Durham Regatta Goes Down Well

[singlepic id=679 w=320 h=240 float=right]Being heavily involved in the organisation of Durham Regatta it is often very difficult to see the wood from the trees. An event of that size always brings up a stream of issues that need resolving throughout the weekend. The key is to minimise the effect of each issue so that it has a minimal impact and where possible to localise effects to a few crews/people.

Over the years I have learned that the best way to judge the success of the event is to see how many people were complaining both during and after the regatta. Thankfully this year the complaints have been relatively minor and mostly confined to things that we could/should do better rather than things that we got wrong.

Of course it helps that the weather was almost perfect this year. Saturday was just right. Not too hot and not too cold with sunshine throughout the day from morning to night. Saturday started off overcast but was still pleasant.

[singlepic id=677 w=320 h=240 float=left]Reflecting on the weekend I’ve realised that I didn’t get any further downstream  than the bandstand all weekend. I had a trip down the course in one of the rescue boats on Friday afternoon to inspect the river but other than that I didn’t see any of the bankside activities at all.

So that’s it I’ve mostly completed the post-regatta paper work a week after the last race. After a month of solid work and almost a year of meetings/preparation I can concentrate on a few other things for a while – my family being the most important!

Roll on 2014.