WRCBtv.com | Chattanooga News, Weather & SportsHuge Rowing Regatta to Splash on Chattanooga

Huge Rowing Regatta to Splash on Chattanooga

CHATTANOOGA (WRCB) - The second largest rowing regatta in the country will splash into Chattanooga next weekend. WRCB is a sponsor for the 2009 Head of the Hooch, expected to draw a record 8,600 rowers and coxswains on November 7 and 8. The event is the largest in the southeast. According to organizers, this year's Hooch will be 30% bigger than 2008's.

"We've got a great place to race here in Chattanooga," said Daniel Wolff, Head of the Hooch Regatta Director. 

"It is an easy to get to location, low cost city, with great hotels, attractions and the perfect rowing venue for the competitors and spectators all within walking distance."

Organizers have focused on the spectator experience this year. The Chattanooga Market will be on Riverfront Parkway near the regatta on Saturday from 8 am to 5 pm.  If the weather is nice, hot air balloon rides for a fee will be available and a ‘History of Rowing' booth will be offered near the race in downtown Chattanooga's riverfront all day Saturday.

The rowing regatta is free to watch with the best viewing from the pedestrian-only Walnut Street Bridge or Ross's Landing on downtown Chattanooga's Riverfront. Races will take place Saturday, November 7 from 8 am to 5 pm and Sunday, November 8 from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm.  Additionally, a new ‘Learn to Row' event has been added Friday afternoon from 12-4 pm. Registration is required for the ‘Learn to Row' event at www.headofthehooch.org.  Cost is $10 and benefits local Susan G. Komen affiliates.  

"During peak hours of the weekend-long regatta, boats are launching every twenty seconds, " said Wolff.  "Its quite a spectacle."

The Head of the Hooch is more than 75% high school and college aged rowers and also features top level masters competitors. This year teams will come from thirty states and Canada.  

Chattanooga was voted the "Best Town for a Race", by Rowing News readers over Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle and Oklahoma City. The twenty-nine year old regatta outgrew its Georgia venues and moved to the Tennessee River in 2004 were the event has grown every year since.

More than 12,000 people are expected to attend the event, creating a $4.3+ million economic impact for the city.

"The Head of the Hooch has a multi-million dollar impact on our city," said Bob Doak, CEO Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau. 

"It is one of many events attracted by the revitalization that fills our restaurants and hotels."

For the first time in the 29-year history of the Head of the Hooch, more women than men will be rowing.

"For centuries rowing was almost exclusively a men's sport," said Daniel Wolff, Head of the Hooch Regatta Director.  "We've seen over the past few decades a strong growth in women partaking in the sport and now for the first time since the Head of the Hooch started in 1980, we have more women rowers racing than men."

The number of women participating in the Head of the Hooch has consistently risen over the years.  At its start in the early 1980's, only ten percent of the 300 participants were women.  In 2008, 49.2% were women.  2009 marks the first year more women are competing with 53.1% of registered participants.  

The Head of the Hooch features four ‘Row for the Cure' events, which includes 870+ women rowing in pink T-shirts creating a "Sea of Pink" on the river.  Proceeds from the sponsorship of these four races, the Learn to Row event and hot-air balloon rides, will benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  Head of the Hooch has sponsored southeast regional events raising more than $50,000 for the fight against cancer.