2004 Instructions for Crew Judges

(Revised 21-Apr-04)

The primary duty of race officials is to care for the safety of competitors, other officials, other water users and the public at large. Consideration of safety should override all other concerns.

General

• Ensure that you know the name of the crew you are judging (which will be assigned on the day, and will different from the crew that named you on its entry form), its bung line number and the names of the crews above and below.
• Accompany racing boats on bicycles along the towpath.
• Instruct crews to concede if a bump is inevitable or an overlap equivalent to a bump has been achieved. 
• Note the timing relative to any other bumps that maybe taking place around you and position of a bump.
• Ensure that conceding crews row on, and that bumping crews pull over away from the racing line without impeding other crews behind them that are still in the race. 
• Report to John Hill at Race Control in person immediately after the race, whether or not the crew(s) to which you were assigned achieved a bump.
• If you are following the last crew inform the marshal at Folly Bridge once your crew has crossed the finish line.

Definition of a 'Bump' (Extracted from the Local Rules of Racing)

L12. Bumps 

L12.1. A bump shall be deemed to have taken place when:

a) a boat touches any part of the boat in front of it, the term 'boat' to include oars, rudder, crew, pole or bungline;

b) an umpire or judge deems an equivalent overlap equivalent to L12.1a, above, to have taken place; or
c) when the coxswain or stroke of the leading boat acknowledges, by raising his arm, that a bump is inevitable; or
d) when one boat rows clean by another.

L12.2. A boat shall be liable to be bumped until every part of it has crossed the finishing line.
L12.3. On achieving a bump, a boat ceases to be part of a race.
L12.4. Crews dropping out of the race at any time (e.g. on achieving bump) must pull over immediately away from the racing line to the safety of the bank without stopping  Take care not to impede crews still racing who maybe coming up on either side of you. Any crew which obstructs the race by failing to observe these instructions is liable to be penalized.

Report any infringements (e.g. crews which obstruct the race by failing by failing to observe L12.4) to the Controlling Umpire at Race Control.