PROFILE

ROB BAKER

Coaching Doyen

IN CONVERSATION WITH MARTIN CROSS

PHOTOGRAPHY BENEDICT TUFNELL

Cut Baker and he would probably bleed Light Blue. Born and bred in Cambridge, the former Rob Roy junior started coaching at CUBC in 2001. His father, Tony, was the Gonville and Caius boatman for almost three decades. Successful Henley Royal Regatta and Reserve Boat Race campaigns preceded a stint coaching at Rowing Ireland after which Baker returned to his hometown in 2015 and led the CUBC women’s squad. Having overseen the women’s move to the Tideway, Baker led the Light Blue women to dominant victories in 2017 and 2018. Since taking over as Men’s Chief Coach Baker has won six of the last seven men’s races: this year’s win secured Baker’s hat trick.

What's life been like since The Boat Race 2025?

I came home with a hangover on the Monday morning and then hung out with my family for a few days. I looked after my two girls and after they went back to school I ducked off to see my friends and do some hiking.

Cambridge are back training. We started on Tuesday on the erg, and got on the water on Wednesday and Thursday. Today the guys have a weights session and more time on the ergs. I'm in Goldie Boathouse right now, with the honours board behind me and the sound of whirring machines downstairs.

I've been in that boat house. Is there a solution for the men's and women's names to be recorded, or are the women's names going in the boat house at Ely?

Good question. To be honest, there's not a lot of room on the wall here, but we have the honours boards in Ely so that's rectified it to some extent, but potentially there's more to do.

Who's back? Is it the whole Blue Boat and Goldie (CUBC men’s reserve crew)?

Most of the team are back. We've a couple of guys doing exams, so they're land training until they return properly. I think we will lose two or three guys from the Blue Boat and Goldie for the summer, but otherwise it'll be a strong contingent.

“Racing eights isn’t about who your best people are – probably the other side has similar best people – it's about depth.”

Let's talk about The Boat Race 2025. How surprised were you by your crew's 34 seconds margin of victory?

Quite surprised. I thought we would win, and I knew we had a good crew. Even though we won The Head Of The Charles earlier in the year, and shown good performances, we were still under the radar. Oxford had strong individuals, in particular the stern three, but they had good rowers throughout their crew, so I certainly didn't expect to win by that margin. It was one of the biggest I've experienced.

After the race you said this Blue Boat was one of the best you’ve coached.

One of the best and one of the fastest. I don't think we had a bad session: we had good individuals without having any superstars, and we were strong throughout the whole boat. They were able to push on and get better. We went through some difficult times with guys in and out of the boat, but we were always able to improve.

They were a spectacular bunch to work with, and they didn't necessarily ask a ton of questions, just jumped in and trusted what we were doing. We've built that trust over a number of years, so at this point the guys who arrive seem to trust the program and the coaching. That's a wonderful thing.

You had Tom Ford (Paris 2024 Olympic champion, GBR M8+) rowing in the crew earlier in the season. How similar was the speed with or without Tom in the boat?

It's hard to tell. Our training pieces did not look too different, but Tom adds an X-factor. Douwe (de Graaf, who stroked the Blue Boat) is a fantastic rower, but he took a bit of pushing to stroke. Before this race the stroke seat hasn't been his home, but I knew – 100% – he was capable of it. Generally he drove boats on from the six seat. He is a super racer. He wants to push himself to the limit, and beyond, which in the stroke seat, is not always the best thing to do. Tom was more capable of changing gear when needed.

The interesting thing, and I drove this home to the guys, was that when we had Tom, he helped the crew progress. He helped Douwe learn how to stroke the boat better. Douwe got a huge amount from sitting behind Tom. Length and consistency: no matter what was going on around him, Tom rows exactly the same every single stroke. At first Douwe wasn't as good at doing that, but when we had to make the change Douwe did brilliantly. He jumped into the role well.