EXPENSIVE EVENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1009, 27 June 1930, Page 9

EXPENSIVE EVENT

£ s. d. OF VARSITY BOAT RACE CRAFT COSTS £l4O The varsity boat race is one of the j most expensive sporting events in the world (says a writer in “Topical . Times"), and each year the cost of the 1 great struggle rises. This is because j the training of the crews is conducted j nowadays on an increasingly efficient j scale. It is not too much to sa3 T that j the total expenditure involved in put- | ting each eight into the Una! tussle \ on the Thames falls little short of a j thousand pounds. The boat used in the actual race—a j craft of the sheerest beauty and j strength—costs at least twice the j amount it did in pre-war days, it is, . of course, of British construction ; throughout. In 2 914 a varsity boat ! cost about £6o, all told. Today, £l4O j only just meets the boat-builders’ ac- j count for a craft of the same type, j although it Is, admittedly. of improved 1 design. CONSTRUCTION OF THE BOAT Built of the Finest timber procur- . able from the select plantations of the j world, the classic boat contains three 1 main constituents. For the ribs a I very choice sycamore is used; cedar, one of the costliest of all woods, goes into the planking and the floor; while j the boat’s “backbone" is fashioned j from a pure-grained pine. Thus is constructed a craft ir every way worthy of the notable event in which ; it is to play so all-important a part. Xext we come to the oars. These ; are made of Canadian spruce—a wood i that is singularly suitable for the purpose. Two pounds an oar is a close estimate of the average cost, tor the i set of eight oars usuallv works out at a cost altogether of from £l7 to £2O. When the race has been rowed each oar becomes the property of the man who has pulled it—and no trophy of . the sporting world is more highly prized by its possessor. TRAINING EXPENSES The remaining costs of the annual . Blue Riband boat race are connected almost entirely with the general training of the crews. This expenditure ! varies according to the views of the , coach and to some extent also with j the personal tendencies of each oars- l man, and it may run to any figure. For practical purposes, however, a i total outlay of £2.000 in respect of | each right can be regarded a« a «u£- j ficiently accurate computation.