REGATTA RISK AND WEATHER MANAGEMENT

Rowing WA takes safety of all rowers, coaches, officials and volunteers extremely seriously and as such has developed a suite of resources to provide clarity on the processes, procedures and considerations when assessing weather and other risks related to the conduct of rowing regattas, prior to and on the day of regattas.

These resources have been developed from years of experience of assessing weather and other risks related to regattas, as well as feedback taken from the broader rowing community following lived examples. These documents are intended to be live documents and will be reviewed at least annually by the Competitions Committee and Safe Clubs Working Group. Rowing WA are happy to take feedback from member clubs on these documents at any time to improve the safety management of regatta operations. Please send any feedback to events@rowingwa.asn.au.

ADVERSE WEATHER MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES

Last Updated: 28 July 2026

The assessment of the impact of the weather will vary form regatta to regatta due to many factors including: rower ability, rower age, race length, regatta length, direction of weather, gusts vs average wind strength, etc. As such, this document provides a guideline for the assessment of weather, and not definitive rules and regulations. It is also worth noting that the tolerance for weather is greater, further out from the regatta date. That is, due to the unpredictability of weather, weather assessments will be more forgiving when reviewed 5 days out, as compared to 3 days out or 1 day out (as the forecast becomes more accurate). 

The Weather Management Guideline has also been expanded to incorporate guidance for clubs when assessing weather in a club training environment. This should be considered in alignment with existing club safety procedures.

ADVERSE WEATHER MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES

REGATTA RISK REGISTER

Last Updated: 28 July 2026

Regatta risk management is not the responsibility of any one person or entity. Everyone plays a role in regatta safety, including individual rowers. 

Risk appetite will vary between Rowing WA, each club and potentially individual rowers due to a wide variety of reasons. As such, all parties have a role to play when assessing and mitigating risk, and ultimately each competing club/school and each individual rower can always make their own assessment as to whether they compete in any given regatta or not or the safety measures taken. 

This risk register includes risk related to:

• On Water - All regattas
• On Water - River / Ocean based regattas (additional risks)
• On Land - All regattas

The risk register includes risk controls that include responsibilities for key RWA/regatta personnel, venue managers, club presidents and captains and individual rowers. As such it is imperative that all parties review this document and are aware of the controls that they are responsible for. 

REGATTA RISK REGISTER (pdf)

REGATTA RISK REGISTER (excel download)

NOTE: If you download the excel version, you can filter Column L to view 'Risk Control' responsibilities for a particular entity or individual.