Row360's Head of the Charles coverage brought to you by SparksThe 61st Head of the Charles opened on Friday with a programme of masters events, and the weather did them few favours. It was an early start for first crews down the track with the men's Grand Master doubles set off at 7.35am, and by the time the big singles fields came through, steady rain had turned heavy, with gusts building down the course.
The early starters got the best of it. The doubles raced on largely flat water around the Eliot Bridge, and the times showed it.
Doubles
The opening race, the Ed Smith Cup for men's Grand Master (50+) doubles, became a two-boat contest almost from the start. Bow 1, a Danish double of Klaus Rasmussen and Christian Mølvig entered from Mexico City and twice winners of the event, came through the Eliot turn at around 34 strokes a minute. Just behind came Britain's Chris Ware and Guy Blanchard, of City of Cambridge and Rob Roy respectively, rating a couple of pips lower. The two boats had pulled well clear of the remaining 24 by the two-and-a-half-mile mark.
The lower rate paid. Ware and Blanchard stopped the clock at 17:21, five seconds ahead of the Mexico City double and five seconds outside the 17:16 course record.
Blanchard represented Great Britain at under-23 level in 1989 and 1990, winning bronze with the British eight at his first Match des Seniors regatta in the Netherlands. Ware, who earned his U23 GB hoops in Strathclyde in 1992 is a familiar face on the masters circuit and a multiple British masters champion winning his first national title with Leander in 1988.
The crew who set that 17:16 Grand Master record back in 2013 lined up in the next event, the men's Veteran doubles. Cambridge Boat Club's Dan Gorriaran and Mike Smith have moved up to the men's Veteran (60+) doubles, and they won again, their 18th Head of the Charles title together. Smith continues to race while living with Parkinson's disease.
College Club Seattle's Carrie Mackay and Megan Gradek won the women's Grand Master (50+) doubles from bow 23, the last boat off the start, in 19:20. That was 18 seconds off the course record, in a race where Seattle crews were thick on the ground.
The women's Veteran doubles went to mother and daughter duo Patricia Smith, 78, and Elizabeth Pratt, 48. The regatta sets doubles categories by crew average age, which puts their combined 63 comfortably in the 60+ event. They finished ten seconds clear of the former US national team scullers 1996 Olympic silver medallist Lindsay Burns and two-time world champion Linda Muri.
Singles
The men's Grand Master/Veteran (50+, 60+) single was the biggest event of the day. Entry is by lottery and plenty of applicants still missed out, despite a 121-boat entry. The favourite for the 60+ division, Greg Benning, scratched late, leaving bow 2, Maritime's Geoffrey Hoffman, with a clear river ahead of him. Hoffman used it, retaining his 50+ title in 18:23 and finishing around 20 seconds clear of the next boat in the combined field.
Germany's Alwin Otten won the Veteran I (60+) division. In the older men's singles, Dartmouth alumnus James Crawford took the Senior Veteran I (70+) title and Jim Dietz added another Charles medal in the Senior Veteran II (75+). Greenwich's Michael Tebay, 80, won the Grand Veteran (80+) and Cape Cod's Alan McClennen took the Grand Veteran II at 87.
On the women's side, Dolphin RC's Rachael Perry won the Grand Master (50+) single and Rio Salado's Pam Neuharth the Veteran I (60+). GMS Rowing's Paula Meyer took the Senior Veteran (70+) and San Diego's Patty Pinkerton the Senior Veteran II (75+). Barbara Hogan, 81, won the Grand Veteran (80+) for her sixth Head of the Charles victory.
Back in the boat
The men's 50+ single also produced the day's unscripted moment. Bow 99, from Riverfront Recapture in Hartford, capsized near the Cambridge Boat Club docks. A launch headed out and the boats behind steered round him, with only one light tap, but he climbed back into his single without help and finished the race. The announcers called it textbook and asked the bank for a cheer.
The rest of the programme is less forgiving of the weather. Saturday's forecast is windy, and the wider weekend brings the eights and a celebration of 50 years of women's Olympic and Paralympic rowing. Our pre-regatta guide covers the course, bridges and overtaking rules, and the Head of the Charles 2026 gallery follows the weekend in pictures.
