Other on the Water:

The following are suggestions and additional rules that should be referenced with all of the above stated material.

1. All shells should be equiped with emergency releases for foot stretchers. This includes heel tie-downs, and quick release laces/velcro.

2. Coaches are advised to purchase a copy of USRowing's Safety Video, and show it each year to all rowers.

3. Each boat (coach or athlete) has the responsibility for watching where it is going and for avoiding collisions. Boat s without cox must be aware!

4. Once crews have been launched they should row to and wait at a spot specified by the coach that is no more than 500m away from the dock. High school and college crew should not warm-up or row with out a coaches supervision!
. A common place for crews launching from TBC to stop and wait is the “crew wall” where crews have their colors painted around Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown.
. Going downstream crews should wait upstream of Theodore Roosevelt Bridge.

5. Coaches should avoid taking out crews of differing speeds and skill levels. Having several crews spread over 1000-2000m or more may as well not have a coaches safety launch with them. Furthermore the coach can not adequately supervise or coach crews in this fashion.

6. Likewise to number 5 above, coaches should keep all crews at “racing distance” apart. That is the distance (width) between two crews. Coaches should limit the distance across all crews in a practice to 3 abreast.

7. Coaches must keep their crews on the right side of the river at all times! Please refer to the information concerning traffic patterns for the river.

8. Slow moving crews should yield to faster crews by shifting their course further to the right (starbord) and allowing the over taking crew to pass. Larger shells have right away over smaller shells due to their decreased maneuverability.

9. Coaches who wish to stop and work with crews should do so only in areas where they are not impeding the the flow of traffics. Please refer to the River Traffic Patterns section.

10. Boats should not turn upstream from bridges unless they are at least 500m from the bridge. Swift currents can pull shells into bridge abutments very quickly!

11. Boats wishing to turn should make sure that no other crew is approaching first. Do not cut in front of oncoming crews! Furthermore, crews should make sure to complete their turn onlyafter moving to the other side of the river first, before proceeding in the opposite direction.

12. Crews that are landing on the dock have priority over crews wishing to launch. This is especially true in inclement weather.

13. Landing shells should use all available dock space; they should not wait for the very end of the dock to become open if there is space further up the dock. Crews should endeavor to walk their boat up so that other crews can land unless asked by a coach not to (i.e. another boat is going around them to fill open dock space above them).

14. All boats should take not more than one minute on the dock once the boat has either been placed in the water or has returned from a row. If the boat has serious equipment problems or missing rowers, the shell should be removed from the water. Novice crews are allowed some leeway but should be taught how to function quickly on the dock. Boat and oars come before shoes!