RegattaCentral

The Dogwood Masters Classic - May 31, 2025

1000-meter sprint racing for Masters rowers on Melton Hill Lake.
Oak Ridge TN.

Upon close of Regatta Central registration, the HereNow timing/schedule will be authoritative.

[May 22] A notional schedule that includes a matrix of time gaps for both athletes and equipment between events is posted here.

[May 22] Late Registration is OPEN through Sunday May 25, 2025 11:59pm. Events that are full have been updated in Regatta Central to allow waitlisted entries.

[May 25  We are delighted to report that despite considerable storm damage last week, the course has been 100% repaired and is ready for racing.  With an eye toward unpredictable weather this week, and to ensure the best possible conditions for the athletes, ORRA is asking participants to come out and help with day-of debris removal on Saturday, from 6:00-8:00 am. We'll send out as many as a dozen driver/extra-hands pairs to patrol for and remove any overnight debris that may affect the course or rowing shells. There is a link in SignUp Genius to help with this activity. Thanks in advance for your support.

2024 Results · 2024 Row2k Photos 2023 Results

Course Map  -  Venue Map.  -  Parking - best price ever! $0.00 at the entrance. Please have exact change available :-)

Please note: The order of events is constructed to ensure that Masters athletes have opportunities to race multiple times in a single day. We're adding gaps here and there to protect expected progressions.

New for 2025, we dramatically reduced the published event list on Regatta Central so that instead of something like [Men's 1X AA-A, Men's 1x B, Men's 1X C, Men's 1x D ...] we collapsed it to just Men's 1x AA-K (all).  Once standard registration closes, we will then appropriately combine, group, or separate an event in to the individual races. This allows us to consistently structure races so that:

• individual races are full, up to 7-lanes of racing participants.
• groupings using the 2023/2024 event list that might have just 1 or 2 competitiors in an age group, and only 2 boats in a race are appropriately combined with their age group/handicap neighbors.
• big groupings within a single age category are intentionally split since everything is straight to final. For example, a Women's 1X D 50-54 group that has 12 entries would be appropriately adjusted based on the age of the participants in to two races, such as Women's 1x D 50-52 and Women's 1X D 53-54 (and we'd medal the top 3 in each).
• We will reduce large spacing in the age groups because of the USRowing calculations of handicaps for a 1000-meter race. You should not expect to see more than 3 age groups in a category. For example, if you're racing as a C, and the event is lightly subscribed, you may grouped with B and D to form a larger group, and we'd apply handicaps, with handicapped results determining medals. We'll limit to the greatest extend possible any grouping larger than that, such as a group that spans A-E.
• Medals will be awarded to all three places for all groupings (not necessairly multiple age categories within a grouping). Bling is fun.  We love bling. So if, for example, you're a C athlete in a group of B-C, for example, handicaps will be applied to your race, and you need to be top 3 with handicaps applied to get bling. I.e, medals will be awarded to the top 3 in the group, not per age category.

New for 2025, we revisited the participation within the individual events over the last several years. Consistently, the 1x, 2x, and 4x are the most heavily subscribed. Further, mixed events are generally more heavily subscribed than their men's and women's counterparts.  We tinkered with the schedule this year just a bit to better serve these demands. This new event structure also ensures that adequate gaps, event to event, are retained.  If you intend to both sweep and scull, pay close attention to the notional times to make sure that you have sufficient time between events.

Knowing that racing opportunities in the Southeast are a bit scarce, we want a schedule that allows athletes to choose 2 or 3 (or 4) events, as they choose, without tight hot seats. It does increase the total schedule a bit, but we will still hold this to a single day event for your planning purposes. Last race is scheduled for 3:48 pm.

ORRA will use official handicap rules and an official time service (HereNow). As every event is straight to final, we will use random draws for bow numbers. New for 2025, for the Men's and Women's 1x, we expect to award the winner of the same event in 2024 a preferred lane assignment in 2025.

Masters Crews shall be classified by age according to the following categories:

The Dogwood Masters Classic is a competitive regional event on our FISA-compliant sprint course. Join us for a day of racing as teams prepare for the USRowing Masters Regional Event later in June, and USRowing Masters Nationals later this summer. The Dogwood Masters Classic is also a great opportunity to reunite with old friends and make new friends. Please make plans to join us for a great annual event.

There is no scratch fee for changes prior to the close of regular registration. You may make these changes yourself through RC.  After the close of standard registration, please contact the Regatta Director.

C&C Meeting: Wednesday 5/28/25 6:00pm. Link Pending