Both the women's and the men's crew teams head north this Wednesday for the five-day Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, one of the world's largest.
Dartmouth teams, racing as the Dartmouth Rowing Club, will face fierce competition from club teams that often train far more extensively.
Men's Crew Coach Dick Grossman said that some of the competitors have practiced twice a day since early June.
He said some of the other teams skip the U.S. or Canadian national championships to concentrate on the Canadian Henley's.
"It's pretty difficult to do well in this league," Grossman said. "We've trained on a low-key level since the beginning of July."
The Canadian Henley are "all we train for all summer," women's coach Barb Kirch said.
"It's our only race of the summer so it is important," rower Beth Meyer '96 said.
"It's the biggest event in North American summer club rowing season," Grossman said.
Kirch said heats of six boats run every 10 minutes from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the entire five days.
But the difficult competition does not preclude a successful regatta for the Big Green teams.
"We think we have a pretty good shot," Meyer said.
Kirch said that it is difficult to predict success because of the Canadian Henley's unusual elimination process.
Only the winner of each heat advances. In most races, the top two or three boats advance.
"The selection process is very difficult," Kirch said. "I have no idea how we'll do this year."
Both men's lightweight and heavyweight teams will race in intermediate eights, 500-meter dashes and fours.
Three alumni will also compete in singles competition. Appro-ximatly 25 men will compete at the Canadien Henley, but not all of them will stay for the entire five days.
Ten women will compete in an eight boat, a four boat and a four-person sculling event.
The sculling event is a first for the women's team and they will be racing in a borrowed boat. "In the summertime people have to do something that's totally different," Kirch said.
The Canadian Henley is difficult for the team members because they miss up to three days of classes.
"It's very difficult to ask them to miss so many class," Kirch said. "I can appreciate some of the faculty concerns that have been expressed."
"Most of us have been able to work it out, we've been on the road plenty of times before so we'll just take [our work] with us," Meyer said.
