Is it even possible...

I think the best experience in this regatta is to be had within the large cohesive teams; the Riverfront Recaptures and Texas Rowing Centers of the world with large men and women contingents simultaneously striving in their individual events and supporting each other for the collective awards. Every time I walk by their giant tents I come away with the impression that everyone is having a great time. The USRowing Masters National Championship awards 5 teamwide trophies every year; Overall, Women, Men, Club, and Efficiency. Contending for the Overall requires participation in two categories from "women", "men", and "mixed". Club was created in 2017 in response to the rise of delocalized clubs like Chinook and tallies only points awarded in "Club" events where participants, including coxswains, are required to reside inside a radius of 80km from the club headquarters. Efficiency divides the overall tally by the size of the roster. This is an important distinction to be discussed further as it is different to the Royal Canadian Henley Masters Regatta calculation. The Canadians divide points obtained by the maximum obtainable and thus calculate entry efficiency whereas the Americans calculate roster efficiency. No points are awarded for composite crews and points are given by event according to the table below:

Place	1x	2x, 2-	4x, 4-, 4+	8+
1st	10	​15	20	30
2nd	8	12	16	24
3rd	4	6	8	12
4th	2	3	4	6
5th	1	1	2	3
6th	0	0	1	1

Although the 1st place is always awarded the points shown above, subsequent places may receive reduced points if the event has fewer than 6 entries.

The points required to win each of the awards since 2015 are tabulated below:

Year	Overall	Women	Men	Club	Efficiency
2015	617	531	448	NA	16.7
2016	935	601	529	NA	15.8
2017	1173	742	443	229	19.0
2018	830	379	522	345	16.0
2019	1035	606	423	205	17.2
2021	1335	713	639	421	19.6

There is a lot to unpack here but an important insight is just the massive impact a big Chinook delegation will have on most of these awards. In 2015, before Chinook became a juggernaut, it only took 19% more points to win the Women trophy over the Men trophy. By 2017 the difference was 67% because Chinook drove significant concentration of victories in the women events. Note that in 2018 when the Championships were held in CA and Chinook only sent a modest delegation the trend reversed and it took 38% more points to win the Men award.

In any event, while we are very cohesive, our Nationals delegation is only 7 strong so we can only realistically contend for the Efficiency trophy. We are actually perfectly sized for this effort considering the historical winner:

Year	Efficiency	Roster Size
2015	16.7	7
2016	15.8	4
2017	19.0	4
2018	16.0	4
2019	17.2	4
2021	19.6	68

Excluding 2021, the average roster size for the Efficiency trophy winner is 4.8. Incidentally what Chinook achieved in 2021 is unbelievable. To average 20 points with a 68 person roster is a mind blowing statistic; with a 6 race max, for example, it requires winning 3 eights (3 x 3.75), winning a 4+ (5), and coming 3rd in a 4 (2). Given the average requirement over the last 6 Championships and the relatively remote location I estimate a 17.0 / roster member will be enough to win it this year.

So how does one maximize the chances of winning efficiency? The most important concept is to understand the calculation addresses roster efficiency and not entry efficiency. Once a rower is listed (s)he will count as a single unit in the denominator so all points are gravy. Under entry efficiency regimes bombing a race is really damaging because the entry expands the denominator, but at Nationals the strategy is to enter everyone in their 6 max events, and if a race goes bad so be it. 8+ events will give a point for a 6th place that translates to 0.125 for Efficiency purposes and the denominator will remain only 7 rowers.

With that said, we know we have 7 roster member and need 17 per member to contend for a total of 119 points. Our maximum tally is summarized in the table below:

Event	Maximum Points
19: MOB2-	15
35: MOE2-	15
49: MOI1x	10
72: MOE4x	20
100: MOA2x	15
101: MOE4-	0 (composite)
113: MOC2x	15
147: MOB2x	15
167: MLI1x	10
176: MCA4x	20
193: MOD4x	20
207: MCE4x	20

In total we can obtain 175 points and so a 68% of max performance would get the job done. From my end I need to make sure I contribute more than 17 points in my 3 events. I realize I am going against my own prescription here by not entering 6 but my schedule just didn't permit it. Either way, to carry my weight, I need to win two (2 x 7.5) and can come 3rd (3) in the other one. A tall order for sure, but certainly possible.