Return to Rowing Guidance

See update from British Rowing

British Rowing have this evening released their coronavirus advice: return to rowing guidance.

This guidance has been released to assist the rowing community in its planning for a return to rowing. The guidance is extensive and covers a large number of scenarios although not everyone can be covered unfortunately. They have detailed not only phase B, in which we currently are, but also each of the following phases up to the final phase: F. There are a number links to websites and supporting information with the document which you can view on the BR website.

Read the full release

Coronavirus Advice: Return to Rowing

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BR Coronavirus Club Posters

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British Rowing Example COVID-19 Risk Assessment

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See the Advice for Rowers page from the guidance below

COVID 19 Update (13.05.20)

See update from British Rowing

Given further clarification of the UK Government’s advice, we advise that Affiliated Clubs may, if they wish/are able to, allow members to use club/shared boats (in addition to private boats) from their facilities subject to:

• having a club plan in place to support safe access to and use of equipment (e.g. boats/blades). This must follow all relevant Government guidance including hygiene and social distancing; and,
• continuing to follow all relevant UK Government and/or waterway authority restrictions.

British Rowing is pleased that restrictions are starting to be lifted to allow people back on the water but we believe all rowers and clubs must act in both the spirit and to the letter of the Government guidance to protect the health of the rowing community, other rivers users and the wider public.

It’s important to remember that this is not at all a return to normal operations or club activities – only the absolute minimum necessary areas of clubs should be opened and only to facilitate access to boats and equipment.

We appreciate that many of you will be eager to get back on the water but we would ask you to be patient with your club and provide time for them to put in place the right measures to keep you and the rest of your club safe. Please bear in mind that planning and implementing these measures for safe access to the club may take time and your club’s volunteers are likely to have other priorities that they need to manage as well. Please wait for your club to let you know the specific arrangements they have in place.

Read the full release

Latest update from British Rowing Tuesday 12th May 20

We The UK Government yesterday (11 May) published its strategy for recovering from coronavirus (“Our Plan to Rebuild”) which included a change to restrictions related to exercise effective from Wednesday 13 May. In line with our planning for a safe return to rowing, we have drawn the following conclusions (based on the rationale set out on our website available via the link below).:

Rowing in privately-owned rowing boats from publicly accessible waterway access or with permission of landowners is possible subject to:

• UK Government rules relating to social distancing being adhered to;
• Recreational use of the waterway being permitted by the relevant authority*; and,
• an appropriate risk assessment and accompanying measures being in place taking into account any normal, local safety rules or good practice.

At this stage, we recommend that British Rowing Affiliated Clubs should remain closed (current UK Government advice suggests leisure facilities may open no earlier than 4 July). Therefore, anyone launching rowing boats should do so from publicly accessible slipways/other waterway access or with the express permission of the landowner.

We do not believe that any rowing activity requiring a coaching/safety launch fits within the spirit of the current UK Government guidance and also British Rowing’s RowSafe guidance

Given the current situation and likely outlook, we have taken the decision to extend our suspension of Affiliated Competitions until 31 July – including the cancellation of the British Rowing Offshore Championships & Beach Sprints and British Rowing Junior Championships. We reasonably expect it is likely that this suspension will eventually be extended until at least the end of August.

* At the time of writing, the three major waterway authorities have differing restrictions – please see the full update via the button below for more detail.

We continue to monitor and review the latest advice from the UK Government and will update our advice, as necessary, as more information becomes available.

Please note that this advice relates to rowing in England. We continue to work closely with our colleagues from Scottish and Welsh Rowing to share good practice, however, the restrictions on the public now vary between England, Scotland and Wales. Latest advice for Scotland and Wales are available at the links below:

Scottish Rowing

Welsh Rowing

As of 12th May 2020:

Canal & River Trust: Recreational use allowed.

Environment Agency: Restrictions still in place.

Read the full update and rationale here

Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund is to Pause

The fund which “aims to help community sport and physical activity organisations who are experiencing short term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis” is set to be paused on Thursday 14th May.

We have not been told if this will reopen at a later date or will be replaced with another funding scheme.

If you/your club are thinking of applying, you need to do so now. Further information on what will and will not be funded as well as the application can be found on the Sport England Fund page. The fund has support for competitions, so if you have unrecoverable costs for an event that has been cancelled then you can apply to the fund.

PLEASE NOTE: costs to cover the purchase of trophies will not be deemed eligible.