Update 06.30 Sunday
We regret that Sunday’s Racing is cancelled
At the moment the river state makes it unsafe to hold the Regatta. Although the river level is falling the Race Committee is unable to say when, or even if, it will be safe to allow racing to take place.
Update 05.45 am Sunday
The river level rose in the night but is now going down. The environment agency websites have not updated in most cases since around midnight. We will monitor the rate of descent for the next hour and then make a decision by 7am. If the regatta goes ahead it will start one hour late at 9 am.
Update 6.30 pm Saturday
The river at Durham has been going down slowly since mid-afternoon
Saturday. The environment agency sites have just updated and there is a
possible change to the previous trend in the West which was down. The
forecast is mixed but suggests that there is a reasonable chance that
the rainfall will be limited and our current judgment is that the river
at Durham will continue to go down overnight.
We will review again at 6am and make a final decision then on Sunday’s racing and will announce it on the website.
Previous Updates below
Update as at 05:45 Saturday
The Saturday Regatta is CANCELLED.
The river levels have not dropped sufficiently over night and are expected to rise later in the day (see Stanhope levels).
We will continue to monitor the river levels throughout Saturday and will update about Sunday later in the day (approx 18:00).
Update as at 19:00
Current status:
The river a few inches since our earlier announcement. With the current
weather forecast the regatta is likely to be on. We will continue to
monitor the situation and a final decision will be made at 6am.
As per our earlier message we understand that clubs with a long distance
to travel may wish to not take the risk of potential cancellation and to
this extent the Regatta will invoke their cancellation policy for their
entries.
There are a large number of people who have already arrived in Durham
and if at all possible we will run the regatta.
Original Message
The Regatta Committee are closely monitoring the river levels in Durham after the recent prolonged rainfall.
The present river level is rowable but is rising.
The River Wear at Durham is notoriously difficult to predict due to the number of tributaries and the speed at which the level rises and falls. One good indicator is the river level at Stanhope. Currently the Environment Agency website is only updating the levels very infrequently but current indications are that it will level out in Durham within the next few hours. There is an approximate six hour lag between the levels changing at Stanhope and it changing in Durham.
We will continue to monitor the river levels throughout the next 24 hours and will next update this notice at 18:00 Friday.
We realise that clubs with a long distance to travel may be wary of making a wasted journey to Durham. With that in mind if any club wishes to withdraw from the Saturday Regatta at this point we will invoke our cancellation policy for those entries.
Our current expectation is that the weather situation will improve over the weekend and the Sunday Regatta will go ahead as planned.
