Reading Amateur Regatta
Reading Amateur Regatta is a two-day regatta held each June on the River Thames at Reading. It was first held in 1842, three years after the first Henley Regatta, and has used the same reach ever since.
The 2027 regatta is on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 June.
The course
| Day | Distance |
|---|---|
| Saturday | 1,500 m |
| Sunday | 1,000 m |
Racing is downstream on the reach above Caversham Lock. The Saturday course starts at St Mary’s Island and finishes just short of Reading Rowing Club, above Caversham Bridge. There are two buoyed lanes, and crews start from stake boats.
Where it sits in the season
Reading is one of the main river regattas in the run-up to Henley. It is held the weekend before Henley Women’s Regatta, and women’s crews from overseas often use it as a final race. The shorter Sunday course is aimed at developing crews.
History
The early regatta had a broken history. It shrank to a smaller Caversham Regatta within a few years, was revived by the newly formed Reading Rowing Club in 1870 and lapsed again before being re-established in 1877.
Reading has two other regattas, which are easy to confuse with it.
- Reading Town Regatta, which began in 1877 as the Reading Working Men’s Regatta
- Thames Valley Park Regatta, first held in 1990
Watching
The regatta is free to watch. The Thames Promenade runs the full length of the course, and there is race commentary through the day.