows had to quickly get their boat out since they only had about 35 minutes before their race at 2:20pm. They made it to the start on time and lined up in lane 1, with German crews in lanes 2,3,5, and 6, and a British crew in lane 4. Their start was very good, and they had a half-length lead over the field after 20 strokes. By the finish, they had a two- length lead over the nearest crew and six lengths over the slowest crew! All- in-all, we had a very satisfying day with everyone getting a medal!
After returning to the hotel and getting cleaned up, most of the rowers and their wives all went to the big party/reception prepared by the organizers. Our president, Bob Macartney and his wife, Carol, who had surprised us by showing up at the course, were also able to attend. It was in a former cathedral that had been converted into a hotel. The center, which was originally the nave of the church, had been converted into a dance floor. The “banquet” was served on six different floors, each with a different cuisine from one of the countries represented at the regatta. Most of us ate each component of the meal in a different place—a most interesting experience!
On Sunday morning, we all went on a special canal-boat tour of Amsterdam arranged by the organizers. It was longer than the usual tour and went to some places not normally on the route. We all enjoyed it, and many of us took pictures and movies. In the afternoon, we visited some of the usual tourist sites such as the Rijksmuseum and the Anne Frank house.
On Monday, we toured the Floriade, an extravaganza of flowers held every ten years. While it was somewhat late in the season, there were still many beautiful plants in bloom.
On Tuesday, the group was invited, through Wim and Meta, to join them at the home of Arie Landaal, the head of the Dutch Rowing Federation, for an afternoon at Arie’s home. We made sure that we selected a beautiful bouquet of flowers before leaving as it is de rigueur when visiting a person’s home in Holland to bring flowers! We also had several sweaters that we had embroidered with our new crest that made good gifts.
The afternoon was a great success! In addition to hours of conversation, Arie gave us a tour of some very old windmills at Zaandam that were built in the 16th and 17th centuries. At the “De Huisman” windmill, a mustard mill, Steve Flagg bought several containers of mustard, and Norman bought a paper construction model of the mill. Since the instructions were all in Dutch, he had quite a challenge figuring out how to assemble it! During our time at Arie’s house, we also discovered the beautiful music of Gheorghe Zamfir, the master of the pan flute. Arie had it playing as background music, and we all were mesmerized by the beautiful tones and Zamfir’s mastery of the pan flute. According to Meta, we managed to drink the better part of a case of Arie’s wine during the day!
Everyone felt it was a wonderful two weeks with many new sights and experiences. We all started thinking about the next FISA trip to Prague in 1983.
3. Behind the “Iron Curtain” – Prague, Czechoslovakia 1983
Planning for the 1983 FISA regatta in Prague was more complicated since it entailed dealing with extra procedures incident to being in a country in the Eastern European Bloc. Among the additional items we had to deal with were four-page visas with photographs, the requirement to have an official letter from the Czech Tourist Bureau requesting our presence, and the requirement to spend a certain amount of hard currency - Deutsch Marks (DM), at that time.
We flew into Frankfurt on Wednesday, September 21. We had a party of 20 – all of the rowers from the 1982 regatta, plus five new ones: Jim Elting, Gordon Kuster, Hartley Rogers, Baxter Walsh, and Mike Hurley. We also had five wives plus Semina DeLaurentis, Rick’s significant other. We rented two vans, each holding up to nine people, and Kris had purchased a new Porsche 928 which was delivered to the airport. Kris graciously gave most of us a chance to drive it for a short while!
We drove to Heidelberg, where Kris had arranged for us to have a practice at the Heidelburger Rowing Club, and stayed at the Hirschgasse Hotel. On Thursday, after practice, we drove east towards Nuremberg where we would cross the border. At the first set of gates, the examination was rather perfunctory, and we were passed through quickly, leading us to think that the process was going to be easy! The second set of gates was the real entrance to East Germany and they were much more substantial! We spent the better part of two hours there while some clerk painstakingly copied all the information from our visas into some sort of logbook. He also made a note on each of our visas about which vehicle we had arrived in, and he told us that we were always to ride in that vehicle during our stay in Czechoslovakia. Needless to say, we ignored his advice!
By the time we cleared the border crossing process, it was nearly dusk. Driving eastward toward Pilsen, there was very little traffic on the main roads or in the small towns that we passed through. One thing became quite obvious as night fell: there were almost no streetlights! For most of the way, the highway edges were marked by a row of trees with wide bands painted on their trunks in reflective white paint, similar to the blackouts of World War II.
We arrived in Pilsen about 9pm and looked for a restaurant. We did locate one restaurant, but as we pulled up in front, we could see the proprietor look out the window, whereupon he turned out all the lights! Apparently he did not have any food to sell, so we continued on to Prague, arriving there about 11pm. Although we knew the address of the Olympic Hotel, we did not have a map of Prague and were not sure of which way to go. However, we were fortunate that we did see a fellow on the side of the road who spoke Polish, as did Dusty Offchiss. After a brief conversation, he agreed to lead us to the hotel!
We were able to check in fairly easily but had to purchase a wad of scrip with our DM, ostensibly to pay for things like breakfast, parking, and phone calls. The Olympic was fairly typical of an Eastern European hotel that catered to international visitors. The beds were reasonably comfortable, but the various items in the room, such as a desk, a lamp, and a radio, were either much heavier than normal, such as the lamp, or bolted to the floor or desk, such as the radio! I guess they were worried about someone stealing.
It appeared that the organizers had put most of the Western crews in the Olympic, probably so that the secret police could more easily keep an eye on them. It would not be surprising to find out that every room was bugged!
Although breakfast was included, it was a poor substitute for what we were used to. The coffee was basically an ersatz grain beverage, and there were no fresh vegetables. They did have eggs, but the cooks used so much lard in cooking that the eggs were not appetizing. By the end of the three days there, everyone had lost some weight! The one bright spot was the beer! The desk attendant had a ready supply of six-packs at the front desk, the price was quite reasonable, and the beer was a very good lager from Pilsen.
The course was on the Vltava River, which is the main river draining the western third of Czechoslovakia. Its source is in Austria, and it empties into the Elbe about 270 miles to the northwest. The Vltava reminded us somewhat of the Neckar River in Heidelberg in that there was a fair amount of commercial traffic, but, unlike in Heidelberg, the organizers could not stop the commercial traffic in Prague! That led to frequent delays in the racing to let a group of barges go by.
Getting boats onto the launching dock was also a challenge. The bank was steep, and only one boat could be loaded or retrieved at a time. The boats had to be parallel to the bank, and the rowers had to bunch up at the ends since there were only two ramps from the shore to the dock. The dock, itself, had several loose boards that we had to navigate around.
Similar to what we found in Heidelberg, some of the boats that we had rented were essentially un-rowable, due to inadequate maintenance or poor design. Fortunately, Kris Keggi was able to secure a four from an East German crew which was on a par with the best boats we had in our fleet in Connecticut. (After the reunification of the two Germanys in 1990, the FISA Commission purchased many of the East German hulls for use as rental boats at various regattas, including the FISA Veterans. Each year we would see the same boats, which, in many cases, still had the temporary markings from the previous year’s regatta!)
Although we had three fours and an eight entered, only the D4+ with Steve Flagg, Kris Keggi, Norm Thetford, Rick Dyer and Jim Segaloff was successful in winning a medal. The other two fours finished a close 2nd in their races, but the eight finished third.
The social party that evening was a disappointment. The music was satisfactory; however, despite knowing how many tickets had been sold, the organizers ran out of food and wine. Fortunately, they had lots of beer!
Sunday morning, as we were checking out, we still had a lot of scrip left from when we checked in three days earlier. We learned that we could use it to make phone calls, so everyone made calls back to the U.S., waking up their spouses or children at 3am!
Sunday was the only day we did some sightseeing in Prague. At one time, Prague was considered the “Paris of the East,” but it certainly did not look like that at the time. There were very few tourist-type attractions, but we did see a few old cathedrals and some ornate buildings. One interesting item was the Charles Most (Bridge) over the Vltava River, which dates to 1357. It was famous for being in the movie Yentl, but when we there, the 30 Baroque statues were covered in soot, with only some gold eyes showing. (Rick Dyer and Norm Thetford were back in Prague for the 2002 FISA regatta, and the statues had all been cleaned and were quite striking!) When we had driven into town for our sight-seeing, Kris Keggi had parked his Porsche near the entrance to the Charles Most (which was pedestrian only). When we returned from the bridge, his car was surrounded by a dozen or so soldiers! Our concern was quickly allayed when it became apparent that the soldiers, who were all young men, were fascinated by being able to see a Porsche up close instead of just in pictures. To make their day complete, Kris permitted one of them to sit in the driver’s seat and then took his picture using a Polaroid SX-70 camera. They apparently had never seen a Polaroid camera before and were amazed when the picture developed in front of their eyes!
Instead of returning to Germany immediately, we drove south to Austria, crossing the border near Wullowitz. Leaving Czechoslovakia was a lot easier than entering! After a brief check of our visas and passports, we were on our way. Once across the border, the differences were pronounced! We stopped almost immediately to get some real coffee and chocolate and to have a decent meal.
The van that Ed Offchiss was driving had developed brake problems in Prague, but there was no place there that he could get it fixed. So, he drove all the way to Salzburg, using a combination of downshifting and the parking brake to get there safely. He managed it with complete aplomb!
We spent two nights in Salzburg, seeing the key sights and going to a marionette theater. Then it was on to Munich for the Octoberfest! We had not made reservations ahead of time since we were not sure of our schedule, but we located the local Munich Rowing Club, and within a half-hour they found us a charming place – Hotel am See – in the village of Tutzing, on the edge of the Starnberger See. Tutzing was the last stop on the S-Bahn line into Munich, so it was very easy for us to get to either the Theresienwiese, where the beer tents were, or to the Hofbräuhaus in downtown Munich.
After Munich, we drove west, stopping first at Mainz. The new members of the group wanted to duplicate the Rhine cruise experience we had in 1981, but we had to settle for a shorter cruise to just some of the local stops since the schedule had changed. We continued on, stopping at Bernkastel, and then on to Amsterdam, where we checked into the de Lantaerne hotel again.
The De Hoop regatta was on the Amstel River and consisted of a series of both sprint races and head-style races, all finishing at the boathouse. (When we were designing the current NHRC boathouse, we used the De Hoop boathouse as a model, with the clubroom, a kitchen and a deck, all features that we had enjoyed at the De Hoop boathouse in Amsterdam.) The De Hoop club is one of the oldest in the Netherlands, founded in 1848. Wim and Meta van Dijk were members there, and it was great to see them again. Our D8+ was successful in the head race, and at the party in the evening, we received a large circular tray as a trophy, in addition to individual medals. Unfortunately, the tray had to stay in Amsterdam, but we have a picture of it!
We left Amsterdam, knowing we would be back the next year, since the FISA regatta would be in Ghent, Belgium in 1984, only 140 miles to the south.
4. YOFRA Joins NHRC - Ghent, Belgium 1984
Given our interesting, and successful, trip to Prague and Amsterdam in 1983, more rowers (and wives!) decided that going to Europe was an opportunity not to be missed. Several rowers, Hugh Thompson, Jim Elting and Ken Ives, who had previously rowed with NHRC as affiliates, formed their own club, the Yale Old Fellows Rowing Association (YOFRA), recruited Jim Cogswell, and competed both with and against NHRC. Fortunately, we never had to race each other in the same heat! We also helped the Hartford Barge Club, with whom we had had a home-and-home regatta series for many years, to enter several boats in the regatta, this being their first time going to a FISA Veterans regatta. All told, we had a party of 36 rowers and wives, compared to 26 the previous year.
Since we would be racing in Amsterdam the week following the FISA regatta, we flew into Amsterdam on Wednesday, September 26, and drove to Ghent. We stayed at the Hotel Cour St. Georges, the oldest part of which dates to the year 1228, and is considered the oldest operating hotel in Europe! It is located in the center of Ghent, so was very convenient for shopping and eating during our off hours. That turned out to be fortuitous, since Steve Flagg, due to an injury, was unable to race, and became our social chairman, setting up dinner reservations for the large group at nice restaurants. He should have received a medal for his efforts!
We had six entries in the regatta: a C4+, (2) D4+, and E4+, an E1x, and a D8+. YOFRA entered a D4+ in addition to rowing with us in the D8+. As we had noticed in Prague, the competition was getting better! While we were always in contention, the only race that we won was the D8+ at the end of the day—the very last race of the regatta! The weather had turned rainy and cool by then, but we didn’t mind at all. Steve Flagg was also there to film the end of the race and record our receipt of the medals.
We had made arrangements with the de Hoop club in Amsterdam to take our oars back with them, since we would be there at the end of the week; however, when we went to retrieve the oars from where they were placed after the last race, two were missing! Norman looked around the various trailers that were still loading, but did not see them and decided to look again in the morning.
After the racing, we cleaned up and attended the banquet and danced. On Sunday, the organizers had arranged for a tour of the city, including its canals. While they were scenic, they can’t hold a candle to Amsterdam’s canals!
After the tour, Norman went back to the rowing course and looked through all the trailers that were still there but saw no sign of the oars. He then went into the boathouse of the local rowing club (V.V.R) (Vereniging Veteranen Roeiers = Association of Veteran Rowers) and started looking there. After some time, he discovered the handles sticking out from another pile of older oars that were shorter and had been stored in the rafters! By this time, the de Hoop trailer had left so we had to take the two oars with us on our travels, but we were glad to get them back! We took advantage of having a set of crossed oars when we took a picture of the group on the steps of the hotel before leaving.
The NHRC rowers split into two groups for the three days until we returned to Amsterdam. One group went to France and Paris, and the other went to Bruge and other parts of Belgium. The visit to Bruge was interesting, and we had another canal tour and learned about the history of lace making there. The group that went to Paris went to a famous nightclub called the Crazy Horse that specializes in “adult entertainment.” Baxter came back with a T- shirt that he didn’t want to show to his (first) wife so he gave it to Norman!
We all met back in Amsterdam on Thursday, October 4, and checked in to the de Lantaerne hotel—our third time staying there! The races on the Amstel were very competitive, and this time we didn’t win any medals but had a good time anyway. One of the highlights was when Semina DeLaurentis, Rick Dyer’s girlfriend, sang some beautiful songs at the evening party after the racing. She certainly had a magnificent voice!
The next day we all flew back to New York, thinking about next year’s FISA regatta, which would be in Toronto, Canada—the first time in North America.
5. CA Henley, FISA and the Masters Games – Toronto 1985
Given our somewhat less than expected performance in Belgium in 1984, the club focused on more training and coaching than in the past, with a focus on three major international regattas being held in North America: the Canadian Henley in St. Catharines, Ontario, and, for the first time, the 12th FISA Veterans regatta and the first World Masters Games, both on Center Island in Toronto. Conveniently, they were all held in the same week (Sunday, Aug 11 to Sunday, Aug 18) so we could compete in all three regattas in one trip. This year our party totaled 32 rowers, including the fellows from YOFRA, and almost as many wives and children since school had not yet started. An additional eight rowers from the De Hoop club in Amsterdam also traveled and stayed with us. Since the regattas were relatively close by, we were able to race in our own boats—a significant advantage over renting unknown equipment.
To get to Canada efficiently, we rented three 16-passenger vans and then arranged to have three central locations where the designated passengers could meet, load up the luggage, and leave cars. Then we all rendezvoused in Waterbury and began the trek north. Along the way, we overtook the shell trailer, being driven by Nat Case and Anne Boucher, and Coach Vogel’s camper. We pretty much stayed together for the rest of the trip – it was quite a caravan!
The Canadian Henley limited their Masters events to Sunday morning (the last day of their regatta) and only for singles, doubles and coxed fours. We won medals in our D4+ and E4+—a good omen for our chances in the regattas to come! Sunday afternoon, we drove the rest of the way to Toronto.
In Toronto, due to the size of our group, most of us booked rooms in the dormitories of the University of Toronto, which was convenient to downtown for those not going to the rowing course on Center Island, as well as being more economical (less than $30 per night for a double!). Traveling to Center Island involved taking a car ferry from downtown Toronto so we had to plan fairly far in advance to make sure we arrived early enough for our races! There was also an amusement park on Center Island and the children had a good time while the rest of us were busy rowing or watching races.
After getting our boats unloaded and rigged, we set up a schedule so everyone had a chance to practice before the races started on Wednesday.
According to the prevailing FISA rules, you were limited to two races at most in the regatta. However, since the Toronto regatta was the first FISA Veterans regatta to have more than one day of racing, the rules were revised to allow two races per day of racing. We took full advantage of that and most of our members had four races during the FISA regatta, and then several more during the Masters Games. Many of us had a total of 11 races during the eight days, counting the Canadian Henley regatta!
We had 20 entries in the FISA regatta, mostly in the age categories of C, D, and E, comprised of all boat types except a coxed pair. Our most competitive entries were in the D2- and E2-, where everyone won a first-place medal, although Norman and Rick had the closest race of the regatta with a 0.10 second win over a very strong Argonaut crew from Toronto. After the racing was over for the day, Ron Gaudet invited all of us to his palatial suite at the Four Seasons Hotel for a wonderful post-race cocktail party. It was one of the high points of the trip.
The rowing events at the first World Masters Games, held immediately after the FISA regatta, consisted of the more typical progression system of qualifying heats, semi-finals, and finals, spread over three days. Following our usual practice, most of us entered two events, resulting in up to six races. We were quite successful, with the club winning gold medals in the D2- (Norm Thetford and Rick Dyer), E2- (Baxter Walsh and Hartley Rogers), and A1x (Brad Hubler). Anne Boucher and Bob Wetmore also won gold medals rowing with some combination eights. We also won silver medals in the D8+ and E8+, and bronze medals in the E2- (John Brackett and Kris Keggi) and C4- (Dave Vogel, Ned Williams, Don McLeish, and Bob Wetmore).
Given the large crush of trailers leaving the Center Island race course, Nat Case loaded up the trailer with all but the last two boats (C4- and D8+), which were still racing, and got in line for the next ferry. As soon as the races finished and we collected our medals, we rowed over to where the trailer was located on the berm. With some effort, we were able to get the boats up onto the roadway, derigged and loaded before the next ferry arrived. That way, Nat could get an early start on the long ride home. The rest of us rode the ferry back to Toronto, picked up the vans and drove through the night, changing drivers every two hours, so those of us who had to work on Monday would be back in time. All-in-all, it was probably the most intense eight days of rowing that any of us had experienced!
A number of us also went to the US Masters Nationals in Philadelphia the following weekend but we were pretty much rowed out from the previous week's competition. We only garnered bronze medals.
6. Back to Eastern Europe - FISA in Bled, Yugoslavia 1986
After our successes in Toronto, we were eager to go back to Europe for the 1986 FISA regatta. In addition to the NHRC regulars, we also had the YOFRA group and a couple of fellows from the Hartford Barge Club, making a party of 39, including wives.
Given that Bled was in the northern section of Yugoslavia (now Slovenia), the NHRC contingent decided to fly into Vienna and train for a day or two, and then drive to Bled. We arrived on Tuesday, Sept 16, and were able to make arrangements with the local rowing club and had a good practice on the Alte Donau (the Old Danube), which was a former loop of the river that had been cut off and bypassed by the main Danube River, and now was part of a very nice park. Ron Gaudet was our videographer on this trip, and we have a number of good movies of the group practicing and racing. We also saw several of the sights in Vienna, including the Musikverein, site of the annual New Year's Day concert.
On Thursday, we rented two large vans to carry all of us and our luggage, and headed southwest out of Vienna, driving over the Southern Calcareous Alps mountain range to Bled - about a five-hour trip. Along the way, we encountered a shell trailer that was being challenged by the numerous tight turns. The driver had a helper who had to get out at almost every turn and guide the trailer around the turn so they would not damage the boats on the surrounding rocks. That is why all eights are sectional in Europe - our trailer would never be able to negotiate the turns in Europe.
Bled, a picturesque resort town in the foothills of the Julian Alps, is set along the glacial Lake Bled. On a cliff overlooking the lake is the 11th-century Bled Castle, which houses a museum, chapel and printing press. Atop an islet in the lake's center is the Pilgrimage Church of the Assumption of Maria and its steep staircase (99 steps) and bell tower, which date to the 1400s. A local tradition at weddings is that the husband carries his bride-to-be up these steps, during which she must remain silent!
We had confirmed reservations at the Golf Hotel for seven doubles, three four-bed apartments, and two singles. On arrival, we learned that the two singles were unavailable and had been replaced with a double. That led to the two single women having to make a choice. They each eventually chose to room with the man they had each been dating, which ultimately led to a marriage for one of them!
The NHRC rowers were entered in 13 events. The races started Friday afternoon from 3 to 5pm and continued Saturday from 9am to 6pm, with races every five minutes. We had pretty good results overall: three first-place medals in the A1x, the W2x, and the D8+, five second-place finishes in the D2-, D4-, W1x, D4+ and E8+, and four third-place finishes in the C4+, E4+(2), and A2x. The E8+ race was very fast, with the New Haven boat finishing in 3:07.19, just 1.17 seconds behind a very good German composite! The E8 was actually 0.7 sec faster than the D8, which won in its heat later in the day.
On Sunday morning, we drove to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. We arrived about the time a local film company was staging a scene for a movie out of the 1940s, complete with old cars with boxes of chickens tied on the trunks! Our ultimate destination was Split, about half-way down the coast, and we needed to arrive on Wednesday afternoon in order to board an overnight ferry to Venice. Since we had two vans, one group decided to take the inland route and go through the Plitviče Lakes National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, while the other van headed west to the top of the Adriatic Sea, and drive along the coast road. Your author was in the van headed to the coast, and our first stop was Opatija, now part of Croatia. Opatija has been a seaside resort for centuries, and the buildings are reminiscent of the Habsburg Empire from the 19th century. We found a nice place at a very reasonable price, and enjoyed an afternoon of swimming, sunbathing and relaxing. We pretty much had the place to ourselves since late September was already low season.
Monday morning, we headed south along the coast road, after a stop at the Postojna Cave, another UNESCO site and home to a unique species of salamander nicknamed the "human fish" because of its flesh-like coloring. The coast road heading south was a challenge! It was two lanes, with only occasional shoulders, and hugged the tortuous coastline so you had to drive twice what you would have had to do if the road were straight. The drop-off on the right down to the Adriatic Sea ranged from a few dozen feet to several hundred feet. Most of the time, there was no guard rail - only some stone "teeth" that had been placed originally at intervals of about four feet but which had been decimated over the years so that only about 50% remained. Needless to say, it was a scary ride for anyone sitting in the passenger seat!
Norman filmed a section of the ride, and just watching the film gives one chills!
We had two interesting events enroute to Zadar, our place to spend the night. One was a beautiful little beach in a secluded cove that we spotted as we were following the road around an inlet on the coast. We were able to get off the road and down to the beach, and spent a delightful hour or so swimming and watching the locals. In typical European fashion, most of the female bathers were topless, and a few bottomless as well. Norman, not wanting to miss anything, went swimming with his glasses on so he would not miss anything!
The other event was overtaking a shell trailer returning from Bled. They didn't speak any English and we didn't speak any of the Slavic languages, but we all had rowing shirts on and managed to get across that we were heading to Zadar. As luck would have it, they were from the rowing club in Zadar! So, we followed them to Zadar where they located a fellow who did speak English. He was able to find lodging for our group for the night, arranged for us to row in the morning, and invited us to a big communal dinner with other members of the rowing club - a testimony to the great fraternity of rowers!
We arrived in Split early enough on Tuesday to be able to take a tour of the city and Diocletian's Palace. Our other members who had taken the inland route also arrived in Split about the same time, so we were reunited. We then drove our vans onto the ferry and checked into the rooms that Rick Dyer had arranged.
After a good night's sleep, we arrived in Venice early Wednesday morning. We located a hotel on the mainland, but it was too early to check in so we left our bags at the hotel and returned to tour Venice. The weather was beautiful and we took pictures of one another (the Flanigans, especially) in St. Mark's Square festooned with pigeons after offering them small amounts of corn purchased from a local vendor.
Although we enjoyed Venice, with its many bridges and canals, we needed to keep moving and headed north after a good breakfast. We took advantage of some of the good autostradas that Italy has and arrived in Innsbruck Thursday afternoon. Innsbruck is the capital of Tyrol, Austria's western state, and is well known as a destination for winter sports. During the summer, there are lots of mountain climbing opportunities. The architecture is a mix of imperial and modern, and we did spend some time taking pictures of the "Golden Roof" museum which dates to the year 1500, and other sites in the older section of town.
We left Innsbruck Friday morning and arrived in Munich after a short, two- hour drive. With the help of the concierge at the hotel in Innsbruck (who spoke seven languages fluently!), we had made reservations at a hotel in Munich since Oktoberfest had started and finding a hotel would have been a challenge! After much beer and revelry, we headed home on Saturday, looking forward to seeing all the pictures at a social party in December and making plans for next year in Sweden.
7. First Time in Scandinavia – Lila Edet FISA 1987
The 1987 FISA trip set a record for the total number of participants – 52, comprised of 39 from New Haven, three from YOFRA, five from the Hartford Barge Club, and five from the Atlanta Rowing Club. YOFRA had been a regular with us, but HBC and ARC were making their first trip to FISA in Europe so they joined NHRC to make it easier. The NHRC contingent included eight children who normally would have been in school at the time of the regatta, but the racing date was moved to before Labor Day because the site of the regatta was so far north that the days would have been too short if the regatta had been held at the usual time at the end of September.
The various rowers, spouses and children arrived in Copenhagen at different times during the last week of August due to different travel schedules and the desire to see some of the elite World Rowing Championships being held there that week. On September 1 (Tuesday), we embarked in five rented vans for the trip to Lila Edet. We crossed into Sweden at Helsingborg, a very picturesque port and the oldest city in what is now Sweden, dating to 1085.9 From there, it was about 300km to Lila Edet, and another 20km on to Trollhattan where our hotel, the Kung Oscar, was located. Our group was the largest at the hotel, using almost all of the third and fourth floors and 47% of the available beds!
Helsingborg was part of Denmark until 1658, since the strait of Øresund is only two miles wide, and tolls on ships passing through the strait were a major source of income to the Danish crown.
The hotel was very nice, with comfortable beds, a full buffet for breakfast, a heated swimming pool, and a traditional Swedish sauna with a plunge pool. The kids had many things to keep them busy, and it was a good place to relax and get warm after a cold day on the course.
Speaking of weather, the days leading up to the regatta were mild and sunny, making for a pleasant time sightseeing in Copenhagen and driving to Lila Edet. The first day at the course, when we registered, located our boats, etc., the good weather continued. On Thursday, the weather turned cold and rainy, with temperatures in the low 40s and enough wind to make it uncomfortable to stay outside for long periods unless you were active. As a result, most people headed for the local pub-house on the regatta site to stay warm and drink beer!
The racing started on Friday at 1:00pm, and New Haven had an entry in the very first race, the men’s A4+. In all, we had 29 entries in men’s and women’s events, winning nine of them, coming in second in five, third in six, and fourth or more in nine events. New Haven men dominated the D (ages 45-51) and E (ages 52-59) categories in the fours and eights, and the women dominated the A (ages 27-31) category in singles and eights. All-in-all, it was a very successful showing for the club.
As usual, the organizers had scheduled a banquet after the racing ended on Saturday. Conveniently for us, it was in Trollhattan, so we were able to get back from the course and dress for dinner. The banquet was billed as a smorgasbord of Swedish specialties, so we were looking forward to a good meal. After getting settled into our seats, the waiters came out with medium- sized plates containing about a dozen small strips of different kinds of meat and cheese. Our waiter said these were delicacies of Sweden, such as reindeer, but he did not know what other plates would be coming. We all assumed that this had to the appetizer, and we made short work of the food, which was tasty. After 30 minutes with no further food being served, we inquired as to the rest of the banquet and found out that we had eaten it already! Needless to say, many of us were not happy and were still hungry.
Sunday, we all piled into the vans early in the morning and headed north to Gardermoen airport (Oslo, Norway) for the return flight. It was nearly 300km and took about three hours, but we made it on time for our 1:35pm flight. Once we were on the plane (a DC-10), we could see the baggage workers trying to figure out how to attach our oars to a large pallet of other material being shipped to New York. They succeeded by using lots of bungee cords, and we were able to retrieve the oars in New York the following day, which was Labor Day. Then everyone went back to work and school!
8. On to Scotland – FISA Strathclyde 1988
The group going to Scotland was less than half the size of the large group in Sweden the previous year since, despite an earlier start in September due to the latitude, it was still after Labor Day and the children were back in school. The trip was also shorter, although we did spend a couple of days in Dublin before heading on to Glasgow, the main city near the race course. Instead of staying in a hotel, Norman arranged for rooms at the University of Glasgow, which were quite comfortable and about half the cost of local hotels! They also had kitchen facilities so we didn’t have to eat out for every meal.
The course at Strathclyde is the only Class A FISA course in Scotland and it was an excellent venue. The only issue of note was that the caterers ran out of beer at 1:30 pm on Friday afternoon, and at 2:30 pm on Saturday. Since the Brits view beer as a training beverage, this was a major inconvenience!
As in Sweden, we teamed up with YOFRA and Atlanta for several races where we needed additional women (Atlanta) or older men (YOFRA). Of the 17 races we contested, we were first in four (C, D, and E 8s, plus a WA4x), second in five, third in three, and fourth or more in five races. Of note, the women’s A4x finished in the only dead heat of the regatta, tied for first with a German crew from Essen in a time of 3:34.87. The regatta set a record for entries (906 crews from 22 countries), and the races had to start earlier than usual on Friday – an indication of the rapid growth of masters rowing.
The highlight of the post-regatta festivities was a large banquet at a local hall. Having been to several banquets at previous regattas, we were not expecting all the pomp and circumstance that were present at this one. After the usual remarks by the various local and FISA officials, the Selkirk Grace (“Some hae meat and canna eat/Some hae nane that want it/But I hae meat, and I can eat/ So let the Lord be thankit” —Robert Burns) was said and then we all heard the skirl of a bagpipe. We were instructed to stand as the piper, followed by a man with twirling knives, and another with a tray with a haggis on it proceeded to parade around the room, eventually stopping at the main podium. At that point, they completed the Ceremony of the Haggis by reciting Robert Burns poem “To a Haggis” and proceeded to cut the haggis on the tray. The waiters then served each of us a haggis, along with the requisite neeps and tatties. (Turnips and potatoes.)
Not everyone was thrilled at the prospect of eating a haggis, knowing what they were made of (typically, liver, heart and lungs of sheep, cattle or deer, plus lots of oatmeal), but the Brits, and especially the Scots, downed them with gusto!
While we were consuming the haggis course, a series of waiters appeared in pairs with two long poles on their shoulders carrying large portions of steaming hot Angus Beef on them. Within ten minutes, they had carved and served the beef to all of the diners in the room, who had to have numbered at least 1,000. The beef was done to perfection and very good.
After dinner was over, the dancing started, along with demonstrations from the Royal Scottish Dance Society and music from local bands. From our perspective, it was one of the most memorable FISA banquets that we had experienced.
9. Two International Regattas 1989
In 1985, both the inaugural World Masters Games (WMG) and the FISA Veterans regatta were in Toronto in the same week. For 1989, the WMG rowing competition was in Aarhus, Denmark in late July, and the FISA Veterans was in Vichy, France in mid-September. Having two international regattas close together complicated setting the crews as not everyone could afford both the time and the money to travel to Europe twice in the space of two months. As a result, the number of participants was lower than normal for each of the regattas, with only 23 (13 rowers) going to the WMG, and 27 (16 rowers) going to Vichy. Of the rowers, only nine went to both regattas.
10. The Second World Masters Games
The majority of the group going to the WMG flew into Copenhagen on July 21 and spent the night there before boarding a train to Aarhus on Saturday, July 22. The route the train took included a ferry crossing from the west side of the island of Zealand to Aarhus, which is on the Jutland peninsula. The ferry was quite large, and the train was divided into segments and rolled onto the lower levels, with cars on the next levels. Everyone got off the train and went up to the lounges, which had comfortable seats, lots of concessions, and beautiful views through panorama windows. The ferry portion took about two hours and was quite enjoyable. (Since 1998, there has been a bridge/tunnel complex (the Great Belt) connecting the islands with Jutland so the train ferry is no longer used; there is still a car ferry for those who want it.)
Sunday, we had time to look around Aarhus and get familiar with the transportation to the course, which was only 7km from the city center, and to the city center, which was only 1km from the hotel. The original schedule had heats on Monday and Tuesday, semi-finals on Wednesday and Thursday, and finals on Friday and Saturday, but there were not enough entries to need the semi-final races so the heats were run on Wednesday and Thursday. We finished with two gold, two silver, and four bronze medals out of twelve races. Not our best showing, but all our usual rowers were not there, either. Nonetheless, we all had a good time touring a part of Denmark that none of us had been to before.
11. FISA Vichy 1989
The FISA regatta in Vichy was the first time we had competed in France, and we were interested to find out if the famous Vichy water would be beneficial!
We flew into Lyon from New York on Tuesday and took the train to Vichy, which was both reasonable and fast. The organization had booked us into what was supposed to be a moderate hotel, but which turned out to be closer to a faded two-star (some said one!) hotel. It had the essentials, and was close to the course, but not quite what we were hoping for.
We had two days to do a bit of sightseeing, locate our boats, and do some practices before racing started on Friday. We were entered in 16 events over two days, winning in four, finishing second in four, third in five, and fourth or more in three. All-in-all a respectable performance, given our reduced number of competitors.
This was the first FISA regatta that had two full days of racing, a sign of the growth in masters rowing around the world. They also had two mixed events at the end of racing on Saturday, another first. The post-regatta banquet was no match for the one at Strathclyde, but the food was very good: Veal sweetbreads, Turbot with champagne, Leg of duck with vegetables, salad and cheese, and peaches under meringue, followed by dancing to the music of the Grand Orchestra of the Val d’Allier, the local region.
We did check out the famous Vichy waters, but most of us didn’t much care for the taste!
12. First Time in Italia – FISA Viareggio 1990
After partially divided rowing groups in 1989, we were back to a full group going to Italy in 1990—some 33 people from the New Haven club and another dozen or so from Norwalk River and Yankee rowing clubs. Viareggio is on the west coast of Italy in an area called the Versilia Riviera, in Northern Tuscany on the Ligurian Sea. Most of us flew into Nice, rented vans, and drove to Viareggio, passing through Monaco and Genoa on the way. Instead of hotels, we rented four Villas (large houses, really) in Marina di Pietrasanta, a nearby village, that slept anywhere from six to ten people each. The village of Pietrasanta is world-famous for its Carrera marble working.
The regatta itself almost didn’t happen. It was supposed to be held in Turin, but early in the year the organizers there said they could not do it. The group in Viareggio took over, but were late getting the various application forms out to the clubs that had expressed interest. Also, the course, on Torre del Lago Puccini, was not your usual Class A FISA course, which became a factor in the racing later in the week.
To add a little levity to our experience, Jay Bragdon came up with the idea of giving each of the rowers an Italian/Roman name “in keeping with NHRC’s traditions of self-aggrandizement, bold aggression, unrighteous conduct, and imaginative flair.” He had embroidered labels made up with such names as Marcus Antonius (John Brackett), Scipio Africanus (Skip Clark), Justinian (Gordon Kuster), and Tarquinnius Superbus (Bob Wetmore). Jay also calculated the estimated age of each of these illustrious characters so that our adjusted average age for the eights would be off the chart!
The competition was pretty stiff this year, and we had a lot of close races where we were just short of a gold on Friday. Racing on Saturday got underway under a threatening sky, and by the early afternoon, the wind had picked up and the lake was getting quite rough. Our best chance at a medal was in the D8 since our average was right at the bottom of the bracket and we had all good “horses” in the boat. Since the course was not a normal FISA course, they had individual stake boats in the middle of the lake rather than the more typical fixed platforms. Given the rough water, the officials were having a problem getting the racing shells attached to the stake boats and aligned. The Starter got impatient and started the race in order to keep on the five-minute interval between races. We were caught somewhat by surprise since were had not yet locked on to the stakeboat. Nonetheless, we took off and were neck and neck with a boat from the UK after 500m, with the other five entries farther back. At the finish of the race, we had a seat on the British crew and they knew it and started for the recovery docks while we started for the awards dock. Then the announcer called for the British to come to the awards dock! Needless to say, Norman was incensed and made his thoughts known to everyone in earshot on the course!
Once we got the boat put away, Norman went to the Finish Line and asked for the margin of victory in the race. He got three different answers—meaning that no one was watching the line at the finish; they only saw the boats after they had stopped rowing and drifted a bit! The other thing he noticed was that the Finish Line targets were only on the shore side, with no target on the opposite side. They were using two strings about a meter apart and sighting across them. In addition, the whole assembly was mounted on a floating dock, which, given the rough water, was swaying back and forth!
Being a US referee, Norman knew he had a good case for a protest, which he then wrote up with the assistance of Joan Scholl, another US referee working the regatta. He presented the protest to the officials at the Finish Line, after paying the requisite 60 Swiss Francs fee. After reading the protest, the senior official agreed that we had a good case and awarded us the medals! By this point, the conditions had deteriorated so much that boats were sinking and the rest of the racing was cancelled.
The “banquet” was to be held outside, and despite knowing how many tickets had been sold, the organizers had not completed the arrangements so there was a shortage of tables and, ultimately, food. The general feeling was that the Italians had not risen to the expected level of performance that FISA and the rowers expected. (As a result, it was more than 20 years before Italy got another chance to host a FISA Veterans regatta.)
Our return trip to Nice was pleasant, and we stayed in a small hotel two blocks from the waterfront. We were able to spend some time on the Promenade des Anglais and observe the people on the beach. Norman had his 600mm telephoto and got some interesting shots!