Please view the home page for hours, costs, access to the race schedule and lists of participants.

How to get there View our Directions section (see directory at the left) for driving directions and other useful maps.

Parking is scarce close to Crown Point. You may park, pace available and if you arrive early, in adjacent lots for $10. Some street parking is available.

FREE SHUTTLE Park for free at Ski Beach and take the free shuttle courtesy of our sponsor Cloud9. It will take you right to the main gate. See the Directions section for maps showing Ski Beach.
Schedule & Results For a schedule of the races, click on “Schedule” at the left which includes a link for you to request updates sent to your cell phone.

Lane draws for finals will be posted as heats are completed.

Food concessions will be available Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A variety of menu items will be available for sale as well as a gated area serving beer and wine.

What to bring: Bring sunscreen, a hat, a jacket, a beach chair or blanket to sit on the sand or to sit on the grass and watch the Jumbotron; an ID if you with to enter the Beer Garden; money to get in ($7 per day for those over 13) and if you wish to purchase beer or a program ($3) or lunch or something from the 22 Trade Show vendors; binoculars; your friends; your club, school, and team spirit to cheer for the athletes.

What to leave at home: Your dog because they are not allowed by City ordinance in the park including parking lots; alcohol because there is an alcohol ban although we are permitted to sell beer and wine at this special event; your bicycle they are not allowed inside the fence although you may chain it to the fence; your pop-up tent because those aren’t permitted either except by special permission of the beach master and if they are lashed to the fence in the crew stagging area.

How to Find It
Crown Point Beach Map (pdf) will help you locate things at the main Regatta staging area near the finish line. Use the map with the Beach Area Index (pdf) to find the area a team is assigned to at the north end of Crown Point.

Beach Area Index (pdf) with the Crown Point Beach Map will help you find where a crew is assigned to park their shells on the shore.

Video/DVDs A Jumbotron will show live video of races start to finish. DVDs of each race will be available for sale in the Crew Classic Merchandise Tent one hour after that race ends.

ATM Two ATM machines are on site for your convenience.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

Behind the birth of the San Diego Crew Classic® in 1973 were two century old rowing clubs: The San Diego Rowing Club, founded in 1888, and the women’s ZLAC Rowing Club, founded in 1892. Several generations of old San Diego families were members of the clubs and from them came Crew Classic® founders Patty Wyatt, Joe Jessop, Andy Borthwick, Del Beekley, and others like them. They had the vision and the initiative.

The University of Washington and the Naval Academy had developed a great rivalry and, when they were approached with the idea of coming to San Diego for a West Coast regatta, they enthusiastically agreed.

The first Crew Classic regatta featured 300 competitors in 12 races and a budget of $10,000. The twenty-sixth Crew Classic® featured over 3,000 competitors in 87 races with a budget of $300,000.

The San Diego Crew Classic® has become internationally recognized as one of the finest regattas in the world.

QUICK FACTS

• Rowing is one of the original sports in the modern Olympic Games.
• Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, was a rower.
• Eight-man shells are about 62 feet long and weigh about 230 pounds.
• There is no professional rowing for athletes to aspire to. This is a purely amateur sport.
• The first amateur sports organization was a rowing club—Philadelphia’s Schuylkill Navy, founded in 1858.

THE RACES

The Crew Classic® has several different classifications of races:
COLLEGIATE. Collegiate rowers who must be eligible in accordance with NCAA rules.

JUNIOR VARSITY. The second fastest shell from a university or junior crew.
NOVICE. Rowers or coxswains in their first year of competition.
JUNIOR. Rowers who are 18 years old or less or enrolled as a full-time high school student.
CLUB. Rowers from any organization or age.
MASTER. Minimum age of master rowers is 27. The crews average age determines the event they will row in.

THE ROWERS

The rowers race within two classifications: heavyweight or lightweight. A lightweight man may weigh no more than 160 pounds. A lightweight woman no more than 130 pounds.

Coxswains also have weight standards. For college men, they must weigh a minimum of 125 pounds. Juniors’, Clubs’, and Masters’ coxswains a minimum of 110 pounds. Women’s coxswains a minimum of 100 pounds. If the coxswain does not meet the weight standard, the crew will be required to carry sand bags at the coxswain’s position in the shell to make up the difference. Women may cox men’s shells, but men cannot cox a women’s event.

THE RULES

Each crew is allowed one false start. Two mean disqualification. If, within the first 100 meters of the race, there is a legitimate equipment breakage, there will be a restart.

Crews may move anywhere within the course as long as they do not impede another crew. Referees use flags to signal the crews. Red means stop. White is used to start the race, signal a fair race, and direct a crew which may be heading for a collision.

THE BOATS

Shells are made of wood, carbon fiber, or honeycombed fiberglass. All sculls are shells, but not vice versa. People who have two oars in the water are called scullers. You can row by yourself with two oars in a single (1x), with one other person in a double (2x), or with three others in a quad (4x). People with only one oar are sweep rowers. The normal configuration of a sweep boat has oars alternating between right and left, or starboard and port sides of the boat. Sweep rowers come in pairs (2), fours (4), and eights (8). They may have a coxswain, in which case they’re called a pair with coxswain (2+), or a four with coxswain (4+). The coxswain is the on-the-water coach and strategist who also steers the boat. Pairs and fours also come without coxswains (2- and 4-). The eight always has a coxswain (8+).

The Crew Classic® is an eight-oared regatta. One boat, eight rowers, one coxswain and a tremendous amount of training, skill and dedication make these teams winners.

THE OARS

Oars move the boat through the water and act as balancers. Sweep oars—12′ to 13′ long—are approximately two feet longer than sculling oars. Although there are still many standard oar blades, a recent development is the big blade or hatchet, which is 20 percent larger than the standard blade.

THE BLADES

All modern rowers use carbon fiber “hatchet” blades with wood or composite handles. Prior to the availability of these advanced materials, oars were made of wood with a slender blade design known as a “tulip”.

HOW FAST IS AN EIGHT?

The fastest boat in the 2007 Crew Classic was the Cal men’s team in the Copley Cup where they traveled 2000 meters in 5 min, 55.80 seconds.

That works out to 12.57 miles/hr or 20.24 km/hr.

The men’s world record, per wikipedia is 5 min, 19.85 seconds or 13.987 (oh heck, 14) miles/hr or 22.51 km/hr.