Women's Eight Head of the River Race

The weather forecast for race day looks positive for good racing conditions, however, there will be a significant wind chill that will affect everyone while marshalling. Please ensure that everyone goes afloat with enough warm clothes to wear while marshalling. This is particularly essential for crews further down the start list who will be on the water for a considerable amount of time before they race. Space blankets can be useful to carry as they are easy to be quickly stowed out of the way in the bottom of the boat when necessary. Remember, this isn’t just about safety, crews will perform better when they’re warm ready to start the race!

EDIT 8pm: We are confident that the PLA flag will remain green in the morning, however we would like to remind crews that despite this, the stream will still be strong so crews need to remain cautious while marshalling at the start and finish of the race.

The committee have been, as usual, monitoring both fluvial flows and weather forecasts for the run up to race day on Saturday. We are aware that there has been a large amount of rainfall so far this winter with both the Tidal and non-tidal Thames affected by strong flows.

At present, the PLA ebb flow flag is green, but it has been yellow in the past few days. When the flag is yellow, our safety rules mean that Junior 15 and beginner crews would be unable to race. We know how much this means to these crews and their clubs — please bear with us as we prioritise everyone’s safety on the water.

As in previous years, we will be keeping everyone informed by providing updates as we get closer to race day. Please keep watching our website and social media channels.

The Draw for the 2026 race is available here: Draw.

With just over two weeks’ to go to the close of entries on 19th February, we have reached the limit of 320 paid up crews, which is the earliest we have had this happen! We will be operating a waiting list, so if you have an entry which is unpaid, please pay as soon as possible.
Any entries that withdraw before the close of entries on the 19th will be fully refunded. Any entries on the waiting list that do not get a place will also be fully refunded.
Please note that the usual entry secretary email forwarding address is not working – a new email address to use is listed on the contacts page.

The list of Small and Medium Clubs and the Pennant documents have been updated for the 2026 race. There are very minor changes to the Pennant qualifying criteria, mostly these just clarify the rules in line with their previously intended outcomes.
Queries relating to the Small and Medium club lists should be submitted as soon as possible, and no later than the close of entries.

The Women’s Head Committee would like to remind competitors of the entry criteria requiring athletes to have experience of racing or rowing on a tidal river before competing at the Women’s Head. We also would like to draw attention to the dates of the 2026 BUCS Head and 2026 Hammersmith Head which fall after the close of entries of our race. We strongly advise crews not to rely on gaining their tidal experience solely by competing at these races and want to make it clear that we will not be able to issue refunds to crews who are ineligible to compete at the Women’s Head in the unfortunate situation that BUCS Head or Hammersmith Head fail to run or you fail to race there.

We suggest that athletes and crews should plan ahead and aim to get as much racing experience as possible before the 2026 Women’s Head to demonstrate competence. Races that we would like to draw your particular attention to are as follows:

2025
Dee Autumn Head 26th October
Clyde Heads 1st November
4s Heads (Junior/Senior/Vets) 14th/15th/16th November
Rutherford Head 29th November
Aberdeen Heads 22nd/23rd November

2026
Tyne United New Year Head 24th January
Quintin Head 25th January
Dart Totnes Winter Head 25th January
Tyne Head 14th February

The Draw for the 2025 race is available here: Draw.

The Provisional Draw for the 2025 race is available here: Provisional Draw.

With just under two weeks to go, entries for the 2025 race have reached capacity, which is the earliest this has happened since the race was extended to 320 places! Some of the crews that have paid still have outstanding queries regarding their level of experience and have so far not been accepted. This information must be provided before the official close of entries on 13th February. In the meantime, due to the exceptional demand this year, we have decided to keep entries open until the official close and we will operate a waiting list on a first come (paid and all information provided), first served basis. Any crews who have had their entries accepted but will no longer be able to race can withdraw their entry for a full refund before the official close of entries, so that their slot can be allocated to the next crew on the waiting list.

As of last night (16th Jan) there were 223 crews entered, with 149 of those fully paid up. So far 107 of those have been accepted by our entries secretary. Please remember that your entry needs to be paid and all relevant information provided before it can be accepted.

Request from our Entries HQ:
When using BROE2 to enter your crews, please save yourself and us time by ensuring that you’ve included enough additional information in the ‘Evidence of Crew Competence’ box. If:

  • any members of your crew don’t have 2 or more PRI points,
  • your cox doesn’t have 5 or more PRI points or
  • the crew as a whole doesn’t have a total of at least 40 CRI,

then you MUST provide further information to satisfy us that you will have sufficient experience to race safely on the Tideway for this year’s WEHoRR. It may be obvious to you that your crew is experienced and competent, but without PRI points you must explain why this is the case.

Not providing information through the BROE entry system will result in delays as email exchanges may need to take place, and you could end up missing out if other crews can have their entries accepted ahead of yours.