Twelve clubs and 103 crews with 279 competitors ranging in age from teenagers to masters competed in the annual Head of the Fort regatta held in Fort 91原创鈥檚 Bedford Channel on Saturday, April 13.

Event co-chair Laurel Glanfield, with the Fort 91原创 Community Rowing Club which hosted the event, said the regatta leads into the main racing season that begins in May.

鈥淭his is the way for people to get back on the water,鈥� Glanfield explained.

鈥淚t鈥檚 the first head race and often the first regatta for rowing competitors. We have 12 clubs from the Lower Mainland as far away as Deep Cove in Vancouver [participating]. We also have an umpire crew of about eight to 10 people who are volunteers that officiate at all of our regattas.鈥�

An online Rowing B.C. advisory about the Fort 91原创 event said the event was intended to provide a start-of-season racing opportunity on the Lower Mainland incorporating both 4,000m head racing and 700m sprint racing.

Head races are somewhat different from sprints 鈥渋n that each boat starts one a time and they鈥檙e timed individually and then handicapped for different ages and types [of boats],鈥� Glanfield told the 91原创 Advance Times.

For development athletes, it was a chance to be exposed to multiple types of racing and learn more about competition. For experienced athletes, a chance to prepared for upcoming events, with their coaches able to enter one or both race categories depending on what type of early-season opportunities the athletes need in order to be prepared for other upcoming events.

 Local clubs did well, .

University of the Fraser Valley won the womens and mens open eight-plus categories (the plus refers to the coxswain, the member who does not row but steers the boat), as well as the mens open single, while the Fort 91原创 Community Rowing Club won the mixed open four and women鈥檚 open single, and the Fort 91原创 Youth Rowing Society was first in mens open two, mixed open two, and mens junior single.

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