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.
Entries are now open for this year’s race. Please read through the information on the Entry page, and in particular the Pennant document before submitting your entry. There are 320 places for crews to race, and while we usually don’t fill up until close to the entry deadline, please note that only paid up entries can be accepted.
The lists for the clubs eligible for the Small Club and Medium Club Pennants have been updated for the 2025 Race. Please let us know by the 31st January if you think your club should be included or there is an error.
The committee would like to remind crews that they should expect to gain racing experience and tidal water experience before attempting the WEHoRR. We have included this information on our entry pages for several years and yet each year, some crews leave this requirement to the last minute before close of entries. Undoubtedly, this sometimes results in disappointment when races are cancelled due to bad weather, etc. Please plan ahead to get your rowers and crews the necessary experience.
David Biddulph’s racing calendar is a good place to find information about races that are coming up before the WEHoRR.
Races that the committee specifically recommend for gaining experience include Quintin Eights Head.
The organising committee worked hard in the week before the race, to enable a race to go ahead at all this year. While the PLA Ebb Flag turned to yellow mid-week, the stream remained stubbornly strong. We looked at different scenarios and had to make a difficult decision on safety grounds, to cut the field by around half. We completely understand that this left many crews disappointed at not being given the opportunity to race. We were still watching the weather right up to race day itself with a concern about wind strength and direction potentially causing more problems. With this frame of reference, we were pleased with the outcome last Saturday.
The Women’s Head exists as a not-for-profit event, where all proceeds are reinvested in the continuing development of the event for future years. Many of the costs of running the race are incurred upfront, and are set regardless of the number of crews that race on the day.
Due to the circumstances that resulted in a smaller field this year, the committee has taken the decision to pay refunds from the event’s reserves. These will be as follows:
1. Any crew that withdrew prior to the 9pm deadline on Wednesday 6th March, either voluntarily or due to being excluded on safety grounds, will receive a full refund (£136).
2. Crews that were cut from the final start order on Thursday 7th March will receive a refund of 90% of the entry fee (£122.40).
Refunds will be processed through BROE in due course.
We would like emphasise that this generous offer is not sustainable in the long term if future races have to be cancelled, and we strongly suggest that competitors should hedge their risk by booking cancellable options for accommodation, travel, etc. where possible, due to the weather-dependant nature of the sport.
Although the stream and river levels have fallen enough for the PLA Ebb Flag status to change to yellow over the last few days, they remain well above the threshold where the PLA would change the flag status to green. This means that we need to increase the gaps between crews to allow for safe marshalling and navigation within the allotted river closure time for the event, which we are unable to extend. The unfortunate consequence of this is a reduction in the number of crews that we can safely include in the draw. In these conditions, we believe that the appropriate number of crews is around half of the original field. To reach this number we have considered the CRIs of crews as the primary metric related to race experience. This has been a tough decision for the committee to make, and we sympathise with all those who will be disappointed not to race on Saturday. We have decided to make this call now rather than later in an effort to give as many crews as possible the opportunity to race, while providing enough notice to those who will sadly miss out.
A revised draw is available here.
Please note that this may affect the awarding of some Pennants as our rules require that there are 3 competitors racing for the Pennant to be awarded.
If your crew has been withdrawn from the race at this point, please do not contact us about refunds. As a committee we are still hard at work organising the race on Saturday, and we will deal with any refund details after the weekend.
As always, the WEHoRR Committee are working hard to deliver a fair and safe race for all our competitors. We have been monitoring both weather models and the strong flow of the river as part of this process. As of Monday evening, the river has a PLA Ebb Flag status of red.
If the PLA Ebb Flag status remains red, we will be unable to run the race for safety reasons. We are currently working towards a scenario where the PLA Ebb Flag status will be yellow on race day as we feel that this currently looks like the most likely scenario.
When the PLA Ebb Flag status is yellow, “The PLA advises beginners, juniors (J15s) and weaker crews not to go afloat on an ebb tide, all river users should navigate with extreme caution and consider whether it is safe for them to go afloat on an ebb tide.” As such, we therefore have to withdraw all J15 and beginner crews at this point (if crews have J15s onboard and can make a suitable substitute by 9pm on Wednesday this will be considered).
We are also asking all clubs/crews to revisit their own risk assessment in light of the forecast conditions. If crews choose to withdraw and we do run the race, those crews will be given a full refund. If the race is cancelled, all crews will be treated equally for refunds based on the final costs incurred by the competition. The deadline for this assessment and guaranteed race refund is 9pm on Wednesday 6th March. Please use BROE for all withdrawals.
The Committee will review the situation on Thursday evening based on the information available at that time, and a final decision will be announced by 9pm on Thursday 7th March.
With just over a week to go until race day, the committee are, as usual, monitoring both fluvial flows and weather forecasts. We are aware that there has been a large amount of rainfall so far this winter.
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. Our next update will be in the first half of next week.