Green Templeton Boat Club - Head of the Charles 2011

Head of the Charles 2011

Details: Last Updated on Tuesday, 01 November 2011 15:49; Written by Andrew Symington

Head of the Charles 2011 Green Templeton Boat Club recently sent a men's coxed four to the Head of the Charles regatta in Boston, USA. Our boat rowed the 3.2 miles upstream course in 18 minutes and 31.33 seconds, with an average stroke rate of 32. Our crew had a fantastic race and ended up placing 21 out of 50 competitors, putting us above many university Club Four crews such as Boston University, MIT, Bucknell and University of Connecticut. Our performance this year secured Green Templeton Boat Club a fixed spot in next year's regatta, establishing our presence in the international rowing scene.

The full result listing for the Club Fours division is attached to this article.

In the order showin in the photograph above, the crew comprised of Eduardo Lopez (bow), Henno Martin (stroke), Susan Portalupi (cox), Tyler Lane (2) and Andrew Symington (3). Susan Portalupi is a Green Templeton alumnus who currently resides in the US. The men's squad is jointly coached by Alex Rhodes and Charlie Simpson, and captained by Joe Feyertag and Tyler Lane. We are incredibly grateful to Sean Grant, Suzanne Holsomback and Naomi Walker, all of whom helped out coxing the crew in Oxford.

Given that there was mild wind and a fairly heavy stream from recent rain, the strategy for race day was to wind up to 34 and settle to rate 32. As a one moves under the first bridge, the boat gets hit quite hard by side winds, making it difficult to sustain any rate beyond 34. The next one mile of the race is known as the 'powerhouse stretch' and it is where we opened a significant distance from the competitors behind us. The exception being that we were overtaken by a single crew, who were subsequently disqualified for having an elite (Olympic or World Championship rowers) in their boat. The second mile of the race was all about consistent, high-quality rowing. Susan navigated five bridges, while also closing the gap between us and the boat in front of us to one length. Undoubtedly, the best section of rowing was the last mile. The Head of the Charles is notorious for Weeks bridge, which requires the cox to make a 90 degree turn after more than two miles of rowing. Not only did Susan manage to navigate this perfectly, but she also overtook a crew in the bend just before the bridge. After pushing off Weeks bridge, our crew's fitness really showed. Susan took a fantastic inside line and picked the rate up to 33/34. We kept our stokes long and consistent and ended up overtaking two more crews on the home stretch.

The Boat Club would like to take this opportunity to thank the Green Templeton College staff, fellows, students and friends for supporting our dream to compete in the biggest head race in the world. Specifically, we are incredibly grateful to the Annual Fund for providing financial support, and to the Boat Club Committee and the Green Templeton Development Office, who helped with logistics. We would also like to thank Community Rowing in Boston for hiring us a shell and providing training facilities, as well as Reading Rowing Club for hosting training sessions in the UK. Finally, we are incredibly grateful to family and friends who came out on the day to support our crew. In the video that follows, if you listen carefully at 11 minutes 11 seconds in you will hear the famous G-T-C chant!

A big thank you to Susan's family for obtaining the following video from the bridge, which provides a different perspective on the race.

Finally, we maintained a very short and light-hearted video blog over the 10 days we spent in Boston. We apologise in advance for the sound level in a few of the videos, but hopefully the videos will give you a feel of our experience training in Boston.

Day 1 - Training

Day 2 - Training

Day 3 - Racing start

Day 4 - Rate builds

Day 5 - Rate builds

Day 7 - Light paddle and Expo

If you are an alumnus or friend of the club and would like to be part of or support the Head of the Charles experience in 2012, please get in touch with the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Green Templeton Boat Club recently sent a men's coxed four to the Head of the Charles regatta in Boston, USA. Our boat rowed the 3.2 miles upstream course in 18 minutes and 31.33 seconds, with an average stroke rate of 32. Our crew had a fantastic race and ended up placing 21 out of 50 competitors, putting us above many university Club Four crews such as Boston University, MIT, Bucknell and University of Connecticut. Our performance this year secured Green Templeton Boat Club a fixed spot in next year's regatta, establishing our presence in the international rowing scene.

The full result listing for the Club Fours division is attached to this article.

The crew comprised of Henno Martin (stroke), Andrew Symington (3), Tyler Lane (2) and Eduardo Lopez (bow) and was coxed by Susan Portalupi, a Green Templeton alumnus who currently resides in the US. The men's squad is jointly coached by Alex Rhodes and Charlie Simpson, and captained by Joe Feyertag and Tyler Lane. We are incredibly grateful to Sean Grant, Suzanne Holsomback and Naomi Walker, all of whom helped out coxing the crew in Oxford.

The Boat Club would like to take this opportunity to thank the Green Templeton College staff, fellows, students and friends for supporting our dream to compete in the biggest head race in the world. Specifically, we are incredibly grateful to the Annual Fund for providing financial support, and to the Boat Club Committee and the Green Templeton Development Office, who helped with logistics. We would also like to thank Community Rowing in Boston for hiring us a shell and providing training facilities. Finally, we are incredibly grateful to family and friends who came out on the day to support our crew. In the video that follows, if you listen carefully at 11 minutes 11 seconds in you will hear the famous G-T-C chant!