Statement from the DW directors

As part of our communication plans, the DW Directors will providing regular updates on multiple aspects of the 2026 DW leading up to the race weekend. These will be in addition to the other communications to paddlers, supporters and team leaders provided by members of the DW Organisation Team.

Entries

Current entry numbers are below what we would normally expect with 5 weeks to go to the race.

We understand that some paddler groups will enter later than most as they cannot guarantee their crews will be available at Easter (typically schools and military). We have worked with this situation for many years and are in close liaison with the leaders of these groups regards potential entry numbers.

For club paddlers and independents, we recognise that the current water levels and conditions may be putting doubt in people’s minds as to whether the race will run, and for that reason they may be holding off entering until the last minute. The Directors would reiterate to these paddlers that we have robust and proven strategies that have enabled us to run the race in high flow conditions (2023 and 2024) and should we have to alter the course significantly (or indeed have to cancel), we have a generous refund policy in place that you can read here.

It is important to say that the DW Team is planning for a full DW2026 in all Classes – a Westminster finish for the Senior Doubles and a Barn Elms finish for the Stage Races.

If you are training for the race (and we know lots of you you are) it would really help our planning if you could enter sooner rather than leaving it to after Waterside D.

Conditions

We fully understand that the unprecidented wet late winter weather has had a significant impact on paddlers’ DW training plans, not least for those wanting to get on the Thames to familiarise themselves with the route. Thameside 1 and 2 being cancelled further increased the challenge to paddlers to find time to get on the course. Thames levels are dropping, and should continue to do so with the forecasted drier weather for the next fortnight. Hopefully this will give paddlers the opportunity to get some training runs in on the tricker sections of the river and lower canal.

The upper Thames section of the course can be particularly challenging for Senior Doubles crews as they have to navigate round several islands in the dark. Our message to crews remains the same as previous years – familiarisation of the course is a critical element in giving paddlers the best chance of completing the race.

Course Scoring

Accepting that the current course conditions are challenging, the Directors want to assure all paddlers and Team Leaders that the DW Organisation has been here before and has experience in dealing with similar situations over the race weekend.

We have already done our first course scoring exercise – taking weighted inputs across a variety of parameters including flow, temperature, visibility (including moonlight), wind speed and direction.

This is business as usual for us and we will assess the course at regular intervals and more frequently after Waterside D – obviously the course scoring in the latter stages of the build up to the race takes on more significance for everyone. At a certain trigger level on the course score our procedure is to implement our Enhanced Screening Process, which sits on top of the screening we do when crews

enter.

The Enhanced Screening Process is just one of our risk mitigation strategies, and we have other contingency plans to work in tandem with that process to ensure that we can deliver paddlers a safe race.

Handbook

All paddlers and support crews are reminded that a condition of entry is that they have read and understood the rules and will comply with them. We review the rules every year and make ammendments as necessary. Therefore please make sure you have read the most up to date copy – available from the DW website here.

Some of the significant changes to the rules for 2026 concern the cut offs down the course for Senior Doubles (rules 6.21, 6.22). Failure to meet the cut off times at Newbury, Reading and Old Windsor will not automatically result in a retirement, instead an official will make an objective decision whether the crew should continue along the course. The Teddington tide window and cut offs down the tideway will be rigidly applied for all Senior Doubles crews.