The Head of the Charles, the world’s largest three-day rowing regatta featuring a winding 4,702 course down Boston’s Charles River, begins on Friday, October 18, and will feature everything from youth athletes to defending collegiate champions and Olympians.
As the 2023 women’s championship eights collegiate champion with a time of 16:25.277, only falling short of a pair of USRowing and European national teams, Yale women’s crew has two entries in the championship eights and one in the club eights.
“We don’t think too much about who’s in the events,” said Will Porter, Friends of YWC Head Coach. “We just go up there and run the course. As a coach there are some bucket list events in rowing—Henley and Head of the Charles are certainly on the bucket list so I’d like to think 90% of everybody who rows for us for four years gets a chance to go race at the Charles and that’s a fun thing for them to do. We train a lot so it’s nice to have some fun.”
In addition to the Bulldog’s impressive varsity eight performance at the 2023 Head of the Charles, the second varsity earned a bronze medal in the championship eight collegiate category in 16:58.163 as the third fastest 2V in the event and Yale’s club eight won gold in 16:10.900.
“We did a spreadsheet last year because we won the champ eight.,” remarked Porter. “It was our sixth time winning and since ’98 there’s only been three teams—Yale, Princeton and UVA— that have won the Head of the Charles and the NCAAs in one year. It’s hard to do both—win the Champ 8+ in the collegiate division and win the NCAAs. It’s not something we gear up on from an NCAA perspective but that’s an interesting fact on the Charles.”
Harvard is no stranger to the Charles and the Crimson will be looking for another chance for success after the men’s heavyweight varsity eight clocked the fastest collegiate time in the men’s championship eight with a time of 14:26.413 in 2023.
“It was a terrific outcome last year and rowing and racing always takes some luck— whether it’s 2K or three miles,” said Charley Butt, the Bolles-Parker Head Coach for Harvard Men’s Heavyweight Crew. “It is the world’s biggest regatta. It’s three days so while we have to work hard at hosting, we enjoy it because there are people from around our own country and from around the world. It’s a great sport because it’s universal in its appeal and at all ages I see people I’ve known for 40 years in competitive rowing. And I also see young people showing up at their first regatta and getting a taste of it.”
On the international side, among boats to look out for at this year’s Head of the Charles is the women’s lightweight “great eight,” bow number two in the women’s championship eights. The Skibbereen Rowing Club boat includes Imogen Grant from the gold medal Great Brittain lightweight women’s double sculls at the Paris Olympics and Michelle Sechser, from the sixth place United States crew in the same event. Sechser will also be racing the women’s championship single.
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