The Royal Canadian Masters Regatta

La regate royale canadienne d'Henley

1. Familiarity breeds contempt: The Royal Canadian Henley Regatta is the most significant all category event in the North American rowing calendar. This is not really a controversial statement, but it is worth making it because of unfortunate comparisons with its ancestral homonymous race in the U.K. The Royal Henley Regatta in England is the precursor to the World Championships and the most prestigious all category event in the world. Any event will pale in comparison; the race determined the official racing distance for rowing after all. British Henley is so ingrained in the sport's lore that people oversubscribe to participate in an unforgiving single elimination format that is unworkable anywhere else and arose as a consequence of lacking suitable natural six lane straight courses close to London back when the event was created. Nobody has been able to replicate the format anywhere else in the world with significant success. None of the other North American all category regattas like Independence Day in Philadelphia or Real Club Espana in Mexico City are ever compared to Henley for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, this comes up with Canadian Henley all the time because it inherited its name and royal patronage almost 150 years ago in an official recognition of lineage that has become a liability under some criteria. The disrespect, as is always the case with this sort of thing, comes exclusively from the mediocre rowers with easy geographic access to the event that take it for granted. Whereas Thomas Keller awardee and multiple Olympic gold medalist Hamish Bond refers to Canadian Henley as a very prestigious and brutal event in his opus magnum "Kiwi Pair", it is common to hear Midwest recreational master rowers disparagingly distinguish Canadian Henley from the "real Henley". At least two Canadian Prime Ministers, Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chretien have attended finals day in St. Catherine's, a head of government distinction that has not been given even to Olympic regattas held in the United States. The reality is Canadian Henley is the continental championship for North America and under more visionary governing body regimes, it would see a return of full force national team contingents of Canada and the USA battling with top Latin American and Caribbean challengers. This is a sine qua non if North America is not to stagnate as a perennial second fiddle to Europe in this sport.
   

2. Location: Toronto is a tier 1 world class city. Given Canada's liberal skilled migration regime it has now more global representation than New York City and Houston and is an economic behemoth agglomerating Canada's financial and industrial hubs and its most important university and embedded medical center. It is as if Chicago, New York, and Boston merged into one. Importantly, its dynamism has survived the rust belt crisis that has plagued every city on the American side of the Great Lakes. You could say Toronto has it all, but it does not have a suitable straight six lane rowing course, so Canada's most important regatta had to be relocated to the Martindale Pond in nearby St Catherine's to take advantage of the Welland Canal. North America has held a number of Olympic regattas over the decades but there is a distinct dearth of good, FISA grade straight courses. Los Angeles destroyed its courses to the point that it won't be able to hold a true 2'000m Olympic regatta in 2028, an embarrassing disgrace and obvious example of very low state capacity that will be the topic of another post. Montreal's course is semi natural, windy, and too cold most of the year. Mexico City is too high, Atlanta and Florida too hot in Summer, and the collegiate courses either have bends or experience very unfair wind conditions. Port Dalhousie, in contrast, is temperate in August, deep enough for complete fairness, located at 0m altitude, and retains excellent facilities from hosting the World Rowing Championships in 1999. This, I think, is what keeps Canadian Henley at the top of the totem poll. Also, never underestimate the fixed bathroom and shower facilities available, an amenity also available in Mexico City that for infuriating reasons doesn't exist in any of the U.S. courses. The town is small enough that rowing and the regatta are central elements to the community. Famous rowing pub Scorecard Harry's and breakfast favorite Rozie's are full of rowing pictures and equipment on the walls and the rowing clothes manufacturer Regatta Sport is headquartered in the area. This is really unique in North America and gives a very special flavor to a regatta that still has an opening ceremony with fireworks and full on dog and pony show. Finally, Hudson Boat Works has created a rowing shell rental vehicle available for international crews, an important addition that will greatly increase feasibility for foreign crews.
   

3. The Masters Regatta: This is a masters rowing blog so our main concern is the event the Sunday before the 2'000m regatta for U19, U23, and elite level rowers takes place. The masters' event is a single day affair with heats in the morning and finals in the afternoon. For a collegiate analogy, Canadian Henley Masters is like Eastern Sprints while US Masters Nationals are more like the IRA. This of course offers significant advantage to the average master rower busy with familial and professional responsibilities; in extremis one can drive to Canada on Sunday morning and drive back after racing to be in the office on Monday morning, without a single day off work. In the small boats the competition can be superior to that of US Masters Nationals; in 2019 the great Volker Nolte won a pair and a double and it's not rare to run into former Olympic stars like Joaquin Gomez Gurza every other year. The main team award for masters is the Efficiency Trophy which in contrast to US Masters Nationals is calculated based on entry efficiency. A maximum attainable per club is calculated and the points achieved are divided by this amount. To minimize gaming, eligibility requires sweep and sculling entries, four finals made, and 14 or more participating athletes not including coxswains. Our delegation this year with Club Antares from Mexico City only has 8 athletes and we have no sweep events so we will not be contenders for the trophy. I will be posting extraofficial calculations on the blog for entertainment purposes only.
   

4. Who should do this race: Anyone running a serious sprint racing campaign within a six hour driving radius from St. Catherine's should do this; there is an entire universe of very capable Canadian masters that rarely travel to the US, and it's very much worth the drive to race them on completely fair conditions. When I was sweep rowing a lot, I met my toughest competition against the infamous "Leanderthal" crew from Leander Boat Club including Aubrey Oldham in the 2-, 4+, and 8+. I don't think I ever have beaten Aubrey even though our ergometric results as reported at the 2020 HOCR virtual events were very close. Georgian Bay has a very talented sculling contingent,- Argonaut master women are so good sometimes they enter the open event instead etc, etc. The touristic attractiveness cannot be minimized. The Welland Canal is so strategically important that none other than future German chancellor Franz von Papen plotted to blow it up during World War 1. The scenery between two massive lakes is magnificent, and the Niagara region sharing latitude with Bourgogne produces decent Chardonnay grapes to generate a sort of North American Chablis with its own unique terroir and contributing minerals. Toronto, of course, has to be in the conversation as one of the most interesting cities in the Western Hemisphere. Just like the border between Germany and Switzerland there are subtle but important cultural differences with the U.S. that one has to experience and treasure.