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Masters (M):Master is a competitor who has attained or will attain the age of 21 during the current calendar year. A competitor’s age is determined as of December 31 of the current calendar year, rounded down to the nearest whole number. A competitor thus becomes a Master on January 1 of the year of his or her 21st birthday. The age category of a Masters crew shall be determined by the average age of the rowers in the crew, rounded down to the nearest whole number.  A Masters crew shall be comprised exclusively of Masters rowers, excluding the coxswain. A Masters crew may compete in a lower  (younger) age category but not in a higher category. A Master competitor’s eligibility to compete in Masters events is not affected by his or  her classification by skill. Each competitor shall be responsible for his own health and fitness. Masters Age Handicaps will be based on the 1000-meter age handicaps found in the USRowing Rules of Rowing. Every Masters rower must be in a position to prove his age by presentation of an official document if requested. Masters events shall be held in the following crew age categories:

Master (23+), Senior-Master (40+), Grand-Master (50+), Veteran (60+), Senior-Veteran (70+)

Youth (Y): The youth events are intended for competitors who in the current calendar year does not attain the age of 19, or who is and has been continuously enrolled in secondary school as a full time student seeking a diploma. A competitor thus ceases to be a Junior after December 31 of the year of his/her 18th birthday, or of the year in which he/ she completes the 12th grade of secondary school, having been a full time student, whichever is later. All questions of eligibility,qualifications, or interpretations of the rules shall be referred to the Chief Referee, whose decision shall be final. These events are open to any youth crew that meets the requirements of the event. Youth rowers are allowed in “Youth, Lightweight, and Mixed” events only.

College: The college events are intended for competitors who are full time students in college. (No Youth crews will be allowed in this category)

Club:  Events are unrestricted for of any age category or skill level.

EVENTS
Lightweight Events (LT):
Open to any youth competitor that meets the requirements establish in these rules for Lightweight rowers. Weigh-in will be at the ORRA Boathouse. Lightweight weigh-in will begin Saturday morning at 6:00 AM. Lightweight Athletes are required report to the scales 2 hours prior to, but no later than 1 hour, to the first event. Lightweights will only be required to weigh-in once per day, regardless of the number of events. Lightweight athletes will need to inform officials of ALL of the events that they will be participating in. Entire crew must weigh-in together. NO AVERAGE WILL BE USED FOR ANY LIGHTWEIGHT EVENT. Rowers must wear racing uniforms at the weigh-in.

Men’s Lightweight is 165 | Women’s Lightweight is 135

Novice (N):
A Novice event shall be defined as any student-athlete who is in their first year of competition.  Each team is allowed multiple entries in these events. A rower who has previously competed only as a coxswain can compete as a Novice rower. A coxswain who has previously competed only as a rower can compete as a Novice coxswain.

Mixed Events (MX): Mixed crew events are which half of the crew excluding the coxswain, shall be women and half shall be men

Rules

• The Secret City Head Race will follow the USRowing Rules of Rowing. Unless stated by the LOC in this packet. The USRowing Rule Book is the ultimate source for all rulings. Please familiarize yourself with these rules before attending the coaches and coxswains meeting. The USRA Advertising rule is being waived for this event.
• Only students of the high schools and colleges can score points for their institutions. Coaches, faculty, parents, etc. cannot row for points under a college/university or high school.
• A team is considered the usual way the program practices/competes as of January 1 of the same year. A school team/club represents a single organization, with distinct location, colors, and coaches for the entire competitive season is a team. All crews representing the school/club must wear similar uniforms. Each team shall be responsible for the conduct, physical fitness, including the ability to swim, of its competitors.  
• Athletes in each event are required to be of the same gender. A coxswainmay be of either gender, and of any skill or age classification (not withstanding the age maximum).
• All members of a high school/youth program or college/university program must have identical jersey and blade designs.
• In events which have points for both the college/university and club point trophies, the boat will receive the points for the position they finish in the race with respect to all boats

• Composite crews cannot score points for any specific school or club but will block the points out for the position in which they finish.

• If a boat starts an event it will be considered an entry but must finish to score points.
• Any other rulings that need to be made with respect to the point trophies will be made by the regatta committee attempting to be fair to all parties. Such rulings will be final.

• USRowing organizational membership is required to participate, for all boats larger than a double in this event, and must be taken care of prior to arriving on site. Membership can be done on-line at www.usrowing.org.

• During a race, no boat shall have on board any electronic devices that are capable of sending or receiving information from any source external to the boat. (This includes cell phones)
• Regatta Officials shall announce or post their official radio communication channel(s) [if known] at the start of the race day, if needed.  All teams and their guests are prohibited from using these radio channel(s). Teams violating the use of restricted channel(s) shall be subject to disqualification. In the event that racing crews “accidentally” use regatta channel they will receive one warning.

• Hot seating must be arranged with the dock master before the scheduled race. The regatta will proceed on time and will not be held for hot seating crews. Events will not be delayed to permit re-rigging of shells.

• A crew member must check-in with the dock master before launching for every race.
• All crews representing the same program must wear similar uniforms.
• Each event must have a minimum of two entries to constitute a race. Events with only one (1) entry at the registration deadline shall be eliminated and the team shall be notified in advance of race day.  If race day scratches reduce a race to one (1) entry, the single entry shall row the course for time.