(These rules were written June 2023 trying to combine and update various older sets of rules. If you have any questions please contact the WCBC president. This was written when Wolfson owned two small boats: a double/pair ‘the Wolf’ and a single ‘Bernard Henry’. If the fleet changes, in particular if we obtain any nicer boats, these rules should be updated to take this into account.)​

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1. Who can go out in Wolfson small boats?

• All members of WCBC who have successfully completed a capsize drill at Oxford (and by association passed a swim test at some point). Unlike swim tests which expire and must be renewed, capsize drills are for life. Capsize drills are most often organised by the Lightweights (and these are the easiest to attend), but occasionally colleges will try and organise their own. Contact the captains if you are interested in doing one.

• If anyone wishes to go out in a Wolfson small boat with someone who is not a member of WCBC (e.g. they’re a member of another college) then this must get prior approval from the WCBC president beforehand. Requests to go out with a non-WCBC novice sculler are unlikely to be approved.

• All outings on the Isis are subject to the OURCs rules and these must be obeyed.

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2.  What are the different approval statuses for small boat users and how do people move between them?

• Capsize drilled / Double: This is where everyone needs to start. There are two ways for you to use the double: 1. With a more experienced rower who has ‘steer double’ or higher status and no bankrider. 2. With another capsized drilled rower and a bankrider. At least one of the two should have sculled before. If the person steering is new to steering, the bankrider should be able to give steering advice.

• Steer Double: You are allowed to steer the double on bowseat without a bankrider. You are also allowed to use the single with a bankrider

• Single, no bankrider: You are allowed to row in the single without a bankrider.

• Pair (with or without bankrider): You are allowed to steer the pair on bowseat with or without a bankrider.

​To progress from ‘capsize drilled’ to ‘steer double’ and then  to ‘single, no bankrider’ you need to complete an outing accompanied by an experienced rower to check your ability to stay safe and to steer. This can be a coach or another boat club member, it is the president's decision to approve if the bankrider is experienced enough. It is unlikely that ‘single, no bankrider’ will be approved unless the rower is very experienced. You can progress directly from ‘capsize drill’ to ‘single, no bankrider’ status if you have learned to scull in the single. Here, you should also be reasonably confident in your ability not to capsize. 

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2.1 Additional information for experienced scullers joining WCBC

If you join WCBC while already having sufficient small boat experience, you can be approved immediately as ‘single, no bankrider’ status (a capsize test is still necessary). We still require a single outing where an experienced sculler or coach bankrides to check familiarity with the rules of the river Isis (as it pertains to college rowers, which differs from city club rules). Provided this accompanied outing is a success and no concerns are raised a request for approval to single scull without a bank rider can be made to the President (wcbc.president@gmail.com). Please explain your prior experience when making this request and complete the associated checklist regarding rules of the river. Theoretically, the capsize drill can be skipped by asking OURCs for an exemption, but this is tedious and unlikely to be approved.

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2.2 Coached Outings

If the bankrider is a Wolfson coach, then the rowers may row in any boat (including single and pair) at the coach's responsibility. Capsize drills are still necessary. This may be revoked if safety measures (like checking that there are heel restraints) are ignored. Note that at WCBC, we normally do not offer coached small boats outings but this is at the discretion of the respective captains.

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2.3 Additional Rules for the Pair

Any pair combination is to be approved by the president before the outing. The president also needs to decide if a bankrider is required or not. This is not necessary if the outing is accompanied by a bankrider who is a coach. 

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2.4 Upgrade Checklist

When approving an upgrade, the bankrider should check the following:

1. Safe steering and generally behaving safely on the river (safely steering through the gut included)

2. Safe evaluation of the conditions (light, fog, temperature, …)

3. Ability to check if the boat is safe to row (heel restraints and hatch covers)

4. Sufficient rowing ability to keep the risk of capsizing low

5. Knowledge of spinning areas (also during blue flag)

6. Knowledge of rules regarding lights and river closures (Wednesday afternoon, Sunday morning)

7. Safely racking the boat

8. Knowledge of the small boat keys

9. Re-rigging double/pair if necessary

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3. Booking Small Boats

Small boats can be booked by approved members by logging the booking on the spreadsheet provided by the president. This is done on a first-come-first-serve basis but has to be done in a fair manner. If you want to use one of the boats for a regatta, please request this by emailing the president. Boats may be shared between morning/afternoon divisions. Schedule conflicts should be tried to be resolved in cooperation with the president and captains.

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3.1 Booking Restrictions during Summer

To make sure that everyone has a fair chance at booking small boats and that coached/racing crews have an opportunity to train, we have the following booking restrictions during the summer months:

• Priority for scheduled outings: the captains have priority to schedule outings in the 6.30 - 8.30am time slot. This has to be done before 5pm on Sundays for the coming week. Before this, you must not book any small boats that overlap with this time slot. 

• Fair use in the afternoon: the 5-7pm time slot is the most popular. As such, you must book at most 2 outings per week per person that overlap with this timeslot. For the moment, this only applies to the double/pair.

• You must not book any outings more than 7 days in advance.

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4. Safety Rules in winter and flags

As rowing in small boats comes with a significant risk of capsizing rowers must pay additional caution to the weather conditions compared to rowing in fours or eights. There are two factors, stream speed increases the risk of capsizing, and cold temperatures increase the hazard of capsizing.

 

4.1 Blue, Amber and Red flag

All outings are subject to the OURCs rules, part of this is the flag system. You can check the state of the flag here:  https://ourcs.co.uk/information/flags/ 

• Green flag: normal conditions

• Light/Dark blue flag: any boat must have an experienced rower to steer (either double or single no bankrider status). It is recommended to have a bankrider and they should carry a throwline. 

• Amber flag: no small boat outings by OURCs rules.

• Red flag: no outings allowed at all by OURCs rules.

 

4.2 Winter

Cold temperatures greatly increase the health hazard of capsizing. Water and air temperature can be checked here: https://dl1.findlays.net/show/temp/thames1 

The rule of thumb is that the number of degrees in water temperature equals the amount of minutes until hypothermia sets in which causes people to drown. 

In the winter months of November to February, any small boat outings must be individually approved by the president. 

If the outing is accompanied by a bankrider, they have to carry a throw line and a foil blanket. These can be found in the cabinet next to the door.

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5. What to do after capsizing?

If you capsize, you should get out of the water as quickly as possible to warm up, shower and put on dry clothes. This need not to be done at our boathouse, do this as quickly as possible, all other clubs will be happy to help in providing spare clothing as safety is the main concern here.

After the outing, please let the president know to report the reason for capsizing and to report any damage inflicted on any boats. Further, you must always fill out an incident report for British Rowing: https://incidentreporting.britishrowing.org/

 

6. Misuse

If any of the above rules are broken, the rowers and bankriders involved will receive up to one warning, after which if any of the rules are broken the permission to use small boats may be removed for a length of time determined by the president. The approval status may also be downgraded. This may also be done if rowers are unable to use the small boats safely. 

 

7. General things to keep in mind before small boat outings

Like before any rowing outing, you should familiarise yourself with the conditions: visibility (light and fog), stream speed, business of the river, wind and weather forecast. You have to be aware of the flag status as this changes OURCs rules and our rules, including where you are allowed to spin. Lastly, the risk of capsizing is higher in small boat outings, so you should check the water temperature (i.e. how cold would you be when capsizing?) and check that there are spare clothes available.

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