It was a cold but calm spring day for racing on the last day of April on the Concord River with Groton.  The afternoon started with the 4^th boat race, but within 10 strokes the Groton 2 seat had a broken footstretcher. When the race was rerun later in the afternoon, Groton got out to a quick lead and continued to extend the open water through the body of the race.  The Middlesex boat made some technical improvements over their previous races, but came across the line 37 seconds behind Groton. 

The 3^rd boat race was a similar story, with Groton getting out to an early lead, and the Middlesex crew putting in a concerted effort, while also working through the kinks of a relatively new lineup. In the 2^nd boat race, Middlesex and Groton got off to an even start, and Middlesex maintained overlap with the Groton boat for the first 500 meters.  At that point Groton slowly started to pull away with open water.  The boats maintained about 1-length of open water between them until the last 400, when Groton's sprint took them to their final placement 13 seconds ahead of Middlesex. 
 
The Middlesex 1^st boat also got off the line cleanly, and fought it out with Groton for the first 750 meters, by which point Middlesex's bow ball still had overlap with the Groton stern deck.  With 600 to go, Middlesex took a seat or two back on Groton, but then in the last 500 Groton picked up the pace and started to open up water on MX, finishing 11 seconds ahead of Middlesex. 
 
Good racing to all, and thanks to Groton for making the trip again. 
 
 
 

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