This weekend heralds the annual "Super Bowl of rowing," the Head of the Charles Regatta. Every year since 1965, some 7,500 rowers from around the world and up to 250,000 spectators gather around a three mile course on the Charles River. Among the crews taking the water this Saturday and Sunday will be two Tufts men's boats.
"One of the first things people ask when you tell them that you row is if you've rowed at the Head of the Charles," sophomore men's coxswain Danie Damm said. "I'm excited to finally be able to say 'yes.'"
Although the team's two earlier races, the Textile River Regatta on Oct. 1 and the New Hampshire Championships last weekend, were important foundations, the Head of the Charles is the premiere event of the fall season.
"Obviously, it's really big, especially for us seniors, who have been together for three and half years, race after race, practice after practice," senior co-captain Tim Pineau said. "This is why we wake up every day at 5 a.m; this is why we sacrifice our weekends. No one who wasn't at the New Hampshire or Textile River Regattas will know those race results, but everyone in the rowing community will know how we did here."
Whether Tufts' Head of the Charles results will be successful is very much up in the air after an uninspiring seventh-place result at the Textile River Regatta and an 11th-place finish in New Hampshire Championships. However, Pineau said he was not concerned about the less-than-stellar race results.
"I think it went well," Pineau said. "We were really viewing [the race in New Hampshire] as practice for the Head of the Charles and trying to really focus on getting our race mentality down. I think we accomplished that."
According to Damm, the team has focused this week on assembling the best rowing lineup, which could include as many as seven seniors. Pineau stressed the importance of camaraderie between the members of his boat.
"After rowing together for so long, there were five of us who either went abroad or took some time off from school, and then returned for this season," Pineau said. "This is something that we've been working towards for at least three and a half years, and chances are, this is going to be the last time that we will ever row in the Head of the Charles. We're ready to give it our all."
- by Will Herberich
