THE SPORT OF ROWING In November when they arrived at the Olympic regatta site on Lake Wendouree in Ballarat, Australia, the disciplined routine of both American Pairs attracted a lot of attention from other competitors. British rower, philosopher and author Colin Porter:3316 “Consider the training done by the American Coxed- and Coxless-Pairs at Melbourne. Every evening they would go out together and [stroke] at 28-30 for fifteen minutes, rowing every stroke as hard as possible, stop and turn around, come back for six minutes doing the same thing, and then finish with a flat-out 2,000 metre course. Although they would only cover six miles and be back within the hour, the intensity with which they did all their work amply made up for its brevity.”3317 Findlay remembers the workouts in Australia quite a bit differently: “Seldom did we row with Jim and Dewey. We usually rowed with the single [Jack Kelly, Jr.], so we were with the other ‘slowest’ shell. The workout area of the lake was around the perimeter or down the race course, which was carved through the weeds to the finish.3318 Rowing fifteen minutes as hard as possible would take you 4,000 meters plus or minus, and then six minutes as hard as possible would be about 1,500 meters, and then the 2,000 on the course. Now row back to the boathouse 3,000 to 4,000 meters, and that’s something I have never done in eight years of practice.”3319 Apparently for Colin Porter, the legend exceeded the reality. Kurt Seiffert: “Conn is right. We were able to keep up with Jack Kelly, and the lake was small, not much bigger than Green Lake in Seattle. In email correspondence with the Victoria Historical Society in Australia, I 3316 See Chapter 78. 3317 Porter, Rowing to Win, pp. 153-4 3318 See photo, Chapter 69. 3319 Findlay, personal correspondence, 2007 hear that the lake has entirely dried up due their prolonged drought.3320”3321 Duvall Hecht, writing in 1956: “Fifer and I shoot for 7:00 and row the course taking a thirteen-stroke start at 38, settling immediately to a 28 until four minutes have gone by, driving the boat up to 30 for the fifth and sixth minute, and sprinting between a 34 and 38 for the last minute. “Our theory is that with power and control at a low beat we get more performance from our boat in the first four minutes than if we were to go higher. Also, we have enough left to challenge another boat in the sprint to the wire. This is the way Jim Beggs trained us to race in 1952 when we rowed the pairs-with- coxswain.”3322 Fifer and Hecht were fated to start and end their Olympic careers in brutally cold and unpleasant weather, “a climate that makes Puget Sound in winter time seem like a Florida garden.”3323 Not unexpectedly, the Drumsö Fjord course in Helsinki in 1952 had occasionally been daunting for a small boat, and Hecht in 1956 described the early spring conditions during training on Lake Wendouree as follows: “Each day is a succession of two cold workouts under varying conditions and combinations of wind, rain and chill. It is dispiriting to see nothing but whitecaps and to row always in a ferocious polar wind. Hecht: “Dip and pry, catch and tug. The prevailing wind howls hard down the course, and we figure a good time trial under such conditions takes us about eight minutes. “George Pocock equipped all of the boats with rough-water splash baffles above the riggers, and in the pairs he devised toe 3320 In 2010, plans were afoot to refill the lake. 3321 Seiffert, personal correspondence, 2009 3322 Hecht, op. cit., p. 18 3323 Hecht, op. cit., p. 17 920
