PBC Sculling Ladder Returns for ’09!!!

PBC senior member and newly re-elected member of the Board, Ed Ryan, gives us the run-down on Sculling Ladder ’09.

Attention all PBC Scullers!

Join us for this time-honored tradition of rowing, the PBC Sculling Ladder! It’s a way to have some fun, generate some friendly competition, and establish an informal pecking order of speed among the scullers in the Club. All PBC scullers are welcome!!!

Here’s how it works:

The Ladder.   You’ll see the Ladder hanging on the bulletin board across from the logbook.  The top rungs are now occupied by the top places from the ’08 Ladder, as best as I can remember.  If you want to join, just take one of the blank depressors and place your name and age on it, together with any other embellishments you prefer. Place your depressor on the first open spot on the Ladder – - it’s that simple.  While last year we divided the Ladder between Girls and Boys, that distinction evaporated midway through the year and we’ll now have a single coed ladder and let the handicap chart work its magic.

The Equipment.  You, your single (or Club single), and oars.

The Challenge (or How to Move up the Ladder).  Any sculler can challenge another sculler within five rungs above his or her name on the Ladder.  A challenge must be accepted and rowed within two weeks at a mutually convenient time.  I’d like to see early Saturday mornings become the preferred time.  An extra incentive to encourage Saturday a.m.’s. — if raced at that time, the losing rower can immediately challenge the winner and the second race will take place as soon as both rowers can paddle back to the start.   Nice workout too.

The Handicaps.   A sheet of handicaps is posted right next to the Ladder.  It’s been scientifically calculated and essentially is a hybrid between the USRowing handicaps and what I’ll call the Gwadz handicaps.  Use your age as of the end of this year. There’s a lot of literature out there on the aging process and athletic performance, virtually all of it very depressing, and the handicaps are intended to adjust for that, as well as to make the racing as competitive as possible for PBC rowers.  The handicaps make this a great opportunity for everyone, from open through the most senior masters, to get out and scrimmage a bit on the river.    Last year we found that races were extremely competitive, and we’d like to see even more Open Scullers participate.

The Races. The race will be a 1000m race.  Standing start.  Challenger gets choice of lane.  The course – and this generated far too much controversy last year – is generally from the top of the Sisters to Key Bridge, but more precisely it is this:  the start is an (imaginary) line drawn perpendicularly from the first large sycamore tree immediately below the creek that empties on the Virginia side across from the top of Sisters – drawn to the sycamore tree immediately opposite on the DC side; the finish is an (imaginary) line drawn from the upstream edges of the Key Bridge abutments between the second and third arches (Virginia side).  If I can get my hands on a launch, I will tie a ribbon around the trunk of the upstream tree so you’ll know which one.  If you want to make it simple, just think of the top set of rocks at the Sisters to Key Bridge, and just do it.  The handicap adjustment is given at the start (i.e., the handicap differential is calculated, the boat receiving the handicap will start first and the other boat will then count off the differential and then start). This is all on the honor system. If there is a current, and you’re giving time, remember to keep backing lightly while counting down the handicap.
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The Spoils.  If the challenging sculler wins, the positions of the two rowers on the Ladder get reversed and the challenger takes the challengee’s spot (and visa versa), even if this means skipping a few rungs on the way up and down. If the challenging sculler loses, he or she must, at the sole discretion of the challengee, (a) wash the challengee’s boat, or (b) provide the challengee with uninterrupted drink service at the next PBC Happy Hour on the House, and address the challengee throughout such event as my liege.

Have Fun.  Row Fast.

-Ed Ryan