Scullers Head
The date for Vesta Scullers Head 2025 is to be confirmed….
First raced in 1954, Vesta Rowing Club is proud to run the UK's largest race for single scullers. Each year can see over 500 competitors gather together to test their fitness and sculling skills and is usually raced on the ebb tide, starting from the University Stone at Mortlake and finishing at the downstream end of Putney Pier.
Previous winners have included both Heavyweight and Lightweight Olympic and World Champions and the race has become a major focus for any serious sculler aiming to compare themselves against the best domestic and international competition.
The race requires the largest number of volunteers for any sculling race in the country - to the huge number of marshals, safety experts and the entire timing team - Vesta Rowing Club thanks you all!
Categories
The open event will be split into four tiers - championship, senior, club and novice - based on 20%/30%/30%/20% of the non age restricted entries for each gender.
Note that the Masters categories have also been split at the Novice level. The amalgamated Masters Novice categories will be awarded using the handicaps shown in the Rules of Racing.
Lightweights
Lightweights will be adjudged at "winter" weights, i.e. 75.0kg for Open (Men) and 61.5kg for Women. Please note that this is a correction to previous published instructions, these are the weights that the race has always used in the past and we have had confirmation from British Rowing's Competitions Committee that we can use them, as opposed to the standard weights laid out in 2-2-1 (b) of the Rules of Racing.
There will be a weighing in point at Vesta and one at a club near Chiswick Bridge.
Following its successful introduction in 2022: there are Masters Lightweight categories for both open and female, these will be aggregated over age categories, split into multiple age brackets if there are sufficient entries: Open (370593 "Op Mas Lwt 1x") and Female (370604 "W Mas Lwt 1x").
Note: lightweight entrants who fail to weigh in or who fail to make weight will race for a time only. (Categories cannot be changed once the draw has been published.)
Numbers
Numbers will be delivered to Barn Elms, AK (inc the Hammersmith clubs and Fulham Reach), Cygnet (inc. BBLRC, Emanuel), TSS, Mortlake (inc Quintin), UL & PTRC.
Those boating from the Putney clubs (i.e. between Imperial College; and London RC and Putney High School) should collect from Vesta Rowing Club from 0730 on race day.
Results and Prize Giving
Results will be published after the race has finished on Saturday 14th September.
The overall fastest female and male scullers, and category winners will be presented with their prizes in a ceremony at 17:30 at Vesta Rowing Club.As in previous we hope to have a live results feed, please keep an eye on the race's (twitter) X feed.
The overall fastest female and male scullers, and category winners will be presented with their medals at a prize giving ceremony at 15:00 at Vesta Rowing Club.
2024 Information
| Gender | Champ | Senior | Club | Novice |
| Open | > 427 | > 78 | > 6 | 6 or lower |
| Female | >444 | > 138 | > 13 | 13 or lower |
Contact details
Any questions, please contact the entries secretaries by email here.
The Small Print
The organisers of the Scullers' Head of the River Race are obliged by VAT regulations to inform participants that the event is organised by Vesta Rowing Club, an amateur sports club, which applies any surplus on the event to further the sport of rowing.
Photo Credits
Photos on this page kindly provided by Ben Rodford Photography.