Dropping a Deuce on Race Numero Dos
by SAILOR KEN LO

The Navy isn’t princely just because of the association with the Liechtenstein monarchy. The team is also composed of well-heeled bankers that embrace the princely lifestyle. So it can be assumed that most have a grasp of econometrics or a basic knowledge of X-Y graphs.

Digging into the 2015 Naval almanacs, we can see a consistent drop in performance on every second heat of every race. The first races, with sailors full of energy and adrenaline, are good and lauded by LCDR Barnaby. The second races, with sailors full of lunch and hubris, are bad and lambasted by LCDR Barnaby. The third races, with sailors checking themselves before they wreck themselves, are composed, skilled, and “together”. For non-bankers, imagine a race graph that looks like a sagging boob.

At Mui Wo, history repeated itself.

Race 1. Having worked on individual stroke technique over the past couple of weeks, sailors found more water up front and exited on time at the back. P1 in the heat. P6 overall.

Race 2. Everything went to shit. The start was certainly faster, but the transition never happened. +80spm for the entire 300m. No cohesion, no technique, nothing good to say. The loss of composure added 4 seconds onto our Race 1 time. Still P1, but we only edged the competition. But at Mui Wo it’s all about time, and this hurt us bad. P10 overall.

Race 3. Having been relegated to the Gold Plate Final, a few sailors (no names mentioned) decided on a little liquid courage for lunch. LJG Sinclair got everyone’s head into the boat with a “Flags Up” call. The start, slower than Race 2 but faster than Race 1, kept us in contention for P1. The transition this time was smooth – no rushing from the back, a constant complaint from the front. A nice 75-80spm set a great platform for the Navy chug. “Ready and reach” and “Power up” calls kept pushing us into 1st and we kept it there to take home the Gold.

Admiral’s Comment: While Sailor Ken’s analysis is certainly true, he fails to mention a lot of positives: we got there at a decent hour, we started drinking Singha at 1430hrs, we left at a very reasonable hour, we had great weather but above all: we enjoyed fun and rewarding paddling in these very fast wooden boats. We’ve clearly made good progress since our last race and it felt like a proper team effort out there.

The result: three races, three P1s; UBS relegated to the back of the field; beaten Lamma in the final (probably for the first time this season) and also beaten that Chinese team in the final which was stuffed full with Mushu paddlers. And we picked up a Champion trophy (not the biggest one, but who cares…)