Timing the Skiffhead (rowing)

Experience by race director Pascal van Diepen

The Dutch Skiffhead is a traditional and iconic long-distance rowing race for singles and doubles on the river Amstel in Amsterdam. Seeking to enhance the timing experience for timekeepers, the race director, and participants alike, the organising committee turned to RaceClocker. Pascal van Diepen and Arthur Molenaar are both race directors of the event, that also includes a race for doubles (the Tweehead) as well as a junior event (the Youth-head).

the river Amstel in Amsterdam crowded by singles at the start line

“During our annual rowing races Skiffhead, Youth-head and Tweehead, organised by the K.A.R. & Z.V. de Hoop, we used RaceClocker for first time. Exciting as this made us the first Dutch rowing club to use this system for a major national rowing competition.

With RaceClocker on board, the timing of the race went very smoothly. The system proved to be not only user-friendly, but also very easy to operate by the volunteers among us. The system was also extremely stable throughout the day. Even under busy conditions, with multiple finish line crossings simultaneously, it continued to function reliably. It was easy to link the correct participants to the corresponding finishing time asynchronously.

Using RaceClocker was enjoyable on the first day of competition due to the adequate support from the Raceclocker team. In case of any questions or technical challenges, their support was ready immediately, allowing the race to continue running smoothly. Limitations of the system were also clearly communicated. On Sunday, our second race day, we no longer needed any support and were able to manage everything in the system ourselves.

Finish line timing action at the race management headquarters

After this successful experience, it is expected that we will use RaceClocker for future races as well. We look forward to plans among RaceClocker's product management for further improvements and additions to the system specifically for rowing races, which will increase efficiency and functionality. These include time penalties, adding notes on the results page or the ability to exclude a rowing team.”

Pascal van Diepen

Race Director Skiffhead/Tweehead & Novembervieren together with Arthur Molenaar
K.A.R. & Z.V. 'De Hoop'
Amsterdam

Start lists: Youth-head & Tweehead, Skiffhead
Results: Youth-head & Tweehead, Skiffhead

RaceClocker is made with 🖤 and ☕ from the Netherlands by Cees van Dok and Lucas Tijssen and the RaceClocker support team