Chris Foot

Head Coach, St. Paul’s CollegiateSchool

P.Bag 3069

Hamilton.

1/10/09

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

RE: The Head of the WaikatoSecondarySchoolsRiver Race

I am writing on behalf of ourselves and the Waikato Rowing Association to get expressions of interest from your school in attending an exciting rowing event to be held on the WaikatoRiver on the last weekend of November(28th/ 29th). We have held the event for the past four years and it has been thoroughly enjoyed by all. Please take the time to read a little bit about the event.

Concept:

The Head of the Waikato is a premier two-day river rowing event intended exclusively for secondary school top eights.

River racing traditionally hasn’t been a part of the domestic rowing scene in New Zealand. The phenomenal success of the Gallagher Great Race inspired the inception of a New ZealandSecondary School river racing event. This event is held at the conclusion of school exams in late November, giving schools and coaches an excuse to keep up a semblance of training through the exam period.

2005 saw the inaugural event get off the ground and, because of the short timeframe, consisted only of local schools. 2006 saw more crews involved with local schools Hamilton Boys (19:27mins) and Waikato Dio (23:01mins) taking home top honors. 2007 saw further crews involved, including two crews from Auckland Grammar. Sadly 2008 saw only local Hamilton crews involved. It is still the intention for 2009 and beyond is that the Head of the Waikato grows to become a major rowing event within New Zealand’s domestic regatta calendar. The concept within this country is unique, exciting and offers competitors something very different from the flat water 2000m racing that they have become so accustomed to.

Local Crew knowledge.

One of the comments that has filtered back to the race organizers is that local crews enjoy too much home advantage on the WaikatoRiver. It is our intention to reduce that advantage to a bare minimum, as the idea is to create some competitive racing, not just a platform for local crews to shine. To that end, a course map, together with stream flows, hazards and optimum routes will be sent out with the entry forms. Coxes and crews will be further invited to travel the river, with experienced “locals” as much as they like before the racing. We do not wish crews to feel disadvantaged in any way and would welcome any further comments or suggestions.

Race Format:

Day One: (Sat 28th Nov)Crews will time trial over the full race distance of 5.5 km. The race course is upstream. Each crew’s time will thendetermine where they will be seeded or ranked. Once everyone has time trialed and the seeding is complete, crews will be sorted into A.B.C etc finals based on those times. Each final will have only two boats racing head to head.

Day Two:(Sun 29th Nov)A coin will be tossed to determine which crew in each final gets what station (side of the river). The head to head races will then commence in reverse order leaving boys and girls “A” finals until last.

In previous years this event has been generously supported by WINTEC Racing, Concept 2,Waikato Rowing Association and St. Paul’s CollegiateSchool. We hope to secure the services of these sponsors again this year. Crews will be racing for fantastic uniquely hand crafted “Head of the Waikato” trophies (see picture below).

Dinner:

One other exciting aspect of the event is the, very subsidized, formaldinner function, with guest speaker, held on the Saturday evening for all competitors and coaches.

Please note that this is a premier event aimed at attracting your schools top eight only.If you think that this event sounds like something your school would like to be a part of then please email me nfirming your interest.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Chris Foot

St. Paul’s CollegiateSchool.