The Future of the Veteran Championships

The Veteran Championships Organizing Committee has, for some time, been considering the future of the event and how best the event can be improved. Over the past few years the number of entries for the Veteran Championships and also for Loughborough Regatta have both risen dramatically and the combined regatta has reached a size that is becoming harder and harder to manage. In 2005 the combined regatta was 167 races at 4 minutes intervals over an eleven-hour period, finishing just after 7.00pm. This finish time really is too late and the current race programme leaves no room for error or for expansion and also relies on about a 100 volunteers putting in an extremely long day.

The Organizing Committees of both events would like to expand and to improve their own regattas but this is just not possible in the current format. Doing nothing is not an option however because the current length of the racing day is just not sustainable.

To resolve these various problems the Veteran Championships is planning to go independent in 2007, this will allow both events to develop as they see fit. Both Organizing Committees do however recognize that part of the success of the current combined event is because many clubs and competitors race in both regattas and many clubs just bring one trailer with crews for both events. With this in mind the Veteran Championships is proposing moving to the day before Loughborough Regatta so the Vet Champs would be on the Saturday and Loughborough on the Sunday. We hope this will create a full weekend’s racing and clubs and competitors will still compete in both events. The really keen Veterans could then race on both days if they wanted to!

From the Veteran Championships point of view this change will allow the event to grow to include a wider range of mixed events and a wider range of novice races and possibly 'social veteran' races. Many people that take up rowing in later life cannot possibly hope to compete at the Veteran Championships against the usually very high standard of the other crews and the proposal to split from Loughborough will allow the Veteran Championships to expand and to attract entries from the whole veteran community.

The move to the Regatta becoming an independent ARA National Championship is a major milestone in the evolution of this key Veteran event. It will enable us to meet the growing and more complex needs of our popular arm of the Sport to the benefit of all Veterans in the years ahead. If you have any views on the change or suggestions on the operation and format of the regatta please contact us at feedback@vetchamps.org.uk.

We look forward to hearing your views.

Many thanks

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