Talk:The Boat Race

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[edit] Race with the tide

Are you sure the Boat Race is against the tide? 16:19 over 4 and a half miles against the tide on the Tideway seems too good to be true. (I have rowed it in the opposite direction in Schools' Head, with both the tide and the current in my favour, and have never gone faster than 19 minutes - this year we are hoping for around 18 minutes.) Gingekerr 22:17, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I am almost certain that you are right. Google search is not definitive. Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 22:56, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Well spotted there. You're quite right. Now corrected. EddEdmondson 12:44, 15 Mar 2004 (UTC)

The statement The race is rowed towards the end of the incoming tide with the aim that the last of the incoming tide will cancel the effects of the stream and the water will be "slack" when the race takes place. appeared on here on 8th March. Is this really true? I thought it was timed to coincide with a fast incoming tide (much like the timing for the Head of the River Race where the first crew sets off with the fastest flowing water) The ITV coverage today suggested a stream of over 1 m/s in the direction of the race at the start, hardly "slack" water. Richard B 22:57, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Title

Is "Boat Race" really a better name? If I typed in Boat Race (knowing nothing about the toic) I would expect to find information about boat races or a list of them. -fonzy

There is no article to be had on generic "boat races", I don't think. Even List of boat races would be dubious, there are so many different types of boats and races. Compare List of land-based vehicle races. I don't see a problem. Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 12:52, 15 Mar 2004 (UTC)
See Boat race (which is a redirect to Rowing) as opposed to Boat Race. Don't know whether this redirect is appropriate but the article seems appropriate for a generic piece. EddEdmondson 13:51, 15 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Should be The Boat Race as in the LOGO on this very page and website www.theboatrace.org. Jooler 12:11, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Boats

What kind of boats do they use and where are they made can you get the same type of boat for individual use?

Both boats used in the Boat Race this year were made by Empacher, but there are a number of other manufacturers around the world. Most manufacters do make single-person sculling boats. Richard B 22:13, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
The equipment is standard rowing equipment, and there's a link to the sport of rowing, so I would say that there's no need for anything special in this wiki. 194.74.200.66 14:23, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Images and paragraphing

At the moment the article seems to be mainly large chunks of unbroken text. It could do with some images and formatting to break it up a bit. Maybe adding in more sections as well. True Blue certainly deserves its own subsection with a link to the main article--The Spith 10:09, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

  • I've added images to the Course section, and dedicated them to the public domain. The article still requires an image of the start including the stakeboats. Pointillist (talk) 03:34, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
  • I've now made a simplified map of the course and uploaded it. I'll try converting it to SVG at a later date. Pointillist (talk) 15:11, 6 April 2008 (UTC).
  • SVG version now in place - Pointillist (talk) 16:11, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
  • The table in Course now has thumbnails for most of the landmarks, plus extra statistics and comments on the deep channel. Many thanks for User:TrulyBlue and User:Motmit for their feedback. The Course section might be over-encumbered with images now, so maybe a gallery would be a good idea? - Pointillist (talk) 13:02, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
  • I think if you moved the map under the lead image and set all the other pics to no px (default size) the table could then stretch across the full width of the page which might solve the problem. Your call, but again well done for the idea and effort. Regards Motmit (talk) 16:01, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
  • Done. First I tried exactly what you described (see trying Motmit's layout suggestion in the history). Then I moved two racing images out of /*Course*/ and into /*Recent results*/which is where they belong anyway. Now it looks clean, IMO. - Pointillist (talk) 16:56, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Cumulative wins in table

Just out of curiosity - why were the number of cumulative wins by Oxford and Cambridge added to the table? It just seems to have made the table clumsier and uglier.

If there isn't a good reason, I will replace it with the old version of the table. - MykReeve TยทC 14:51, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Win Tables

Could the isis/goldie table be combined with the main table to state having to scroll through both? I'm still not sure how tables in Wiki work. --Nate 08:09, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

I've done this, also removed the colouring of cumulative stats when the totals were level: I thought it was a bit confusing, and didn't add much. I don't know if the section order in the results section is right, feel free to shuffle them TrulyBlue 09:38, 3 July 2007 (UTC)