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Hosted by Lake Washington Rowing Club and the University of Washington, the 43rd Head of the Lake will be raced on Sunday, November 5. The course starts on Lake Union, passes through Portage Bay and the Montlake Cut into Lake Washington, and makes a dramatic turn to finish near the UW Conibear Shellhouse.

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Important HOTL 2023 What's New information is on  the HOTL Regatta Central News Page.

Registration Guidelines

Dates to Know (all 12 noon PDT)

• Thursday, September 21:  Registration opens.
• Monday, September 25:  Acceptance and notification of guaranteed and queued entries begins.  Fees are due at time of acceptance.
• Monday, October 9: Deadline for guaranteed entries to submit application. After this, applications from those crews will be placed in the general queue.
• Monday, October 16: Scratch deadline. After this, no refunds. Refunds for entries scratched before October 16 will be issued after October 16.
• Tuesday, October 31: Registration closes. Entries will still continue to be accepted to replace scratches. Coaches can make lineup changes.
• Wednesday, November 1: No pending entries accepted past this date. Some divisions may be combined at the discretion of the registrar. Crews may continue to make changes to line-ups until race day, provided that the changes do not move a Masters boat from one age category to another.

Registration opens on Thursday, September 21.  The regatta is limited to 475 entries.

Registration is by application only. Applications will be accepted and notified starting Monday, September 25.

Guaranteed entries (for crews that finished in the top 50% of their event in 2022, and 2x and 1x that did not get to row in 2022 due to weather cancellation; see rules below) will be accepted starting Monday, September 25. Their places will be reserved through noon on Monday, October 9.  After this deadline, applications from these crews will go into a queue with other entries and will be accepted as space allows.

Non-guaranteed entries will be placed in a queue based on the order in which applications are received.  We will start accepting entries from the (non-guaranteed) queue on Monday, September 25 beginning at 12:00 noon PDT. Registration closes at 12 noon on October 18.

Guaranteed entries: 

• All Collegiate entries are guaranteed as long as application is made by Monday, October 9. Collegiate applications received after noon on October 9 will be accepted as the queue allows.
• The top 50% of Junior and Master and Open finishers from 2022 are guaranteed entry as long as application is made by Monday, October 9.
• Master 1x, Open 1x, Master 2x, Open 2x crews applying for guaranteed entry based on results from 2022 must retain the same lineup. This restriction is not enforced at time of entry but will be enforced at time of acceptance. If you are registering in one of these 6 events, do not select the guaranteed application if the line-up does not match the 2022 line-up.
• In other events, including the Junior 1x and Junior 2x, guaranteed entries belong to the club and can have different line-ups from the qualifying race. 2023 Guaranteed Entry List by Event and 2023 Guaranteed Entry List by Club
• Masters guaranteed entries are not restricted to the same age group in which they qualified in 2022. If you finished in the top 50% of your age group in an event, you can use your guaranteed entry for that event within any age group in which you are now eligible to race. 

After noon on Monday, October 9, the guaranteed entry deadline, we will continue to accept applications only as space allows and existing entries are scratched.

After registration closes at noon on Wednesday, October 18, we will continue to accept applications based on the number of scratches we receive.  

SCRATCH DEADLINE IS noon on MONDAY, OCTOBER 16. No refunds will be made for scratched registrations after that time.

We will stop accepting entries from the queue at 12 noon on Wednesday, November 1, when schedules go to press. 

Refund policy:  If you scratch before noon on Monday, October 16, you will receive a refund. If you scratch after this date, refunds will not be issued. Also note, if your event is cancelled due to weather conditions, you will not be issued a refund. When you register for an event, you will be asked to agree with the refund policy.