If you go
‘ What: Head of the Hooch rowing regatta. ‘ When: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7; 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8. ‘ Where: Downtown waterfront, Riverfront Parkway. ‘ Admission: Free to spectate. ‘ Phone: 423-834-7201. ‘ Website: www.headofthehooch.org.
Regatta by the numbers
‘ 5,000: Distance, in meters, of the race course ‘ 15 : Time, in seconds, between boat launches ‘ 17.5: Distance, in miles, every competing racing shell would cover if laid end to end ‘ 20,000: Estimated crowd draw throughout the weekend ‘ $5.5 million: Estimated economic impact on the city of Chattanooga ‘ 2,118: Entries in the weekend’s events ‘ 202: Teams competing, representing 27 states and four countries ‘ 24: Average age of the competitors
Row, row, row a long boat
This year’s Head of the Hooch will feature an appearance by the Stmpfli Express, a 144-foot-long behemoth made of three regular shells bolted together. A Swiss creation, the Express can seat 25 – 24 rowers and a coxswain – but isn’t as ungainly as it looks. “”It’s very stable,” says Doug BeVille, the assistant director of the Hooch, in a news release. “Even inexperienced people can learn to row in this amazing boat.” A ride on the Express will cost $25 today and Friday, Nov. 5-6, or $50 on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 7-8. Proceeds benefit rowing in Chattanooga and the National Rowing Foundation. The Express’ appearance marks its second-to-last stop on a seven-week tour of major U.S. rowing regattas. Those interested in rowing the Express can grab an oar on the following schedule: ‘ Today, Nov. 5: 2-3 p.m. and 3:30-4:30 p.m. (open to anyone) ‘ Friday, Nov. 6: 9:30-10:30 a.m., 11 a.m.-noon, 1-2 p.m. and 2:30-3:30 p.m. (open to anyone) ‘ Saturday, Nov. 7: 11:05 a.m. and 4:20 p.m. (open to experienced rowers) ‘ Sunday, Nov. 8: 2:30 p.m. (open to experienced rowers)
In recent years, Chattanooga has established itself as a bona-fide boom town for the athletic set, attracting legions of outdoor enthusiasts to events such as the USA Cycling National Championship, 7 Bridges Marathon and Little Debbie Ironman.
But the ripple that preceded this outdoor sporting surge arrived 11 years ago when the Head of the Hooch rowing regatta began introducing thousands of spectators a year to Chattanooga’s waterfront renaissance.
“I don’t know if we’re necessarily the cause of that, but it definitely seems to be bringing other sporting events to town since it’s such a nice town to host those events in,” says event registrar Chris Lemcke. “Being in Chattanooga definitely attracts people to the Hooch because you have such great restaurants and hotels and open spaces.”
The Hooch began in 1982 when the Atlanta Rowing Club organized the inaugural Head of the Chattahoochee at Roswell River Park in Roswell, Ga. After 16 years, the event outgrew this first location and moved to the Olympic rowing venue in Gainesville, Ga.
By 2005, the event was once again bursting at the seams, so organizers relocated a second time to Chattanooga. Since then, the Head of the Hooch has established itself as one of the nation’s premiere regattas and more than doubled in size in its first decade on the waterfront.
Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 7-8, about 6,500 rowers will knife along a 5,000-meter (3.1-mile) stretch of the Tennessee River at the oars of more than 2,000 whip-long, razor-narrow boats called racing shells.
Organizers expect the two-day event to draw some 20,000 spectators, who Lemcke says tend to congregate on the bridges to get a bird’s-eye view of the last few hundred meters to the finish line near Ross’s Landing.
“You get a nice crowd of people up there cheering their teams on,” he says. “You can look down and really see the emotion of the boat, see which ones are working well and which ones are disorganized. If you watch, you can see a good crew coming down the stream by who’s hugging the line and not going out in the middle of the river. You can generally pick out who’s winning by doing that.”
After more than 10 years in Chattanooga, Head of the Hooch is once more at the threshold of its racing capacity, but it’s not space that’s the issue anymore; it’s time. The Hooch has found its home, long-term, Lemcke says.
“That 2,100 is about all we can run with the hours of daylight there is,” he says. “We start running boats at 7 a.m., at sunrise, and the last boats are going out slightly after dark. There’s no more time in the day to get people rowing. We’ll definitely not be moving anytime soon.”
Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.