Head of the Charles Rules Changes

I know this seems far away, but take a look at the new rules for entries at the HOCR. Most of them affect sweep boats, and virtually all of them address the college and university divisions. But there are a few for us too, and one that alter our collective destiny a bit.

If we are reading the changes correctly and our memories are not flawed, last year's women's masters four, which *narrowly* missed out on the top five percent for a guaranteed entry, will actually have one after all. The new rule is that the top 50% of finishers in fours and eights get a guaranteed entry, and this change is retroactive to the 2006 results. Anyone else in sweep boats at last year's regatta should check their finishes to see if they too have benefited from this rules change.

This decision by the regatta committee obviously means that there will be fewer lottery spaces available (although the regatta committee has raised the total number of sweep entries from 850 to 950), but that the rise in competitiveness of masters' events will accomodate those who have actually demonstrated good performance in the past but have not been among the top finishers. The new rules should also benefit more competitive clubs as well as individual crews, since each organization is no longer restricted to one boat in each sweep event.