Arguably the greatest festival of rowing on Earth, Head of the Charles Regatta returned this year after a two-year break and delivered another incredible weekend of racing. Despite travel restrictions limiting many foreign crews from coming over to compete, entries were full and the quality was as high as ever.

WinTech Racing & King Racing had a flotilla of boats taking to the Charles and were bolstered by numerous strong finishing places in their respective categories.

For the first time the event spanned three days, with para and some masters events taking place on the Friday before the first full day on Saturday. On Friday, masters and veterans up to the 70+ category raced, and Chinook BC, rowing in a Wintech shell, picked up a fantastic second place in the Men’s Grand Masters Double. Capping off the morning’s racing was the Mixed Para Inclusion Double, won by Houser and Scott from Athletes Without Limits, also in a Wintech. These two events alone are a fantastic example of the power of rowing and Wintech to inspire and cater for any athlete.

Always a highlight of the HOCR, the alumni eights raced on Saturday, with crews representing some of the top US colleges going head to head. In the women’s event, Boola Boola – also known as the Yale alumnae – finished a fantastic second place, in a newly released King SE 8+, a couple of places ahead of the Washington alumnae, also in a King SE. With nearly 100 entries across the two events, the alumni eights category is certainly catching on and HOCR may find the idea poached by events across the world in years to come.

The Men’s Championship Single was notably won by Ben Davison, who rowed in the Men’s Eight in Tokyo, and placing second was Eliot Putman rowing for Penn AC, in a WinTech heavyweight Medalist FLX shell. Another impressive showing from the young talent at Duke University as the ladies took to the course finishing 2^nd overall in their bowmount King 4+. The remainder of the masters raced on Saturday, with another Chinook crew coming out on top in a King in the Women’s Senior Masters Eight.

On Sunday, the Youth crews took to the course, along with the remainder of the Championship crews.

In the much-anticipated Youth Eights, Greenwich Crew dominated, winning both the Men’s and Women’s events. King 8+s featured in half of the top six across the Men’s and Women’s categories, with RowAmerica Rye (third) and Saugatuck (fourth and sixth) in the Women’s and RowAmerica Rye (third), Saugatuck (fourth), and OARS (sixth) in the Men’s. The King shells clearly doing a great job to propel the junior athletes to achieve fantastic results at the Regatta.

Wins came in the Men’s Youth Coxed Four, with RowAmerica Rye seeing off their competition with a few seconds to spare. The Men’s Youth Coxed Quad,  was taken by Maritime RC coming out on top ahead of local club CRI in their King 4x+. A win in the Women’s Collegiate Double with FIT dominating the field in their LW WinTech 2x.

A strong showing of speed came from the Women’s Championship Four with Vesper boat club finishing 2^nd place in their bowmount WinTech, 11.8 seconds behind the boat from the United States Training Center- Princeton.

Finally, a win came for Club Nautico De San Juan in the Directors Challenge Mixed Eight, who won with a handy 34 second margin over Chinook, also in a King SE. When you travel, you travel to win.

The first of the blue-ribband events was the Men’s Championship Eights, where the Huskies, bolstered by returning Olympian Simon van Dorp, held off their East Coach competitors to win out by only two seconds. Dartmouth punched above their weight, beating Yale and Harvard both of whom were stacked with international and Olympic talent.

The women’s event came next, and this time it was Stanford who took victory ahead of Princeton and Yale. The top five crews beat a crew from the Canadian national team, featuring some of the athletes that won gold in Tokyo.

As the sun set on a fantastic weekend of rowing in Boston, new victors were crowned, and competitors began to reflect on their HOCR experience. Win or lose, travelling to the home of rowing in the USA to compete in the largest river-based event in the world, must be an overwhelmingly enjoyable experience and one made all the more special by the absence of a staging in 2020.

Event	Club	Boat	Result
Mixd Para Inclusion 2x	Athletes without Limits	WinTech 2x	1st
Women’s Senior Master 8+	Chinook	LW King	1st
Women’s Collegiate 2x	FIT	LW WinTech	1st
Men’s Youth 4+	RowAmerica Rye	MW WinTech	1st
Men’s Youth Coxed 4x	Maritime RC	MW King	1st
Director’s Challenge Mixed 8+	Club Nautico De San Juan	MW King SE	1st
Men’s Grand Masters 2x	Chinook	LW FLX	2nd
Men’s Clubs 1x	Maritime RC (Casey Fuller)	HW FLX	2nd
Women’s Alumane 8+	Boola Boola (YALE)	LW King SE	2nd
Men’s Championship 1x	Penn AC (Eliot Putman)	HW FLX	2nd
Women’s Youth 1x (U17)	Redwood Scullers	SLW WinTech	2nd
Director’s Challenge Women’s 4x	Unaff. (Chinook)	LW WinTech	2nd
Women’s Championship 4+	Vesper BC	MW WinTech	2nd
Director’s Challenge Mixed 8+	Chinook	MW King SE	2nd
Women’s Club 4+	Duke	LW King	2nd
Women’s Youth 4+	RowAmerica Rye	LW WinTech	3rd
Women’s Youth Coxed 4x	RowAmerica Rye	LW WinTech	3rd
Women’s Youth 8+	RowAmerica Rye	LW King	3rd
Men’s Youth 8+	RowAmerica Rye	MW King	3rd
Men’s Lightweight 8+	Princeton Uni.	LW King	3rd
Men’s Clubs 1x	Pittsburgh	HW COBRA	4th
Women’s Alumane 8+	U. Washington	MW King SE	4th
Women’s Youth 4+	PCRA	LW King	4th
Women’s Youth Coxed 4x	Maritime RC	LW King	4th
Women’s Youth 8+	Saugatuck	SLW King	4th
Men’s Youth 8+	Saugatuck	MW King	4th
Women’s Youth 8+	Saugatuck (2nd boat)	SLW King	6th
Men’s Youth 8+	OARS	LW King SE	6th

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