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The 141st Royal Canadian Henley Regatta returned to pre-Covid levels of popularity this year with over 2,000 entries from 129 clubs.
“It’s good to see that we’re back,” said regatta chair Peter Scott. “We had some fantastic weather. We were cranking them out every six minutes. We can put three on the course at a time.”
The regatta needed that capacity, and more, as the North American rowing community flocked to St. Catharines, Ont. for the culminating experience of summer racing on Martindale Pond.
Rowing Canada composite crews took first and second place in the Brock University 25th Anniversary Trophy race for women’s championship eights.
“It was a good experience for our squad,” said Canadian National Team head coach for women, Tom Morris, “one we hope to continue into the future seasons.”
California Rowing Club won the Craig Swayze Memorial Trophy for men’s senior eights, ahead of a composite crew of Canadian athletes, a pair of Wisconsin high-performance eights, and Greenwich Crew. Canadian Henley continues to attract increasing numbers of big American clubs and high-performance camps.
Before Covid, the regatta opened up more spaces to junior crews to meet demand, Scott said, and now the regatta needs to find room in its already packed six-day schedule for increased demand for senior events.
There were “quite a bit of boats on the waitlist,” Scott said, including eight for the under-23 men’s eights.
The regatta can run about 100 races a day, but going from three heats advancing to the final to adding a fourth heat requires two semifinals to set the final, something the regatta couldn’t make work this year.
“A storm changes everything, and it’s taxing on the volunteers to race after 6 p.m.,” Scott said. “We have a solid, steady volunteer group coming back every year. It’s a reunion, one big happy family—really nice to see smiles everywhere.
“We’re proposing a bunch of changes for next year—not sure how many will go through,” said Scott, who mentioned the demotion of lightweight rowing and the introduction of mixed rowing on the international level as trends for the regatta to watch. “We’ll have a discussion over the winter.”
Community Rowing, Inc.’s Simeon John hauled away lots of silverware by racking up three wins: the Anthony ‘Tony’ Novotny Trophy for men’s under-19 singles; the Dave Cornelius Memorial Trophy for the men’s lightweight single dash; and the R.G. ‘Bob’ Dibble Memorial Cup for men’s 64-kilogram singles. John then faced the other way to cox the CRI entry to fourth place in the men’s eight dash.
