The last piece on New Zealand versus UK rowing gave an overview for people considering a change of hemisphere. This next article explores crews for rowers doing the same stroke, but just a little differently, on opposite sides of the globe.
Henley versus Nationals and what this means for crew selection
For the bigger clubs in both countries, the goal is clear from the outset: they’re training for the most competitive regatta in the country.
For the UK, this means Henley Royal, and for New Zealand, National Championships. For the athlete, this means two different scenarios. The knock-out, one vs one style of Henley, along with a narrower selection of events, means that clubs will select athletes for a single crew (occasionally two). The standard heats through to finals format of Nationals, with a full range of boat classes, means clubs will select athletes into as many crews as is realistic, normally between two and four.
The busier regatta schedule and nature of head racing and Henley in the UK means that athletes will generally be selected into a single crew for an extended training block. For example, an athlete might train in a 4- for a couple of months of training for Fours Head, then an 8+ for the Spring and Summer racing leading into Henley.
Meanwhile in NZ, the shortened season length means a full event format for all regattas. So athletes will be selected into crews across their grade and above and race in these throughout the season. For example, a Senior 8+, broken down into Senior 4-s, broken down into Senior 2-s, giving an athlete three crews from the beginning.
While in the UK a typical regatta Saturday may consist of a time trial and final in the 8+, to be repeated on the Sunday with different clubs entered, in NZ it may be heats of the 8+, 4-, and 2- and finals on the Sunday.
How do you decide what’s best for you?
Of course, depending on the club and the individual’s goals, there’s flexibility within crews.
Do you want to train in a small boat over winter and enter some longer distance races? Will you be rowing up a grade as a development athlete and engaging in extra sessions or are you strictly there for the club competition?
From the perspective of a club athlete without further ambition to enter into high performance, both countries offer a different approach to crew variety and racing development as the season progresses.
New Zealand: splitting training and racing across smaller boats made up of the larger crew.
- This offers valuable technical feedback and variety to break up the season.
- Small boat racing gives real-world seat racing feedback throughout the season.
- It splits your attention and time across different crews giving selection and performance pressure from more angles.
- But, it can limit coaching time in certain crews.
UK: training and racing in one set crew.
- This allows the focus to be all in and gives a depth to the experience.
- The crew becomes an individual and team project giving an edge to racing where there are no second chances.
- Without smaller crews to work on, there is a feeling of less variety session after session.
- Ups and downs of a season are all contained within one boat.
The schedules
A note to make is that both countries run separate but often overlapping schedules for schools, universities, clubs, masters, para- and prem. It is uncommon for New Zealand school crews to compete at Club Nationals and university students do two separate seasons every year, one short one during semester time culminating in Uni Champs and one longer one over summer with their club.
In the UK, Henley has a grade for school crews, and university athletes row for their university during study, following the same season length as the clubs, meaning they row for one or the other, not both.
The categories
Interestingly, women’s and men’s rowing categories are divided into Men/Women (NZ) and Open/Women (UK), meaning that in the UK men and women can enter Open. During head racing season, crews are set off over several hours giving both categories and all ages and grades the opportunity to see where they stack up across the whole pack.
For a club athlete, this also gives greater flexibility to race in mixed crews. The flip side is that boat classes can be limited e.g. only fours, quads and eights. The main regattas in New Zealand always feature a full range of boat classes across both categories, and while athletes can and do race ‘above’ their grade, the programme sometimes doesn’t allow for enough times between certain events.
Examples of 2025 Club events can be found here (NZ) and here (UK), with 27 events at Henley Royal (768 entries, 4,367 athletes, and 404 races in 2025, see here) and 68 events (875 entries, 767 athletes, and 329 races, see here) at NZ Nationals.
A final word
It goes without saying that every club rower will have different goals and constraints. Like was said previously, what works for someone may not work for someone else.
With the globalisation of our current world, it’s interesting to compare how things are done in an age where information is accessible and ideas can be swapped at the click of a button. It seems obvious that rowing governing bodies will continue to structure the sport based on their own population and resources, but it’s interesting to imagine: will the sport gradually become more similar in its structure across countries as an ‘ideal’ way to do things becomes agreed upon, or will different countries uphold their own systems potentially allowing for more competition and more ingenuity?
