Beach Sprint course maps, DRAFT v0.6, RowOn Beach Sprint Cup Series

Practice

Friday evening and Saturday morning sessions. The whole session flows one way: everything enters on the Lane 2 side and comes home through Lane 1.

No launch before your online check-in is done and before the safety boat is on the water. Both are hard preconditions. The check-in reviews this course pattern and asks four questions; a short in-person briefing on the beach covers the day's conditions.
Boats run off the beach all session. Collect yours from the numbered boat preparation stations on the Lane 2 side of the beach. Boats sit on stretchers.
Isolated race entries happen in the shore strip on the far side of Lane 2: run in, board and sit ready, nothing more. No strokes; strokes away from the shore commit you to a full loop.
Row the loop. Out through Lane 2's slalom, around the turn buoys, home down Lane 1. Turn at the turn buoys only, not at the slalom buoys. To keep rowing, swing back into Lane 2's outbound line near the shore and loop again.
Exits and landings come through Lane 1 only. Never row against the loop.
Clear the beach immediately when you land. Boats go straight back to their stations so the next crew has a clean entry.

Safety. No crew launches until a safety boat is on the water, and it stays out until the last crew lands. Its position is set per venue by the Technical Delegate. DRAFT, not confirmed: practice window cover is rostered per event, and the roster does not yet cover every practice hour at every Cup. Do not read this page as evidence that cover is already out. Wait to be told the safety boat is on the water, and ask the Technical Delegate or the Chief Umpire if you are not sure. Boat order, allocation, rotation, repairs or equipment: ask the Boat Pool Manager or a Lane Delegate.

Practice pattern, isolated race entries and loop-turn rule: Technical Delegate direction, 7 Aug 2026. Beach orientation as an online check-in plus a short in-person briefing: Technical Delegate direction, 10 Aug 2026 (supersedes the 30-minute group orientation in the operations doctrine). Safety boat launch precondition: RowOn operations doctrine. Competitors meeting location: RowOn Regatta Bulletin. Course geometry: RCA Rules of Racing, Jan 2026, 13.3.6.2 and 13.3.6.3.

Time trial (processional)

Everyone races the same loop, starting one after another. Your time decides your seed. Boats are shared, so the rotation below is the whole game: know your boat, your station, and your window.

Report to the athlete pen, behind the start/finish line, with your oars and boat handlers. Runners line up there in order before their time to race. With 6 boats, crew 7 takes boat 1, crew 8 takes boat 2, and so on, all day.
Prepare your boat on its numbered station in the field of play, between the run flags. Every boat returns to its own numbered station. Boat handlers enter from the Lane 1 side of the beach and set the boat up, 3 to 5 minutes, while the runner waits in the athlete pen.
Move to the READY station when set, in the infield in front of the last station. From here you are under the Starter. One minute out: "take your boat to the water." Runner stays behind the line.
GO: the runner rounds the run flag on the outside, then boards. Time trial runners round the flag at both ends, because boats occupy the middle of the beach.
Out through Lane 2. Outside Slalom 1, inside Slalom 2, outside the Turn buoy, then a 90 degree turn at Lane 2's turn buoy and row across.
A second 90 degree turn at Lane 1's turn buoy starts you back to the beach: drive straight home, keeping outside all of Lane 1's buoys.
Land in Lane 1, round its run flag on the outside, run and hit your button. The button stops the clock.

Time trial rules

1Time trial starts are scheduled on the interval published for your event, but pace of play governs: be ready early, the next start goes as soon as boats are ready.
2Caught by a faster crew? You must move aside and let them through without interference (13.3.7.2).
3The inner zone is refuge only: being overtaken, breakage, or retiring. A racing hull inside it risks a penalty.
4A time trial false start does not stop the race: the Judge at the Start may let it run and add 10 seconds.
5The Starter may hold a start while a finishing runner is near the line. Expect small pauses.

Your last three minutes

3 minat your station readymove to READY 1 minboat to the water GOnext crew on the published interval

Boat order, allocation, rotation, repairs or equipment: ask the Boat Pool Manager or a Lane Delegate.

Pace of play

Pace of play is part of the beach sprint experience. As boats are ready, the next start goes almost immediately: think ready play. The spacing between boats may stretch or shrink based on readiness. Race times are scheduled and communicated, but pace of play is maintained throughout racing.

RCA Rules of Racing, Jan 2026: 13.3.7.2 (format and yield), 13.3.6.2 to 13.3.6.5 (course), 13.3.16.9 to 13.3.16.10 (run flags), 13.3.17.5 to 13.3.17.6 (false starts), 13.3.18 (buoy penalties); diagram p. 88. Weave pattern verified against the RCA diagram on p. 86: both lanes identical, not mirrored. Inner zone, rotation and start pacing: WR and RowOn processional practice (Antalya 2025 team managers deck; Saundersfoot 2022 examples; Cup 1 briefing). Station and pen layout, pace of play, lane width range and support roles (Boat Pool Manager, Lane Delegates): Technical Delegate direction, 7 Aug 2026. Boat count and interval are event parameters. The time trial interval is measured off each Cup's own published draw and is not a series-wide constant: no figure is shown above, because this Cup's draw has not been measured here. Measured so far: Cup #3 Ottawa, about 90-second centres (CrewTimer regatta r16186, read 24 Aug 2026), and Cup #4, two-minute centres (CrewTimer regatta r16236, re-read 15 Sep 2026). Side by side racing runs on a different and longer cadence, given in the side by side sources.

Side by side racing

Two crews, two lanes, first runner to the button wins. The course is identical in both lanes: slalom out, turn, straight back.

Stage behind the line. The runner must be in position, both feet behind the start line, before the start sequence. The rest of the crew stands in the water holding the boat in its start position; nobody boards until GO.
GO: run straight to your boat. No flag rounding at the start in side by side. Board and go.
Slalom out in your lane, exactly as drawn. Outside Slalom 1, inside Slalom 2, outside the Turn buoy, and round it. The pattern is identical in both lanes: Lane 1 does not mirror Lane 2. Your boat decides the rounding: touching a buoy is fine, the wrong side is not.
Straight back to your run flag. A bent line home is legal as long as you do not interfere with the other crew.
Land, then round your run flag on the outside. Boat handlers catch the boat; they cannot help the runner.
Hit your button. The button stops the clock, not the line.

Penalties and calls

1Slalom buoy rounded wrong: 30 seconds each. Turn buoy: 60 seconds. Run flag: 10 seconds. Landing outside the field of play: 60 seconds.
2False start: the race is stopped and restarted, and the crew is shown a yellow card. Two yellow cards in the same race is a red card and exclusion.
3Interference is decided by the Race Umpire alone: exclusion, a time penalty of up to 60 seconds, or other measures.
4Lane choice: all crews tell Control Commission their preferred lane at least 10 minutes before the round; the faster crew from the previous round has priority. The quarter-final choice holds through the final.
5Boat handlers wear racing pinnies so they stand out from the runners: red in Lane 1, yellow in Lane 2.

Start sequence

3 mincrews staged 1 minboats on the water get ready20 to 30 s out Attention GO

Boat rotation, three-race cycle

Six boats in two pools of three, on stretchers on the far side of each lane. L1 and L2 name the lane; A, B and C name the boat.

Race 1boats A Race 2boats B Race 3boats C Race 4boats A again

After a race the handlers return the boat to its lane's pool. The crew racing three races later prepares it, and carries it to their lane's water entry at the one-minute call.

Boat order, allocation, rotation, repairs or equipment: ask the Boat Pool Manager or a Lane Delegate.

Pace of play

As one race finishes, the next should be ready to go as the boat ahead crosses the line. While a race runs, the next boats are prepared in the pools, ready for the water as the race before them finishes. Race times are scheduled and communicated, but pace of play is maintained throughout racing.

RCA Rules of Racing, Jan 2026: 13.3.7.1 (format), 13.3.11.1 (lane choice), 13.3.16 (runner), 13.3.17.3 to 13.3.17.6 (start and false starts), 13.3.18 (buoy penalties), 13.3.19 (interference), 13.3.6.5 (finish); diagram p. 86. Penalty values: RowOn Regatta Bulletin (per 13.3.16.10 and 13.3.18). Boat pool layout and order, cycle, pinnie colours, pace of play, lane width range and support roles: Technical Delegate direction, 7 Aug 2026. Start cadence is an event parameter, measured off each Cup's own published draw: at Cup #3 Ottawa the side by side races run on exact five-minute centres, all 79 consecutive gaps (CrewTimer regatta r16186, read 24 Aug 2026). That is a different figure from the time trial interval on this page, which at Ottawa is about 90 seconds. Do not read the two cadences as one number.