New Start Order

The Start Order was modified in 2002 , primarily involving those entrants who are not "inheriting" a place from last year.

New for 2007 - further changes - see below.

The procedure will be that new entrants will be assigned to a group according to status ; these groups will then be "injected" as a block into the sequence of those crews with places from last year . For example , all the Elite new entrants will start behind the crew that finished 50 last year, and those crews who in past years would have expected to start at 51, 52 etc. will start at about no 55 , 56 etc.

There are a number of reasons for this , and this note is to explain some of the more important ones .
1) Safety.	You will recall that , some years ago , the arrangement for the "new" starters was simply alphabetical ~ all the first crews in order , then all the second crews, and so on . The danger with this arrangement that became clear was that very good and very poor crews could be placed next to each other in an almost random order , and interfere with each other all down the course . Some 4 years ago we arranged that new starters would be grouped into 4 sections by status , and this did much to reduce interference . This further division into 6 sections is the next logical step .
2) Fairer racing .	At the same time , if a crew is not held up by much slower crews ahead of it - even if this is not deliberate - it stands a better chance of recording the best time it is capable of .
3) Shorter time to start .	Previously , because the last "old" starter was invariably Novice and the first "new" starter was Elite , it was necessary to leave at least 5 minutes between them for reasons of safety . The river is closed for the Race , and we are carefully monitored to check that we do not take too long to get all the crews away . A reduction of 5 minutes or more is very helpful and might even enable us to obtain permission for more crews to race in the future .

The HORR Committee has also borne in mind that a place from last year is likely to have been earned by a substantially different crew to that which is racing this year , and feels that a crew will always wish to finish as high as it can rather than start as high as possible . It is stressed that there are no plans at all to change any other arrangements . As you probably know , other major races are taking similar steps to reduce congestion . The Committee would welcome any thoughts before or at its review meeting on 24 April ; details will appear at the end of the full printed Results listing .

Note - the exact numbering depends on entries received , and could only be determined after this note went to press

The above text represents the position in 2002. Since then practice has involved some fairly small changes. Operational considerations, mainly involving safety, have meant that there have been small changes to the precise position of the New Starter blocks e.g. this year the elite block is starting after 57 in the 2006 order. It has also proved necessary to recognise certain elite crews of international standard, and provision has been made for them at about 11

In keeping with the principles laid out above, crews with inherited places who are outside the normal range for their status have been Relocated. S.3, S.4 and Novice crews, found near the beginning of the order, have been moved to blocks similar to the New Starter blocks, positioned at approximately the top of the band of places in which crews of their status normally finish. Elite, S.1 and S.2 crews, found towards the end of the order have been moved to the New Starter block for their status.Additionally there have been minor changes in the position of certain New Starter blocks.

Andrew Ruddle Hon. Secretary	Michael Baldwin Chairman and Chief Umpire
THE HEAD OF THE RIVER RACE established 1926