IWL Marshalling

IWL Marshalling
Michael Brown michael.brown@worc	22:41, 4th Feb 2010 5 weeks ago
Is it really nessacary for the IWL timings to be as they were stated? 12:15 is over an hour before races start while 13:50 means that no one who is racing can go on to marshall at this time, meaning hunting for other people willing to help out.

RE: IWL Marshalling
David david.pallot@medschool	02:44, 5th Feb 2010 5 weeks ago
I've not had anything to do with this event due to my finals but think I should point out a few things: It is important to note that marshals have to be in place before crews boat, not just before they race (i.e. 1pm which is 45mins after their shift start time). All the marshals aren't usually present until 5 mins after the time they are supposed to turn up, give 15mins for the briefing and 20 mins for the marshals to get into place with 5 min to spare. This timing is perhaps erring very slightly on the side of caution but is far from excessively early. I'm sure if you are struggling to find someone for the 13:50 slot who is not racing you could contact the race secretary in advance to request that one of your marshals is picked up after a first division race by the launch so they are not late for the start of their shift - this would not be complicated for the race committee to organise. The alternative would be to have a very long first shift and a shorter second shift, but 2 hours is usually enough for anyone to stand around at the river. Or just get one set of marshals to cover the whole event. It's always a little tricky with the marshals when there are only a few divisions.

RE: IWL Marshalling
Ben Thurston ben.thurston@trinity	13:10, 8th Feb 2010 5 weeks ago
Just to echo David and add a few things: 1) Having arrived almost on time, the marshals got briefed and then sent round to their marshalling posts, with the final one getting in to place at 5 to one. This gave 5 minutes before boats could be on the river, however I assume that crews from Boat House island (where naturally marshals arrive last) actually want to be able to boat at 1 and not have to wait for their boat to be checked. So in terms of time beforehand it actually worked out about right, if not a little too tight as a river check has to be performed before crews can boat, which takes at least another minute! 2) Marshalling slots were split at the request of captains last IWL. This was your call. It is a lot easier to only brief one set of marshals and if people want to revert to 4 or 5 hours stints then I am more than happy to do this in future. I personally think it isn't much fun for any one person to do so encourage the two shifts, but if feeling is adverse to this we can easily revert! 3) As David said, with only 4 divisions and the need to brief both sets of marshals, the timing is a little tricky. Sorry for this. I hope this clarifies a few things. Please feel free to let me know how you feel about issues raised in 2) Ben