The Head of the Charles is the largest two-day regatta in the world, with some 7,500 rowers competing each year in 55 different events. It is run over a 3.2-mile course from the Boston University DeWolfe Boathouse near the BU Bridge upstream to just past the Eliot Bridge. Crews row one at time against the clock and the times are compared to determine the "Head of the Charles," the best crew in the regatta. The course winds around a couple of bends in the river, making it an interesting race for the coxswains. Last year the event is estimated to have drawn a crowd of over 300,000 spectators over the two days of competition.
The lightweight team came into the weekend as the only team with competition already under its belt this season having rowed at the Occoquan Challenge in Virginia. At Occoquan, the A and B eights took third and fifth, respectively, out of 11 boats, while the three fours that competed came in third, tenth and 12th out of 18.
This weekend, the Big Green crews heading to the Head of the Charles all competed on Sunday, and so they elected to stay in Hanover in order to get in some Saturday afternoon practice.
The lightweight eights crew, which last July was invited to compete in the Henley Royal Regatta, performed admirably, managing the course in 15:10, which was good for tenth place overall, and sixth out of the collegiate boats in the competition. Their time was right in the middle of the results posted by other Ivy League crews. Princeton led all the collegiate teams in the event, finishing in fourth place with a time of 14:45.
The Big Green had two crews opening their fall seasons competing in the Women's Championship Eights event. Both finished in the middle of the pack, in 16th and 19th place out of 39. Their times were 17:08 and 17:13, respectively.
One lightweight crew competed in the lightweight fours event, where it finished 17th out of 23, with a time of 17:55, 1:23 behind Yale, whose crew finished second overall, and first among collegiate crews.
Finally, the men's heavyweight eights crew opened its season competing in the Men's Championship Eights event where they finished a disappointing 32nd out of 44 crews. The crew's time of 15:29 was not what it had hoped for.
"I don't think anybody is happy with how we finished," Sandy Hull '09 said. "Beating a few teams that beat us last year is a step forward, though."
The fall season is, for the most part, solely preparation for the spring when the teams compete in the Eastern Sprints Championships. Depending on the team's results from the Sprints, Dartmouth could stand to qualify for the I.R.A. National Championships.
"We have a lot of improvement to make and fitness to gain between now and spring season if we want to be competitive in this league," Hull said.
Next week, all three teams -- the heavyweight men, the lightweight men, and the women -- will be competing at the Princeton Chase, where they hope to improve on their results this past weekend and knock off some more Ivy League foes.
