Eight Canadians
The eighth Canadier (C8) (also Canadier-eights, eighth-Canadians or (formerly) racing-team-Canadians (RMC)) is the largest boat class in canoe racing . This is a Canadian , the eight kneeling individuals with piercing paddling is moved. A team consists of four paddlers each on the left and right side and a helmsman who sits in the stern .
Races in the " premier class " of canoe racing are only run nationally in Germany, but are traditionally part of the program of the German championships . In contrast to the row eight , the eight-canoe was never part of international competitions. As in all other canoeing disciplines in canoe racing, (official) competitions are held exclusively in male competition classes.
Design
Eight Canadians are about 11 meters long and about 1 meter wide. Their weight varies between 50 and 150 kilograms. Until 1984, the design according to the so-called DKV standard plan was specified in the competition regulations of the German Canoe Association, which specified a certain spatial dimension and the shape corresponded more to a hiking canoe than a racing boat. This provision was deleted in 1985 as part of an editorial revision of the provisions without further discussion. The change initially went unnoticed until the first clubs started in 1990 with seven-man Canadians converted to eighth . To this day, for reasons of cost, many clubs compete with traditional boats built according to the standard plan, although the last boats of this type were made in the 1970s and these boats are slower and heavier.
meaning
Until the national and international introduction of the four-man canoe in 1989, the eight was the only team boat alongside the two in the canoe disciplines and was driven in all age groups. The eighth canoe over 1000 meters traditionally set the climax and end of the German Canoe Racing Championships. In 1991 the German Canoe Association decided to abolish the figure eight as a championship discipline in favor of the four man, but after massive protests by the athletes concerned and solidarity campaigns, the kayakers also gave in in the following year. Since then, eight races in the performance class and the student class (each over 500 m) have been championship discipline again. The challenge prize awarded as a challenge cup for the German master in the Canadian team races, the Hans Schneekloth Memorial Prize , has meanwhile been rededicated to the German master in the four-man Canoe, but has been awarded again to the German master in the eighth since 2003.
The heyday of the eight Canadians was in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when a large number of clubs took part in the championship races. Due to an increasing concentration on a few high-performance clubs, the number of boats participating in German championships decreased to less than ten. After the approval of racing associations at state level in canoe racing by the DKV, the number of boats participating in the DM stabilized at seven to nine.