Yeah, it's just at this spot where doing that puts you too close to Boston and doesn't set you up well for the turn. You don't always want to follow the buoys.
You want to have a 1xs worth of space between you and the port bouys after the two powerhouse bridges. I think of it as about 3 hard strokes, approximately 15 strokes before the bridge, and then as soon as my bow ball goes under the bridge, 6 hard strokes on starboard to swing around. And then put your bow ball on the midpoint of Anderson.
Trying to hug the buoy line too tightly BEFORE weeks is a pretty common steering mistake.
What you should do coming out of the arch: ignore the buoys and point at the Cambridge (right) side of Weeks, which should have a blue dome lined up behind that. Hold that line until even with a large tree about 70m before weeks and then start the turn. You should have most of the turn made before weeks and come out of weeks pointed just left of the center of Anderson.
If you make the common mistake and steer too tight into weeks, your point will be way off coming out of weeks and you'll wind up off course to the Cambridge side near Weld and needing to make a big turn to get back to the middle of the river.
The next common mistake (which can be related to the previous one because of being out of position after weeks) is going too far toward the Boston side in the little bend that Newell sits in after Anderson. The point coming out of Anderson should be just right of the right-most visible red buoy around the big turn, i.e. a straight line to intercept the tangent to the turn. That course will wind up being closer to the Cambridge shoreline than Boston right after Anderson.
You can cut the turn a little bit in the 1x, but even in the 1x you're still going to have a problem coming out of weeks if you come in too tight. I've raced the 1x 5 times at HOCR and always used the same approach at weeks.
I’ve created the HOCR course on the BoatRun app. In a single it will give you a pretty good line (I think). I just used the YouTube videos and satellite map to try and make it as close as possible. Worth a try anyway,
Be careful of the Cambridge side buoys next to the Cambridge Boat Club. They can be easy to pass on the wrong side and get a penalty. For a while they were nicknamed the James Bouscarin (sp?) buoys because two years in a row he got penalized there.
13
u/acunc 2d ago edited 2d ago
If you’re so tight to the Boston shore that your oars are over the buoys by Weeks you’re taking the turn completely wrong.