A long time ago, I stroked the UCD Senior 8 (no, that’s not an unexpected confession – it means I was in seat no 8 (in the stern, facing the Cox) and set the pace).

So you’ll understand my interest when I saw a crew on the Rhine:

When we trained at Islandbridge, the awful thing was you could only row for a mile and a quarter before you had to stop, turn the boat around and row back. And then stop, turn the board around – and so on. Which was also the best thing (think about getting a breather every mile and a quarter).

In contrast, the Rhine is well over 1,000k long . . . Poor crew – not much rest there?

But wait – have you spotted anything odd about the boat? look at the video again . . .

It’s a coxed triple (3 rowers) double scull (oars both left and right each) ! I have never before seen such a boat (invariably a 2-man or 4-man crew. Never 3)