Women dominate rowing Head of the Hooch regatta, which has grown since moving to Chattanooga

Rowing regatta means big bucks for Chattanooga

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Women for the first time account for the most muscle at this year’s Head of the Hooch rowing regatta, and the event has grown into a major economic boon for Chattanooga.

Since migrating to the Tennessee River in 2004 after outgrowing the shores of Lake Lanier in suburban Atlanta, organizers say they have a record 8,600 rowers and coxswains registered to compete in the two-day regatta that starts Saturday.

Thousands of spectators are expected, and the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau predicts the regatta and accompanying outdoor food and artistry market on the redeveloped waterfront will have a $4.3 million economic impact. That would make it by far the city’s most lucrative convention event in November.

The rowing is free to watch, including from overhead on the pedestrian-only Walnut Street Bridge.

“During peak hours of the weekend-long regatta, boats are launching every 20 seconds,” said regatta director Daniel Wolff. “It’s quite a spectacle.”

For the first time in the 29-year history of the competition, more women than men will be rowing. Most of the rowers in the competition are members of high school, college and masters teams from 30 states and Canada.

At its start in the early 1980s, 10 percent of the 300 participants were women. Last year, 49 percent were women, and it is 53 percent this year.

“For centuries, rowing was almost exclusively a men’s sport,” Wolff said. “We’ve seen over the past few decades a strong growth in women partaking in the sport.”

The regatta includes four “Row for the Cure” events, which will feature more than 870 women rowing in pink T-shirts. Proceeds from sponsorship of the four races, a Learn to Row event and hot-air balloon rides, will benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which supports breast cancer research.

Regatta spokesman Dave Santucci said Saturday in Chattanooga will be the “largest single day of rowing in the U.S.”

Wolff said more women are participating because of Title IX, the federal law that requires schools to offer equal athletic opportunities to men and women.

He said rowing is “low impact but is physically very demanding.”

Describe the competitors as paddlers and “you are walking on thin ice,” Wolff said.

“Canoeists paddle and rowers row,” said Kerry Brown, a member of the Atlanta Rowing Club and a competitive rower.

Brown, 40, said she started the sport in college and says she competes not for money, but love of the sport.

“Beating men is good fun. Beating young women is good fun,” Brown said.

Races will take place 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday. Additionally, a new ‘Learn to Row’ event has been added Friday afternoon. Registration is required for the “Learn to Row” event at www.headofthehooch.org. Cost is $10 and benefits local Susan G. Komen affiliates.