50p
Behind the Crews
Students learn about Brentwood’s annual rowing regatta months in advance. The weekend is a highly anticipated, finely tuned process due to the efforts of hundreds of students and faculty members. While the regatta is an already understood undertaking by returning students, the three day weekend is a futuristic, glittering toy for new students until they themselves experience job listings, races, and the occasional collision among thousands s of foreign rowers. After their first regatta, the mystique surrounding Brentwood’s liveliest event of the year is unveiled.
Brentwood rowers don their medals, the entrepreneurship groups collect their profits, and students spend their time working, eating, schmoozing, and forming new acquaintances with visitors from all over Canada and the United States. These facts are all generally understood and accepted by the Brentwood student body.
But what about the people who run the show, the individuals who hide behind the scenes toiling on the water assisting with race details, safety information, starting line organization and buoy placements? The people who wake up at four in the morning to prepare for the races? These are the students who work for weeks ahead of time to prepare for the largest high-school regatta in North America. The students whose accomplishments are always seen, but not always heard about.
These are the members of the Brentwood Boathouse: Kenzie B, Alex M, Noud H and Mr. Warren Featherstone. The students and staff who work to ensure that the Brentwood Regatta goes off without a hitch.
These people, my friends, deserve their own medals.
Laying out the rowing course (using buoys, rope and weights), cleaning docks, ‘parallel parking’ boats, prepping rowing shells, ensuring motor fuel replenishment - these are just a few of the tasks incorporated into the 4a.m. to 8p.m. daily routines of Regatta Boathouse members. One of the most challenging pre-regatta tasks for the Boathouse crew is moving Brentwood’s 120 foot start dock to the start line from its storage location near Bamfield (this is actually quite a distance away) all while fighting against unfavorable, windy weather conditions and time constraints. The process of anchoring the dock to the ocean floor includes setting up what seems to be a buoy mind field (for safety and security purposes), and utilizing their boy-scout/girl-scout knot tying skills.
Everyone on the Island prays for sun during regatta weekend. This can make all the difference to rowers and spectators during these three days of organized chaos. As long as the weather cooperates, the Boathouse students are happy. Exhausted by their duties, yes, but happy.
When the weather turns sour, however, it adds an element of stress to their routine tasks, such as straightening race course markers, ferrying students between docks, and teaching other students how to drive boats. Laying buoys is one thing. Doing it in the pouring rain and howling winder is quite another.
Of course, the Boathouse litany of ‘to-do’ tasks starts to dwindle by Sunday afternoon. The crews pack up their gear, collapse their tents, collect their uni-suits, and hit the road back to their respective schools and clubs.
Just because the regatta comes to a close, however, does not mean that the Boathouse members can take a breather. Just as it takes hours to set up the regatta, it takes hours to disassemble.
It seems that the work of a Boathouse Member is never finished. Their jobs are invaluable to the event which is the Brentwood Regatta; without them, the technical aspects of the event would be conspicuously neglected.
For all of their hours of toiling, tying, and boating, however, they sadly don’t receive their own trophies. In our minds, at least, we know their performances took home the gold. How could they not?
Rachael K
Brentwood rowers don their medals, the entrepreneurship groups collect their profits, and students spend their time working, eating, schmoozing, and forming new acquaintances with visitors from all over Canada and the United States. These facts are all generally understood and accepted by the Brentwood student body.
But what about the people who run the show, the individuals who hide behind the scenes toiling on the water assisting with race details, safety information, starting line organization and buoy placements? The people who wake up at four in the morning to prepare for the races? These are the students who work for weeks ahead of time to prepare for the largest high-school regatta in North America. The students whose accomplishments are always seen, but not always heard about.
These are the members of the Brentwood Boathouse: Kenzie B, Alex M, Noud H and Mr. Warren Featherstone. The students and staff who work to ensure that the Brentwood Regatta goes off without a hitch.
These people, my friends, deserve their own medals.
Laying out the rowing course (using buoys, rope and weights), cleaning docks, ‘parallel parking’ boats, prepping rowing shells, ensuring motor fuel replenishment - these are just a few of the tasks incorporated into the 4a.m. to 8p.m. daily routines of Regatta Boathouse members. One of the most challenging pre-regatta tasks for the Boathouse crew is moving Brentwood’s 120 foot start dock to the start line from its storage location near Bamfield (this is actually quite a distance away) all while fighting against unfavorable, windy weather conditions and time constraints. The process of anchoring the dock to the ocean floor includes setting up what seems to be a buoy mind field (for safety and security purposes), and utilizing their boy-scout/girl-scout knot tying skills.
Everyone on the Island prays for sun during regatta weekend. This can make all the difference to rowers and spectators during these three days of organized chaos. As long as the weather cooperates, the Boathouse students are happy. Exhausted by their duties, yes, but happy.
When the weather turns sour, however, it adds an element of stress to their routine tasks, such as straightening race course markers, ferrying students between docks, and teaching other students how to drive boats. Laying buoys is one thing. Doing it in the pouring rain and howling winder is quite another.
Of course, the Boathouse litany of ‘to-do’ tasks starts to dwindle by Sunday afternoon. The crews pack up their gear, collapse their tents, collect their uni-suits, and hit the road back to their respective schools and clubs.
Just because the regatta comes to a close, however, does not mean that the Boathouse members can take a breather. Just as it takes hours to set up the regatta, it takes hours to disassemble.
It seems that the work of a Boathouse Member is never finished. Their jobs are invaluable to the event which is the Brentwood Regatta; without them, the technical aspects of the event would be conspicuously neglected.
For all of their hours of toiling, tying, and boating, however, they sadly don’t receive their own trophies. In our minds, at least, we know their performances took home the gold. How could they not?
Rachael K
75p
