The Independent Rowing News

Creative Coxing, Great 8-style. Ali Williams navigating Weeks with a compromised rudder, by SportGraphics , helping the Great 8 deliver on the promise of a dominating International Eight.
story by Janit Stahl

The promise of a dominating Great 8 at the Head of the Charles 2009 may not have been realized was it not for the ingenuity of their coxswain Ali Williams.

Ali Williams, a post-doctoral research fellow in Pharmacology at Harvard, went into the race with the kind of focus and determination that made overcoming the circumstances of a broken rudder ‘all part of a day’s work.’

The Charles is a technical course when everything is going right, but Ali Williams had eight extremely powerful men charging through bridges and past boats...with a broken rudder, in poor conditions.

‘I prepared militantly for this race, but I still can’t believe we pulled it off,” she says.

The Great 8 crew was one of the first to the basin for warm-up prior to the Championship Eights on Sunday. In the cold wind and snow, the crew was spinning and getting a feel for a new rudder. They had broken two rudders attempting to make turns early in the week, and had installed a “very robust” rudder to replace them.

“Just to make sure,” says Williams, “In the basin, where there is a lot of room, I told the guys, ‘let’s practice a turn.’”

“I said to them, ‘let’s imagine we are going through Weeks.’” Not foreshadowing, quite, the turn went well. Williams said to the crew, “Ok, it’s going to be fine.”

Then, one more test to assure all things were going as planned: “We decided to practice a take-off piece—a flying start—I called for a 30-stroke lift off, and I lost control through the BU Bridge,” says Williams. “We stopped-everybody was pretty calm—but then I reached down and the rudder was completely gone.”

Fighting for composure amidst her talented crew, they paddled down to a marshal, who instructed them to go to BU dock. At the boathouse, they quickly rigged a borrowed 4+ (reports on the size of the rudder vary) rudder to the Filippi they were rowing.

They arrived at the start and lined up to build to race pressure again—the same sequence that had broken a sturdier rudder minutes before. This time, it held, but it was clear to Williams that the steering wasn’t what she needed to make tight turns with the power and weight that was in her craft.

“Since I prepared so well, I could put this out of my mind and focus on the race,” says Williams.

Williams struggles to explain a kind of white-hot focus she experienced during that day, when recounting the race. She knew of the importance and significance of this race, the experience of the men within the boat, and the expectation of rowing fans that lined the banks despite the dreadful weather.

“I was so in-the-moment,” says Williams, she really didn’t think about anything except “facilitating the best performance by this crew...exploiting their strengths,” she affirms. Ultimately, it was also following the line she had visualized in recent weeks, no matter how it was achieved.

Ironically, the team had joked with her in the past few days when the rudder had bent and broken in practices, ‘You’re going to have to put your hand in the water!’ they’d say. More foreshadowing? In her mind, though, Williams was very concerned about losing control of such a powerful crew going through a bridge.

So, as Williams and the legendary Great 8 went full pressure, barreling into the Weeks turn, “It became apparent we weren’t turning enough, and I wasn’t making my line...I didn’t know how the boat would react, but I put my hand in the water...my hand flew out from the force, but the boat responded pretty quickly,” explains Williams. “Tim (Maeyens, bow) backed off a bit and the boat stayed balanced, remarkably,” she adds.

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“At Anderson I made the decision—no hand—still a hard turn—it was a little wide, but I did not want to slow them down,” she continues to describe their course.

“I was talking to them all the time... where they were on the course, how long till next turn, where they were in relation to other crews, reminding them to keep their length.”

“Our plan was really ‘take no prisoners’,” she says, and to that end, given the conditions, “whenever we were straight we were going for it.”

The Great 8 navigation of the course was literally strokes of brilliance. As the sliced through the water--each turn Williams assessing their ability to maintain the line that she had planned--they adjusted pressure, worked with the lighter rudder and drove into every straight. “Iztok was a hero, and Ondrej really backed him up,” says Williams of her Slovenian starboard stroke and Czech 7-seat. They remained in the high 30’s through the course, and after they passed the last obstacle, she said it was time to empty the tank.

As they emerged from under Elliot Bridge, they went up to a 41, clean catches and releases, at a rating that many rowers only dream of achieving, and even then, not sustained. As they entered the final sprint, the rating went up to a 42. Most other Championship 8s were going from Elliot to the finish at a 35.

They were pretty quiet as they paddled back to the Harvard dock. Williams, with the adrenaline no longer pumping, started to feel the chill on her wet clothing that had been sprayed in her valiant maneuvers at Weeks several miles ago. The crew was uncertain how their result, given the circumstances.

As they docked, Harry Parker came out to say, “You guys looked great, you were ahead by 9 seconds at Cambridge!” (Officially they were up by 11 seconds). Knowing they had a fast last interval, they were excited by this news. Within minutes, the report came: they won by over 12 seconds. “There was a big roar, and I think I fell to the boathouse floor,” says Williams, finally able to decompress after the race. “Allan (Campbell) dead-lifted me up, and we had a big group hug!” describes Williams.

The Great 8 knew who their hero was on that day.

What has lingered on Williams mind since the race? What has stayed with her, and will always? A couple thoughts she shares:

“Ironically, it is that we are such a team—the sum of all parts made us so strong.” Williams notes that despite their lack of training time together, this mixed International/United Nations team was an amazingly well-functioning unit.

Also, she notes: “It was the ability to overcome the circumstances (of this given race)...the crew was always thinking and attentive.”

More from Great 8 coxswain to come, kudos for her achievement, follow their news here at www.rowingnews.com

Will there be more Great 8 encounters? “Everyone would be keen on it,” says Williams.