Handy Guide

A Competitor's Checklist

Find your start number [The draw]
Let the organisers know if you want your number to available somewhere else [scullers.head@vrc.org.uk]
Read the very simple and obvious rules instructions [Competitor's Instructions / Diagram of Hazards]
Learn about the Tideway - no matter how experienced you are, you'll be surprised what you don't know. [Non-Tideway Scullers / HOR Advice / Navigation Charts / Know the Tideway]
Check your equipment over. Do it again.
We've got lots of safety boats, medics, marshalls and risk assessment documents, but your boat and blades are your business.
Make sure that your boat is identifiable - your club's 3-letter code and a unique number. [ARA Boat ID]
If you want to be efficient, you can collect your number from Vesta on Friday evening, between 6-30 and 8-30.
Keep your fingers crossed for good weather - we will be.

If you've not collected it the evening before, between 9-30 and 11-30 collect your number from your nominated collection point.
If you're a lightweight, between 10 and 11am, you should visit either the weighing in point at the ARA or Vesta (but not Mortlake) to weigh in. 61kg for women, 75kg for men.
Boat in plenty of time to be in your position according to the instructions. That means those under 200 should be above Barnes Bridge at least by 12-20, if not earlier. Allow yourself an hour from Putney, and 40 minutes from Hammersmith.
It's December. It's likely to be cold. The small extra weight of a fleece or splash top to keep you warm while you wait is not going to slow you down as much as you being too cold will.
Enjoy the marshalling! You'll be in the largest group of single sculls in one place anywhere in the UK this year! Possibly even the world. Maybe.
Remember the starting instructions and be polite and smile to the marshalls and umpires as they set you on your way under Chiswick Bridge. [Start]
Race well

Try to remember the finish pattern
Why not pop into Vesta for refreshments, while awaiting the results? (They normally take us 2-3 hours, we expect the last sculler to finish at around 2-30pm.)
Visit the sports masseurs for that session you booked?
If you can't wait in the Vesta bar for the results - head home, look back on a race well sculled, and hit reload on this website a few hundred times around 6pm.
And in the days after the race visit some of the photographers who caught your flying moments - they'll be linked to from here!
Having read the ads in the programme, maybe visit the companies - that's what they advertise for!

if you win your category - come back to Vesta on Wednesday 14th to collect your medal!