By a majority vote of the of the Head Of The Charles Board of Directors, the Regatta introduced in 2005 a “special” quadruple scull event to benefit the Endowment of the Head Of The Charles Regatta. We thank you for your participation in the Directors' Challenge Quad event, and for your continued support of the Regatta.

DEADLINE: TBD, OCTOBER 2012
DIRECTORS' CHALLENGE QUADS: REGISTRATION CLOSED

Entry Fee & Donation: $1000 ($760 tax-deductible donation, $240 entry fee)

SPECIFICATIONS OF QUADRUPLE SCULLING EVENTS
Men's divisions: Male scullers only.
Women's divisions: Female scullers only.
Mixed divisions: 2 male scullers and 2 female scullers only (Note: other combinations will be accepted, but are not eligible for medals)

ENTRY RULES
The limitation that no one, including coxswains, may compete more than once in the Regatta will NOT apply to the Directors Challenge for Quadruple Sculls.

The event is open to all experienced scullers and will have three divisions for male, female and mixed crews.. Applicants must detail steers-person's relevant steering experience. The Head Of The Charles Regatta will review all entries and reserves the right to exclude any entry deemed to have insufficient experience to safely navigate a course as difficult as the Head Of The Charles Regatta course in a quadruple sculling boat. The races will be held on the last day of the Regatta. There is no longer an age minimum for the Directors' Challenge Quad Race.

Competitors must race in traditional (sliding seat, fixed rigger) racing shells equipped with a steering mechanism. Crews may race in shells with coxswain (coxswain may be of either sex in any event-division). There will be no weight-limit set for coxswains in this event, with no separate category for quadruple sculls with coxswain, and those without coxswain. Crews will not be allowed to start the race in a boat lacking an adequate steering mechanism operated by a sculler, or a coxswain.

There are no guaranteed entries and no guaranteed entry privileges at any future Head Of The Charles Regatta. Winning an event-division in this event, or coming within 5% of the winning time, will not earn the institution or the individual competitors a guaranteed entry into any event at the succeeding year’s Head Of The Charles regatta, nor will it have any bearing on the Club specification at any future Regatta.

Each entry must comply with all the general rules governing all other events of the Regatta, except where otherwise stated herein. Entry applications will be accepted only from crews comprising U.S.A. residents who are members of a USRowing-member institution and/or an organization having “institutional membership” in the Regatta, or, if competing “unaffiliated”, are individual members of USRowing, and from foreign nationals who are in good standing with their nation’s FISA-recognized national governing body. The names of the individual scullers, and their affiliation, must be stated on the application form. In this event only, entries will be accepted from composite crews. No one may represent an institution of which he or she is not a bone fide member. If there is more than one entry from a single institution into an event-division, they should be identified by sequential letters of the alphabet or by an entry name.

Competitors may solicit corporate sponsorship for their boats (display of sponsor’s name on the boat and/or name the crew for the sponsor in the Regatta program provided all individuals are individual members of USRowing or, if a foreign national, their equivalent FISA-recognized national governing body) only with prior approval from the Head Of The Charles Regatta.

OTHER RULES AND RECOMMENDATIONS:
The person responsible for operating the steering mechanism of the boat is strongly recommended to attend coxswain’s training and/or take the coxswain’s tour. The starting gap between crews, normally 8 to 10 seconds, will be increased to about 15 seconds (subject to the Starters’ instruction) in this event. Regatta officials (river control) may actively warn crews to correct their course around hazards (for example, bridge arches at Weeks footbridge, at Anderson bridge and at Eliot bridge).

CLOSING DATE: TBD OCTOBER 2012.
Entries will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis (receipt of completed application form and full payment of entry fees by the Regatta office) at any time prior to 11:59PM on the day of the deadline, subject to a maximum number of 100 accepted entries. However, the deadline for being listed in the Regatta program is October 1st, 2012. Substitution of any member except the steers-person prior to registration is permitted, provided all other entry rules and specifications are met. Substitution of the steers-person requires prior approval. No substitutions are permitted once a crew’s boating form has been submitted at registration.

STARTING ORDER:
Returning entries will be seeded according to finish time in the preceding year's Regatta. All new entries will be seeded based upon experience listed on the application form (prior results) and bow numbers will be posted online.

AWARDS:
Awards (winners only) will be presented at the last awards ceremony after racing on Sunday. Awards will be given to both the overall winner (w/ handicap) and the boat recording the fastest time in each event-division

First place medals: 2 ½-inch individually struck bronze medallions will be awarded to the members of the winning crew in each of the men’s, women’s and mixed divisions of the event.

Subsidiary medals: 1 ¾-inch individually struck bronze medallions will be awarded to the members of the runner-ups in each of the men’s, women’s and mixed divisions of the event. A subsidiary medal is awarded per every 10 entrants per event-division (up to a maximum of 5th place for at least 40 entrants), as for other events in the Regatta.

ROWING ATTIRE:
There will be fun prizes awarded for the most creative rowing attire in each division of the Directors' Challenge Quad. The judges for this awards category will review passing crews from the Reunion Village. Attire should not in any way prohibit a steer-person's ability to navigate the course.

This event does not contribute points towards the Paul Revere Points trophy.

AGE HANDICAPS:
The Directors' Quadruple Sculling events will be age-handicapped. Average age of crew (whole years rounded down, individual ages rounded down, as of race-day) will be used to calculate handicap. Crews whose average age is 30 years or less will have no time adjustment. Crews whose average age is 31 or higher will have their time adjusted according to a smooth curve of time-adjustment based on the age-handicaps for Long Distance races developed by the ARA as published in the British Rowing Almanac (2009). Standard times for the races will be as follows: the Men's, Mixed, and Women's quadruple scull standard times will be taken as 16 min, 17 min, and 18 min, respectively. There will be an adjustment made to the handicap calculation if racing conditions are deemed to significantly change the standard times.