Head of the Cam 2024
The Head of the Cam 2024 will be on Saturday April the 20th.
Closing date for entries is 6pm on Wednesday the 17th April or thereabouts; this is now in the past.
The draw is available from here. Results will appear there, and on RowClock.
Numbers may be picked up from Queens’s coaching room (upstairs) from 7:30.
Prize giving will be at 15:30, also at Queens’s coaching room.
Entrants
Course of 2,600m upstream on the River Cam. Four divisions, VIII's, IV's, smaller boats. CRA, College classes. Click on the map for a larger version, or explore via google maps..
Prizes of tastefully engraved glasses for category winners. Winners will be announced and prizes handed out at 3:30 pm at Queens' Boathouse.
Note that we are not a BR event. We do our best to accommodate off-Cam folk.
Entries or enquiries: please contact the Race Secretary, William Connolley, at headofthecam@gmail.com.
For entries, please state your crew details:
Club, boat type (VIII, 4+, 4-, 4x, 2, 2x, 1x, etc),
Crew status (CRA / College 1st Mays, 2nd, etc.),
For CRA, please indicate your category: Championship”, “Club A”, “Club B” (which could be merged for some categories), Masters (A, B, …) or “Novice”. These are self-policed;
For colleges, note that your Mays status is your division (1 / 2 / Other) rather than your number within your college;
preferred division,
crew name, if non-obvious (you’ll be “college / club M / W n” by default).
and any constraints with crews in other divisions.
That’s it. There isn’t an entry form :-)
There are four divisions, at times:
Division 1: 09:00
Division 2: 10:40
Division 3: 12:20
Division 4: 14:00
I used to ask people to provide an estimate of your expected time, to be used for seeding purposes. However, I generally found this not-terribly-useful. Rather than actual numbers, good / average / slow for your class is most useful. This is only useful for the VIII's, or anyone outstandingly fast or slow. If you've got no idea of your time (new crew, visiting crew, whatever) then don't worry. Known College Mays crews will be seeded in last year's finish order.
Divisions tend to fill up for the VIIIs (especially division 1) for which we have a rough limit of 25 per division. But (within reason) we can accommodate as many sculls and small boats as you like.
Entry: £10.00 per rowing seat; coxes are free.
Payment may be made online to:
"Chesterton Rowing Club", sort code 23-05-80, account 46994310 (this is a new account).
Please also email me so we can track payments.
Note: your bank app may give you a “this account can’t be verified” message. But the a/c and sort code given above are correct.
Useful notes
To help marshalling and ensure a prompt start, it will help if the VIII's can make some attempt to come up the reach in reverse order.
The overtaking rule is, as is previous years, "cede the racing line to the faster crew".
The start Marshall will endeavour to be flexible about the start order, particularly at the tail of the divisions, either at crews requests or as seems suitable to them..
Visiting crews: boating facilities are available at various places along the Cam; you may be able to make arrangements with local clubs. Failing that, facilities are available from Combined Boathouse, by prior agreement. Please get in touch with me by email.
Row-throughs: if you’d rather row through than compete (:-() then: you're welcome to when we're not racing. You don’t need to email to ask permission. As for timing, typically a division takes, well, say up to 45 mins to clear completely (15+ mins for slower crews at the end; 40 boats with 30 second gaps means 20 mins till last boat sets off; and if unlucky we’ll be 5 mins late setting off the first); and things start getting crowded for the next div about 30 mins before the start; so you have an "optimum" window of about 25 mins. For example, after div 2 at 10:40 and before div 3 at 12:20, that's about 11:25 to 11:50. If you show up while racing is ongoing, you'll be asked to wait at the Green Dragon bridge.
Post event notes
We're not there yet.
