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Draw for the Olympic Regatta

 BBC Webstream for Rowing Heats

Womens singles.  Progression: first 3 go to Quarter Finals.  China wins heat 1 easily.  Emma Twigg for NZ wins heat 2.  Karsten wins heat 3.  Neykova wins heat 4 (Cuba second!). Bascelli of Italy easily beats Australia into second place in heat 5.  Knapova leads easily in heat 6.

Mens singles.  Progression: first 4 go to Quarter Finals. Maeyens from Belgium leads heat 1. Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand easily leads head 2.  [Shock the Chinese sculler didn't show and was disqualified], Karonen from Sweden beats Hacker from Germany in heat 3. Synek commanding in heat 4 for Czech Republic.  Heat 5 toughest yet: USA, Australia (Peter Hardcastle), USA (Jurkowski) and Alan Campbell of GB.  Campbell sculls a mature race and wins by clear water.  Heat 6 includes Rod Ideus fron Tideway Scullers who is a lightweight U23 and qualified to row for Colombia. Tufte of Norway and Hamburger of Netherlands pushing out in front.  Tufte has fabulous rhythm.

Maeyens and Synek use Magik Oarlocks . Alan Campbell and Peter Hardcastle are Rowperfect users.

Womens Pairs. Progression: first to final everyone else to Repecharge.  Heat 1 great line-up - could have been a final.  Three crews who have won world championship golds Belarus, NZ and Canada.  Belarus to the final.  NZ second.  Heat 2 Romania come through at 1500 to look so confident.  They took 3/4 length on Germany in about 25 strokes.

Mens Pairs.  Progression: First 3 go to Semi Finals; rest to Repecharge.  Heat 1 Canada, USA (the brothers who sued Facebook and won!), France - who win with a great finishing sprint; Canada almost seem to give up and get third.  Heat 2 Australia (Free, Ginn) have such a clear lead and dominate from the front.  Heat 2 includes New Zealand (Twaddle and Bridgewater) and Chalupa stroking the Czech crew who only qualified because the Austrians withdrew.   Skelin Brothers for Croatia don't look like they are in the same competition.  New Zealand win.

Womens Double Sculls. Progression: first to Final, rest to Repecharge.  Heat 1 the Kiwi twins are leading with confidence - 6 seconds ahead of the rest on the line.  Heat 2 the Chinese world champions (just) beat the Czechs into second.  GB third.  Wonderful challenge by the Czechs - should have gone a bit later, might have had the jump on the Chinese.  Wicked sprint from the Chinese after challenge from Czechs Antosova and Varekova.

Mens Double Sculls.  Progression: First three to Semi Finals, rest to Repecharge. Heat 1 Belarus lead out from New Zealand and USA (Coached by Tim McLaren).  Great race - if the Belarussians get their pace judgment right they could be very dangerous later in the regatta.  Kiwis win in the sprint to the line.  Heat 2 Estonia (Juri Janssen and Tonu Endrekson) lead out challenged later by Great Britain (Wells and Rowbotham) who win with Croatia second as Estonians fade.  Heat 3 Chinese don't show AGAIN.  No reason given, just DNS (did not start).  Slovenia, France, Australia the crews to watch.  Aussies win but it seems strange that the Slovenians backed off.

The British double have used Rowperfect this year for the first time and Estonians are also Rowperfect users (from WAY back) as are Dave Crawshaw from Australia, he's the hunk on the front page of the Rowperfect brochure - rowing by the ocean.

Mens Fours. Progression: first three to Semi Finals, rest to Repecharge.  Heat 1 Great Britain in the middle lane with the USA and Italians also in the hunt.  GB holding the Italians off nicely through the second half of the race.  Heat 2 the Dutch are strong.  Slovenians row really nicely.  Dutch hold off the Kiwi late challenge.  Same time as previous heat.  Nothing to learn from the times except it'll be a great semi final and final.  Heat 3 Ireland, Australia - rowing beautifully.  Poise at the finish keeping the body leaning back while the handle continues to move around and lead onto the recovery.  Ireland beat them in the sprint for the line.  Jonno Devlin formerly of GB switching to row for them probably in order to get this trip to race in the Olympics.

Irish use Magik Gates.  

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James Chapman of Maidstone Invicta RC , just wrote to us with this "classic" anecdote from the Tideway Head of the River Race

Thanks for getting us the replacement MK1 gate in time for the HORR although the Post Office tried to impound it! The gates are still working well.

During HORR, we clashed with Keble just after Hammersmith Bridge causing my blade to bury deep, gate popped open saving blade, boat, rigger and me from any damage enabling me to put the oar back in quickly and continue the race… with a conventional gate I would probably had a broken rib or a swim, the rigger would have been broken and the crew would have limped home! So although a shock at the time, a good result in the end!

Just have to remember our coaches mantra of a firm outside hand! 

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The new Magik Oarlock "Evolution" has just been released by the manufacturers.

Based on the successful MK1 design, the new oarlock incorporates some great new features which have been added as a result of user feedback.  If you gave us your comments and views, thank you very much.  Everything you said was passed back to the design team and we hope you'll agree that the new Magik Oarlock looks great!

The photo shows the rowing (sweep) oarlock on the left and the sculling one on the right.

Design improvements: 

• Yellow sliding lock mechanism visible from top of oarlock so you can see when it is fully engaged
• Pivot (bottom yellow circle) redesigned to raise the level of pivot avoiding chafing against wing rigger mountings
• Tensioning elastic band shortened to avoid chafing against wing riggers

We are looking for volunteers to test out both the sculling and rowing Magik Evolution oarlocks.  If you are interested, or want your coach to see them, please email and give us your name, club and postal address.  This offer is based on the expectation that if you test for us, you write a review for our website shop page.

MK1 Evolution lock mechanism close up and the pivot mechanism close up. 

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We have had an enquiry from Heather Oaten

I am thinking of getting some Magik gates but I am a bit concerned about the wear on my Dreher sculls.  Currently the collars are wearing smooth where they sit in the gates, obviously I have checked the gates are not too tight! Will the Magik gates perpetuate the wear and is there anything I can do to stop the wear?  I have not noticed wear to the same extent with Concept II sculls but I would rather use the  Drehers.  Thanks, Heather

My reply to her question was

The wear on the sleeve is completely normal.  Most scullers expect to have to re-sleeve every 1-2 years particularly if they use the sculls a lot (as you do).

Concept 2 make their sleeves from similar material to us and theirs will wear in a similar way.  Croker, do not use the same material and customers report that their sleeves wear noticeably faster under normal use than the other two brands. 

Regarding the Magik Gates, I have had a good look at the Cambridge University Boat Club ones which are now over a year old and they row their boats about 8 times a week for 7 months of the year.  Speaking to their coaches, they say that the gates themselves did wear a bit when they were first installed BUT that after that time the wear on the gates and collars has not progressed and is now what they would call 'normal' i.e. the same as using other gates.

My view is that the tension arm putting pressure onto the sleeve creates the initial wear in a slightly different pattern than for other gates but that there is no need for you to be concerned that you'll be "wearing out" your lovely Drehers by installing Magik gates.
 

Can anyone help Heather with their own experience of using black collars (the large ones) or white collars (the small old design one) with MK1 oarlocks?

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Just in time for Christmas and after a little bit of work, we've got the Rowperfect UK Shop working!

 Please have a browse and send us your feedback.

Here';s what I love about the internet - before we even announced this, Jim Bamber, Paul Barham and James Coe had already found it and bought stuff!  Cheers, guys. 

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Congratulations to Kevin Pyne from south Devon who has won the pair of Magik gates for submitting this wonderful photograph to Rowing and Regatta Magazine for their monthly prize draw .

What a lovely photo!

Thanks to Sarah Chapman, Editor of the magazine, for choosing such a stunner.  And we hope to hear from Kevin about him using the gates in future. 

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Why not ‘treat’ yourself for the start of the new season with a pair of magik oarlocks for your boat? 

Until 30th October, the MK1 Rowing and Sculling gates are now £35 per pair, a saving of £4.  These prices will be held while stocks last.

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Each month the "Image Conscious" section of the Rowing and REgatta Magazine where readers send in their photographs for publication has a prize for the Editor's choice of the best image.

 In October, the prize has been donated by Rowperfect and the Editor’s pick winner will receive a pair of Magik Rowing Oarlocks

The Magik Oarlock is designed to reduce the ‘slippage’ between the oar and the gate so that your rowing becomes more efficient.  Its unique lever arm holds tension onto the oar holding it closely against the pin.  The tension elastic band is available in hard, medium and soft bands (all supplied).  All Magik gates use standard metric pitching inserts.  These gates have been used by Gold medal winners at the World Championships (New Zealand M2- Gold 2005, Germany M8+ Gold 2006).  

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A thread started yesterday with a discussion on the MK1 gates.

Follow it here.

To see other stuff we've blogged before on the gates go here . 

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Rebecca,
 
The [Magik Sweep gates] were very well received and were used at Henley qualifiers (just need an outboard to make up the other 6 secs we needed!).  I hope that you'll see some further interest from some of the single scullers at our club.
 
Please invoice us for them, any discounts very welcome
 
I won't be at Vets as my family are suffering Henley burn-out although this should have worn off in time for St Neots, Sudbury and Cambridge Autumn (in my single with my MK1 gates) …..
 
Many thanks
 
James Knight

Maidstone Invicta RC 

P.S. As a small under-resourced club that has received considerable help from some unlikely sources this year,  we are very appreciative of your efforts to organise equipment lending and I was upset to see the various reactions on talkrowing etc. but not surprised given the normal level of intelligence displayed there!!
 

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