Eights Regatta (2021)

Rules of the regatta

The following rules were proposed and passed Nem Con at the Pre-Bumps Captain's meeting on 16th May 2021.

The Regatta will be run subject to Bumps rules and Bumps fines where applicable, with significant changes to accommodate for substitutions and the Regatta format (many thanks to Pembroke for their information regarding Pem Regatta).

For this event only, the rules below will be in force. If there is a contradiction between the below rules and Bumps rules, the below rules should be read as true.

1. The Regatta will be raced from a standing start between the Stump at the bottom of the Long Reach and Peter's Posts. These will be indicated by flags on the bank.
   1. The length of the course is approximately 1100m. The course may be shortened at the chief umpire's discretion should a houseboat or other such obstacle present itself on the course.
   2. The race fee will be £50, reduced to £25 if, for any reason, a crew only races the GoR.
   3. Full refunds will be provided for crews who scratch before the GoR due to COVID-19 isolation.
   4. The regatta will run from ***21st - 24th June***
2. A Getting-On race will be run before the regatta to seed crews into appropriate divisions.
   1. The length of the GoR will be the length of the Regatta course.
   2. The GoR will be run on ***20th June***
   3. Crews who opt only to race in GoR, or in the situation the regatta is oversubscribed, will be refunded half the entrance fee.
   4. There is no 12-outing requirement however crews must be able to competently race and steer, under penalty of disqualification at GoR without half-refund.
3. A Swiss-system tournament is to be used within each division. Each crew will race once a day, unless their opponent scratches.
   1. Races on the first day will be seeded
      1. The subsequent days' race pairings will be based upon the previous day's race results whereby winners will race winners and losers race losers.
      2. Further particulars regarding race pairing will be released after entries close, in order to accommodate as many racing crews as we can.
   2. The division winner is determined by the crew winning all their races.
   3. Prizes will be awarded to winning crews in each Division. The winner of the top senior and top novice division will be the overall winner for senior/novices.
   4. University medals will be awarded to the winners of the 1st Senior Divisions.
4. There will be 10 divisions, subdivided by gender and novice/senior crews, and we will aim to accommodate as many crews as we can.
   1. Any extra slots in mixed categories will be fairly allocated to Men/Women according to the number of entries.
      1. A Mixed crew is defined as one with a maximum of 4 male rowers.
   2. Should it be the case that crew entrants exceed the maximum number of races able to be run, qualifications will be based upon GoR time.
   3. Each college will have automatic entitlement to a senior and novice crew of each gender entered. All crews must however race the GoR.
5. Racing
   1. Crews will be started by the call "Attention" and then "Go".
   2. If the Start umpire judges both crews to be straight and ready then, at their discretion, they may choose to call "Attention, Go" without waiting for both coxes to indicate that they are ready, in the interests of not delaying race proceedings.
      1. Crews which are late to the start, or who take an unnecessary amount of time to get ready at the start, will be awarded a false start.
   3. Umpires will be present at the start and at the finish, and a Race Umpire will cycle alongside each pair of racing crews. Crews must obey the instructions of the Umpires.
   4. The race umpire will cycle alongside the bow ball of the winning crew. Bank parties must not obstruct the race umpire.
   5. In the interests of safety, bank parties are restricted to two persons on bicycles. The use of loud hailers is prohibited.
   6. A crew will be disqualified from that race after its second false start in the same race.
   7. Boats will race side-by-side and must keep to their station throughout the race, irrespective of the position of the opposition. If a boat moves to take the opposition's water it will be warned to move back on station by the Race Umpire who will blow their whistle for a short burst (1 time for a first offence, 2 times for a second offence, etc.) and shout the name of the offending crew, or both crews. The crew(s) in question must act on this warning or they will be considered for disqualification at the end of the race, either following the third offence or following a more significant single offence.
   8. Unless unsafe to do so, boats must continue rowing until well past the finish line. The emergency stop signal from the Race Umpire will be continuous whistling, usually followed by sirens from static umpires.
   9. Subject to disqualification, the boat whose bow ball passes the finish line first will be declared the winner. A dead heat may be awarded at the Finish umpire's discretion. This will result in a re-row, which will be incorporated into the next division of races.
   10. The decision by the Finish Umpire is final and appeals to the decision by the Finish Umpire will not be entertained.
   11. Should a race require to be stopped, the race will be re-run with both crews starting from the same position.
6. Substitutions
   1. In the spirit of sportsmanship in consecutive-day racing, all entrants agree to keeping crew compositions the same wherever possible
   2. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and examination periods, the requirements for subs will be massively relaxed
   3. Standard Bumps restrictions apply (e.g. rowers may only row once daily) with the addition of:
      1. Members of one club may sub into another, providing that the receiving club crew is the lowest crew fielded and no individual from the receiving club is available.
      2. In the event of self-isolation and exams, subs will be granted however an email acknowledgement of substitution must be received from CUCBC
      3. Novices may race more than once daily, only in order to sub into their senior lowest division and fill an eight.
      4. There will be no restrictions on requesting a substitution, irrespective of crew and division.
   4. All substitutions must be approved by CUCBC, with an email to committee@cucbc.org stating division, crew, individuals subbed in, individuals subbed out. The threshold for CUCBC to approve a sub will be extremely low; captains should expect the vast majority of these to be approved.
7. All crews must adhere to the marshalling plan and the instructions of marshals and umpires.
8. All clubs must provide marshals, the number of whom will be determined by the number of entrants.
9. All novice coxes must attend a novice cox briefing. A novice cox is defined as one who has not coxed a regatta previously. Senior coxes may also attend if they wish.
10. We request that all members who have sufficient racing experience volunteer to umpire this event, otherwise races and/or divisions might have to be reduced due to lack of umpires.