As the rowing world descends upon the Charles river, so too will 47 junior men’s coxed quads. Whilst bizarre for U.K. readers to see coxed boats at this level, there will certainly be some steersmen breathing a sigh of relief that they won’t be required to navigate some of the notorious bends and hurtle through Eliot Bridge and Weeks Footbridge.
Los Gatos Rowing Club
Back on the Henley stretch, Los Gatos fell to Hinksey on the Saturday of the Fawley Challenge Cup. At the time of writing this preview, the Los Gatos lineup is unavailable but there will be significant changes as all four of their Henley quad are moving on to pastures new such as Syracuse, Harvard, and Dartmouth. Rest assured though, with a lead of less than two seconds to defend, Los Gatos will need to harness some of their spritely talent such as their U16 quad that picked up a bronze medal at US Youth National Champs back in June.
The Windsor Boys School
Britain’s best chance of conquering the Charles is the Windsor Boys’ School. The British boys are regular travellers across the pond and will be looking to go one better than their second place finish last year. A trip like this is never cheap to make so it’s great to see the ambitious programme sending two crews, a real statement of intent for the 2023/24 season as a strong second quad from should send shivers down the spines of athletes that harks back to last year’s Fawley final. Their top crew features Jimmy Harlow who picked up two silvers in the Coupe quad and Atticus Chute who raced for England at the Home International regatta.
Tideway Scullers School
I’m always excited when a crew from Tideway Scullers gets stuck into some of the big early season racing. They were a joy to watch last season, particularly the unbelievable win in the Diamond Jubilee. I hope that has helped galvanise the men’s squad as well and they attack this season with a huge amount of gumption and there is no reason this quad can’t disrupt the junior sculling hierarchy. This combination looks like it could build into something formidable and HOCR presents the first opportunity to test themselves against some of the mighty US clubs but more importantly, see how close they can get to Windsor. This combination that heads to the Charles raced will at the National Schools’ Regatta with some of these athletes finishing seventh in Junior Quads and sixth in the J16 event.
RowAmerica Rye
RowAmerica are one of the stalwart clubs in the US youth set up. They have an ability to churn out consistent excellency, particularly in the Youth Eights at Nationals and this year they walked away with the gold in the men’s event and walk away with a fourth place finish in the women’s category. I can’t wait for this club to eventually make the trip over to Henley Royal and with the Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip both open to clubs, I’m sure we won’t be twiddling our thumbs for two long before RowAmerica come east. Anyway, back with HOCR and after picking up a bronze medal just three seconds behind Windsor last year, this New York outfit will likely be back at the business end of this category.
Maritime Rowing Club
At this stage it’s probably worth noting that a large number of the top US crews will not have their lineups available until after the deadline on the 20th of October. A strange option that coaches have, presumably allowing for last minute changes. Nonetheless expect big Maritime, based in Norwalk, Connecticut. This was the club that beat Los Gatos to the gold at US Youth Nationals and they even had a second quad in the A Final. I’m unsure how many of those athletes have graduated from high school but with depth that strong and a fourth place finish at last year’s event, Maritime will certainly be one of our medal contenders.
Elsewhere, keep an eye out for Newport Aquatic Centre and Potomac Boat Club who were fifth and sixth respectively last year. Whitemarsh Boat Club 14th this time out and we saw them build throughout the season. After finishing 15th on the Charles last October, the club from Philadelphia finished the season with sixth place finish in the Youth Nationals B Final while their second quad snuck in the A Final, where they came seventh overall. Finally, there will be additional British representation in the form of the American School in London. Jamie Kirkwood has been at the helm of this programme since 2021. They arrive in Boston with a crew made up of some of their J16s from last year who finished fifth in the C Final of J16 Quads at NSR and half of the crew that came sixth in the C Final of Champ Doubles.
Final Prediction:
My Prediction…I would love to see the British take back control of the Charles. You know what? Lets call it. Windsor to win Youth Quads.
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