Despite fog and frost from a cold front that made fall feel like winter in Chattanooga, thousands lined the banks of the Tennessee River early Saturday for what’s been billed as one of the world’s last great fall regattas.
The morning fog settled upstream of the finish at the annual Head of the Hooch at Ross’s Landing, limiting visibility for crew members awaiting the biggest event on the race calendar.
Race directors ultimately delayed the start by two hours and canceled the final seven events on Day One of the two-day regatta. There are 89 events in total.
“It’s hard because we kept hoping it would be good,” said Emily Oxford, who helps direct the event with her stepfather, Daniel Wolff. “It would look great down here [at Ross’s Landing] but it would be really foggy at the start. We decided the most fair way to do it would be to just take off the events at the end, rather than picking and choosing [which events to cancel]. People are pretty upset. We want to find the best solution for everyone, but it’s just one of those things where there’s not one solution to make everyone happy.”
The roughly 10,000 participants flooded toward vendors and tents to keep warm as the temperature dipped to freezing. The 2,000 boats set to compete, crews, their families and spectators stretched more than a mile down the bank from the Springfield Marriott to the west past the Walnut Street Bridge to the east.