Missing blade - UK South

22 Apr 2008 06:24:49

Emily

City of Oxford women's squad returned from Bedford Small Boats Head on
Sunday 13th one sculling blade short. It was part of a quad set and
our quad raced in the last division, landing practically next to our
trailer, so we can't work out what happened to it. But I just want to
check in case anyone picked it up. The blade colours are blue, red and
white.

Alternatively - anyone have any bright ideas as to how a blade goes
missing from a trailer?

22 Apr 2008 06:36:57

Re: Missing blade - UK South

On Apr 22, 2:24 pm, Emily <emily_bald...@hotmail.com > wrote:
>
> Alternatively - anyone have any bright ideas as to how a blade goes
> missing from a trailer?

OK - here's a shot in the dark

1] [how thoroughly] do you tie them down?

2] did you stop at eg traffic lights in the presence of eg ASBO
trainees?

I dare say there could be a few dozen viable but less cynical
hypotheses; I'll leave the alien life-forms to someone with a sense of
humour.

Sorry to hear it though

Richard

22 Apr 2008 06:38:00

Re: Missing blade - UK South

On Apr 22, 2:24 pm, Emily <emily_bald...@hotmail.com > wrote:
> City of Oxford women's squad returned from Bedford Small Boats Head on
> Sunday 13th one sculling blade short. It was part of a quad set and
> our quad raced in the last division, landing practically next to our
> trailer, so we can't work out what happened to it. But I just want to
> check in case anyone picked it up. The blade colours are blue, red and
> white.
>
> Alternatively - anyone have any bright ideas as to how a blade goes
> missing from a trailer?

PS have you spoken to the squad member who counted them into the
trailer?

R

23 Apr 2008 04:37:01

Emily

Re: Missing blade - UK South

On Apr 22, 2:38=A0pm, rdupa...@hotmail.com wrote:
> On Apr 22, 2:24 pm, Emily <emily_bald...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > City of Oxford women's squad returned from Bedford Small Boats Head on
> > Sunday 13th one sculling blade short. It was part of a quad set and
> > our quad raced in the last division, landing practically next to our
> > trailer, so we can't work out what happened to it. But I just want to
> > check in case anyone picked it up. The blade colours are blue, red and
> > white.
>
> > Alternatively - anyone have any bright ideas as to how a blade goes
> > missing from a trailer?
>
> PS have you spoken to the squad member who counted them into the
> trailer?
>
> R

The person who put them into the trailer is fairly convinced she put
all 8 in together (but it was the end of a long day so a mistake could
have been made).

We considered the idea that one fell out - but it would have fallen
into the middle of the road and the driver of the trailer thinks he
would have spotted it. This remains a possibility.

The most likely option to my mind is that since the trailer returned
late on Sunday evening and wasn't deloaded until Monday, some local
youth(s) nicked it. Though even then I can't think why they would nick
only one (rather than having a couple or more to fight each other
with).

I guess the moral is to deload the trailer as soon as it returns from
a trip - just not sure I can see this happening every time though.

23 Apr 2008 04:57:35

di@rocktheboat

Re: Missing blade - UK South

On Apr 23, 12:37=A0pm, Emily wrote
>
> I guess the moral is to deload the trailer as soon as it returns from
> a trip - just not sure I can see this happening every time though.- Hide q=
uoted text -
>

Good luck with finding it (advertising a loss here helped with
Bookie's phone ....)

I know it's too late for this occasion but how easy / expensive is it
to have a lockable lidded box in a trailer for blades and seats? As
well as preventing them being hidden or pinched by undesirables it
would prevent them bouncing out of the trailer on long trips -
particularly where there are train tracks or road humps. I'm sure
I've seen them around. Unfortunately there are events where one would
also want to be able to lock away non-racing kit when on the water as
I know that goes missing too - ooh, if the blades are on the water
with the crew then there would be room in the box for their bags! Of
course, it would create its own version of hell with the problems of
who has the key to the lock but that's another question!

23 Apr 2008 11:10:34

Re: Missing blade - UK South

On Apr 23, 11:37 pm, Emily <emily_bald...@hotmail.com > wrote:
>
> The person who put them into the trailer is fairly convinced she put
> all 8 in together (but it was the end of a long day so a mistake could
> have been made).
>
> We considered the idea that one fell out - but it would have fallen
> into the middle of the road and the driver of the trailer thinks he
> would have spotted it. This remains a possibility.
>
>
I've seen riggers loaded onto the wrong trailer, parked next to ours
(both ways, actually - our riggers disappeared completely but we found
someone else's blades being loaded our our trailer despite different
colour and structure.

I've pulled boats in all kinds of traffic between Vancouver, Montreal,
San Diego and points between - you don't necessarily notice everything
that goes on behind the trailer unless it's a boat blowing off (hasn't
happened to me, touch wood) but we've had slides fall out and other
stuff blow off if it wasn't well secured. Haven't seen rowing oars
blow out, but if a scull is loose in a trailer and blade forward in
the wind, it's not too hard to imagine it being lifted out of there -
either by the slipstream from driving along at a good rate or from a
pair of hands attached to a thief...
Hope you find your blade
W

23 Apr 2008 20:20:45

Carl Douglas

Re: Missing blade - UK South

wmartind@gmail.com wrote:
> On Apr 23, 11:37 pm, Emily <emily_bald...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>>The person who put them into the trailer is fairly convinced she put
>>all 8 in together (but it was the end of a long day so a mistake could
>>have been made).
>>
>>We considered the idea that one fell out - but it would have fallen
>>into the middle of the road and the driver of the trailer thinks he
>>would have spotted it. This remains a possibility.
>>
>>
>
> I've seen riggers loaded onto the wrong trailer, parked next to ours
> (both ways, actually - our riggers disappeared completely but we found
> someone else's blades being loaded our our trailer despite different
> colour and structure.
>
> I've pulled boats in all kinds of traffic between Vancouver, Montreal,
> San Diego and points between - you don't necessarily notice everything
> that goes on behind the trailer unless it's a boat blowing off (hasn't
> happened to me, touch wood) but we've had slides fall out and other
> stuff blow off if it wasn't well secured. Haven't seen rowing oars
> blow out, but if a scull is loose in a trailer and blade forward in
> the wind, it's not too hard to imagine it being lifted out of there -
> either by the slipstream from driving along at a good rate or from a
> pair of hands attached to a thief...
> Hope you find your blade
> W

You don't always notice boats falling off either. Happened to one of
our singles on a team trailer going to a a GBR training camp in Italy.
Happened to a 2x from the US Oly squad on its way down to Long Beach
before Casitas (we got a borrowed boat of ours over there for them -
thanks to our wonderful clients & to the then GBR team management).

The reason for not chucking blades into the bottom of the trailer, as
for not failing to tie down a boat properly, is that insurance may cover
_your_ loss but will be incapable of compensating adequately for the
damage your flying property may inflict on the innocent occupants of the
car behind. If I'd just lost a piece of kit that I thought had been on
the trailer, that's what would be really worrying me....

Cheers -
Carl

--
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing Low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: Harris Boatyard, Laleham Reach, Chertsey KT16 8RP, UK
Find: http://tinyurl.com/2tqujf
Email: carl@carldouglas.co.uk Tel: +44(0)1932-570946 Fax: -563682
URLs: www.carldouglas.co.uk (boats) & www.aerowing.co.uk (riggers)