DW Race Bulletin Board

  • As of 02:00 hours on 31st March. The tideway water height is over the ebb tide RED FLAG trigger level.

    Therefore the status will remain as RED FLAG at the next automatic PLA assessment at 06:00 ( GMT ) on 31st March.

    The race will therefore terminate at Teddington, just upstream of the blue walkway bridge. River exit will be on the right hand bank.

    No crews are to paddle past Teddington - the penalty for any crews doing so will be disqualification.

    DW Organisation

  • Suday start times for the Stages race can be found here. Please remember, these times are GMT as the race will not switch to BST overnight

  • DW 2024 - İmportant Tideway status update

    At 14:00 hours 30th March the Tideway is currently under ebb tide RED FLAG status.

    Our Letter of Consent from the PLA, based on the plans and risk assessments already submitted and reviewed, does not allow us to run the race through to Westminster under these conditions. Despite discussions with the PLA today to see if any allowance could be made for the event, unfortunately it is not going to be possible.

    The status will be automatically reassessed at 6am tomorrow, based on the recorded water level, at low water at Richmond. For tomorrow’s assessment the low tide window that will be assessed is approximately between 00:50 and 02:00 hrs on the 31st March.

    Even if the levels have dropped to move to Yellow Flag status, The status will not change before 06:00 and therefore no crews will be permitted onto the tideway before 06:00.

    If the ebb tide status remains at RED FLAG, the senior doubles race will terminate at Teddington Lock and all paddlers will have to exit the River on the right bank.

    We will be deploying the Tideway safety team as normal in anticipation that the status will reduce to YELLOW FLAG.

    We will be issuing updates to all Senior Doubles paddlers and Support Crews via email and text after the next ebb tide assessment - this will be soon after 02:00 on Sunday.

    DW Organising Team

  • Please be aware that lights on the course will mean the following:

    Green light/glow stick means safe or portage here. In particular please keep a look out for green lights approaching Eton bridge if we have to enforce this as a compulsory portage.

    Red/orange light/glow stick means danger or keep away. Very low bridges on the canal will have red glow sticks and we will endeavour to mark with red lights any bridge arch (before Teddington) that is blocked;

    White glow sticks will be used to mark obstacles on portages such as fences or machinery.

    Please ask your support crews to be careful with white light. These can dazzle crews and mean they lose their night vision. Please use low output torches or cover off most of the output. Headtorches are the worst offenders.

  • DW’s Chief Umpire, Owen Peake has released a statement about the screening process for this year’s event.

    A full copy of the statement can be found here.

  • The DW Directors have issued a statement regarding the finish location for all classes.

    A copy of the statement can be found here.

  • The DW Directors have released a statement regarding the current position of this year’s stages race.

    A full copy of the statement can be found here.

  • The DW Directors have issued a statement regarding the current position of the Senior Double class for the 2024 DW canoe race.

    A copy of the statement can be found here.

  • A statement regarding the current status of this year’s race has been released. A full copy can be found here

  • An amended handbook has now been released ahead of the race. A copy of it an be found here.

  • We have received a number of requests from crews for an early start, together with their preferences on what time.

    There is no unanimous start time across the requests received, so therefore we have made a decision to compromise in the hope it can work for all crews that require an early start.

    Most crews asked for a 5am start, so we will open the start window at 4:30am and keep it open until 5am - this is longer than we had originally planned.

    Crews must be on the water ready to cross the start line between these times. If you are on the water and miss the 5am start cut off, you will be timed as having started at 5am.

    A reminder, any crew wanting an early start must be boat and kit checked on Easter Friday between 16:30 and 17:30.

    On Saturday morning, you will be expected to turn up a maximum of 15 minutes before your intended start time, get fitted with a GPS tracker, get on the water and go. There should be no extra preparation undertaken within the boat compound on the Saturday morning.

  • We have been asked whether DW could consider moving the early start from 5am to 4am on Saturday to enable crews with an anticipated total time of 30+ hours to hit the shortened tide window. We are open to this shift, but there are several considerations we need to manage in order to confirm this.

    We ask that any crew considering the early start (and to confirm, there would only be one, either at 4am or 5am) please get in touch ASAP with DW via the info@dwrace.co.uk email so we can assess both the interest and viability of this change.

    The Directors

  • Additional notes have been issued relating to various aspects of the race.

    The notes can all be found here.

  • Additional notes and information about the Tideway can be found here.