Three Hundred Fixed-Seat Boats Row Twenty-One Miles From Millwall to Richmond on the Twelfth

The Great River Race is on Saturday the twelfth of September, from Millwall in east London to Richmond in the west, twenty-one point six miles up the Thames and under most of its bridges.

Around three hundred crews enter, which is about two and a half thousand competitors chasing thirty-seven trophies. The boats are the point: skiffs, cutters, gigs, Chinese dragon boats, Viking longboats, whatever a club or a pub can put on the water.

The rules are specific and they are what make the race work. Fixed seats only, so no sliding-seat racing shells. Every crew must carry a coxswain and a passenger, the passenger being dead weight for twenty-one miles and not permitted to help. Every boat carries a flag three feet by two. Every entrant carries five million pounds of public liability insurance.

The start is handicapped, so slower boats go first and the theory is that everybody converges at Richmond. The fastest finish in about two hours and the slowest take four, and the start time is set by the tide rather than by anyone's preference, which is why it moves every year and is confirmed late.

It began in 1988 with sixty-one boats crewed by rowing clubs, schools, pubs and the armed services. It is now run as a charitable trust by volunteers and draws entries from America, Australia and across Europe.

The passenger rule is the one people ask about. It exists because the race descends from the working traffic of the river, and a Thames waterman carrying nobody was not working.