It is important to know how to identify and communicate effectively with crews on the river during both racing and practice.

Identifying Crews

All event-divisions at the Head of the Charles have a defined pattern on the bow number placard, with which it is important to familiarize yourself. These are described in detail for each event-division in the athlete guide and summarized below:

• Event-divisions alternate in sequence based on the schedule between a black number on a white background and a white or colored number on a black background. In general, men’s events have a black bow number on a white background and women’s events have a white or colored bow number on a black background.
• Each specific event-division is identified by the color of a stripe along a vertical edge of the bow number placard. Colors are generally a rotation of pink, yellow, blue, orange, red, green and purple.

Communicating with Crews

When calling out to a crew, use as much identifying information as possible. We also recommend pointing at them so that any surrounding crews are sure who you are addressing. It may be that people forget their bow number but more visibly obvious characteristics, like the size of the boat, the color of the blades and the gender of the crew, will generally be more immediately recognized. Therefore, we suggest calling to crews in something like the following way, depending on how much information you can confidently identify from your position at a distance:

“Men’s four, red blades, bow number 2 …”
or
“Women’s quad, blue-and-white striped blades, bow number 17”
or
“Mixed eight, light blue”
etc.

If you can actually identify the club from the blades, say that part first, e.g.

“Cambridge single, bow number 4”
or
“Coast Guard eight, bow number 32”
etc.

Using a Megaphone

A megaphone must be used correctly to be effective as a communication tool.

1. Hold the microphone near (within a couple of inches of) your mouth. This will allow the best clarity of your voice to be transferred through the megaphone without interference from ambient noise, wind, etc.
2. Point the megaphone directly at your target audience, ideally the coxswain or bow person of the crew you are addressing, since they are most likely to be responsible for calling commands to the boat and therefore are the ideal recipient for your message. A megaphone is an amplifier but also quite unidirectional, so any deviation from being pointed directly at the intended listener, or its microphone being skewed away from your mouth, will lower the volume and garble your voice, rendering your message inaudible.
3. Project your voice clearly into the microphone. A quiet or mumbled voice will not become clearer when amplified through the megaphone.
4. Remember that being in a boat is noisy, whether that be due to traffic on nearby roads or on the river, the waves on the water beating against the side of the shell or an engine running on a launch. Do not assume that a message has been heard, let alone received. It is better to use the megaphone too loudly than too quietly.
5. Repeat yourself as necessary (ideally one should see an affirmative reaction such as a hand wave or change of rowing action). Be on the look out for signs that the message was not understood, such as a cupped hand to the ear or heads turning confusedly. Again, look and point directly at your target when relaying a message as part of a clear and unambiguous communication strategy.