The 2012 Henley Boat Races take place on Sunday 25th March on Henley Reach, Henley-on-Thames.

The Henley Boat Race course is a 2000m stretch of river along which some of the famed Henley Royal Regatta is held. Proceeding downstream from stakeboats moored in line with the flagpole outside Phyllis Court Club, the crews race to a finish line halfway along Temple Island.

History of the Henley Boat Races

The Henley Boat Races were founded in 1975 by Richard Bates, an undergraduate at St John’s College, Cambridge, when he arranged the first Lightweight Men’s Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge over Henley Reach.

The first Women’s Boat Race took place in 1927 in the form of a time and style contest. Undergoing a revival in the 1970s, the event joined the new Men’s race in Henley in 1977. The Blondie-Osiris race followed soon after, and with the inauguration of the women’s lightweight race in 1984 a successful 4-race formula ran for more than 15 years. In 2000, a Lightweight Men’s Reserve race was also added to the programme. The Granta-Nepthys race led race day until 2006 when CULRC were forced to withdraw Granta for funding reasons. In recent years, in a move to draw more college support for the Boat Races, a race consisting of two high performing college crews from Oxford and Cambridge race over a 1.5km course before the University Cubs take to the stake boats.

As Race Day became more popular so did the duties required to organise the event. Quickly becoming too demanding for the President on whom they fell, in 1989 a committee was created comprising of the club presidents under the chairmanship of Mark Blandford-Baker. The committee agreed the umpire, the date and other race details for the benefit of all. The chairman co-ordinated event development and helped maintain the excellent working relationship with Henley Royal Regatta, Leander Club, Remenham Club and the myriad contractors and organisations that were now essential for the smooth running of the event. In the early days Mike Sweeney was frequently race umpire and used his rowing experience to help draft the initial version of the Race Agreement under which all subsequent races have been run.

In 1995 Patrick Gillespie (CULRC 1989/90, OULRC 1992), joined the committee as chairman’s assistant, in the knowledge that Mark Blandford-Baker could not stay indefinitely, and took over the lead role in 1999. He handed the reins to Robert Treharne Jones after the 2003 event.

In 1998 a Sponsorship Committee was set up by Rebecca Caroe (Blondie 1986) with the purpose of increasing the exposure of the clubs and race day to potential corporate sponsors. The following year Chase Manhattan Bank signed a three year deal to support the races and crews from 2000 to 2002, and this successful relationship continued with JPMorgan supporting the races from 2003 to 2005. For the first time in 2011, the Henley Boat Races were sponsored by Newton Investment Management Limited, including the renaming of the Blue Boat race to the Newton Women’s Boat Race. A long-term goal for the Henley Boat Races is to achieve a capital base that may in future feed back to the clubs directly.

More information at http://www.henleyboatraces.com/.