Ready to regatta?
Some of the best rowers in B.C. are ready, and they'll be there when the Nicomekl Rowing Club hosts the Head of the Nicomekl Regatta on Saturday, Sept. 21 in South Surrey.
The annual ‘head race’ event, which has been hosted by the club since the early 1990s, is held at Blackie Spit Park in South Surrey’s Crescent Beach.
Two races are planned, one at 11:15 a.m. and the second, at 3 p.m., said regatta chair Helen Healy.
The first race is the ‘Class Race’, in which participants start at the Nicomekl River dam at Elgin Road and compete among others in their same classes, be it singles, doubles, quads or eights.
The second race is the ‘Trophy Race’, which features a variety of competitors with results handicapped by age, gender, and boat size, in order to determine an overall winner.
"You could have an eight-man junior crew competing against a female single sculler – for many years, it has been a female single sculler that has won the ‘Head of the Nicomekl Trophy’," Healy noted.
The six-kilometer course is from the dam at Elgin Road, which is at the top of the Nicomekl River, to the pier at Crescent Beach.
Healy added the course is challenging to race, and is among the toughest on the local rowing circuit.
"It has lots of obstacles like sand banks, docks, boats, and the infamous railway trestle! Competitors race from a calm river to the rough waters of the bay and finish at the Crescent Beach Pier."
Approximately 100 boats are expected to compete in the first race and 60 in the second.
Last year, the regatta had 322 athletes compete from 18 clubs. These were primarily from the Lower Mainland, but also from Vancouver Island. Entrants' ages will vary from 15 years to 80 years of age, Healy said, and the boats vary from single skulls of 26 feet, to boats as long as 64 feet with eight-member crews.
Watching the race is free for spectators and Healy encouraged the community to come out and cheer on the rowers.
"Generally, the best place to watch is from the Blackie Spit area. You can see the boats come out from under the trestle bridge and since they set off in 20-second increments, there should be a consistent line of boats that go by."
