Boats, boaters and blazers.
The Henley Royal Regatta is one of the most famous rowing events in the world.
For five days, thousands of spectators will come and watch crews from
all over the world battle it out on the river Thames.
The first Henley Regatta was held in 1839 and has taken place every year since,
except during the two World Wars.
It was named the Henley Royal Regatta in 1851 when Prince Albert became its patron.
Heatwave Henley and a kaleidoscope of fashions.
The social aspect of one of the most delightful sporting events on the calendar.
Since then, every reigning British monarch has accepted the role.
It’s just one of the many traditions in this event.
It’s sort of part of British eccentricity. It’s part top-class sport.
There’s a bit of festival going in there. There’s fancy dress.
It’s sort of got it all, and there’s nothing else like it.
It really is a wonderful sort of celebration of rowing.
The regatta runs several competitions for competitors with differing abilities
from school teams to Olympic champions.
We’ve got lots of tiers so you get a sort of full array.
It can be the focus of lots of people's seasons to come here and compete.
Since the very first day I started rowing you see Henley, that is the pinnacle.
That’s what you work towards, that’s what you grind towards over the winter months.
How proud are you that your son or daughter is going to be racing at Royal Henley Regatta?
Son, it’s a son.
And we are proud and pleased but every day is a knockout here, so we’re hoping for success today
but if not it’s been an honor to row here anyway.
This is inside the competitors' boat tent.
We’re going to be following a race between two English schools, Windsor Boys’ School and Westminster School.
They’re racing in the quarter final of a knockout competition called the Fawley Cup.
The two lane course they'll be rowing runs along the Henley Reach, a naturally straight
part of the River Thames and is banked by the counties of Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire
on one side and Berkshire on the other.
There are multiple timing points along the course before the boats reach the one mile mark
where they begin to pass the first grandstands in the Regatta Enclosure.
This is followed by the larger Stewards’ Enclosure, where thousands cheer the crews on
until they cross the finishing line, ending up near Henley Town.
The traditional length of the course is one mile 550 yards, about 125 yards longer than a standard course.
Each race has an Umpire, whose job is to ensure teams keep on their side of the course.
While it’s the job of each crew to direct their own boats, the umpire may shout warnings
if they believe a crew is interfering in the outcome of the race
by rowing across another boat’s line or clashing oars.
At the first Regatta 179 years ago, they actually rode on horseback along the river bank.
Today they follow the race in this powered boat called the Umpire’s Launch.
Not only does it provide one of the best views of the race, it’s also where this man’s
decisions can see a team win or lose the race.
Attention. Go!
Westminster School you can see on the Bucks station up against the Windsor Boys’ School.
Windsor Boys are the favorites for the race, but it’s Westminster that come out the gates fastest.
Westminster School have really got out well there.
Westminster School have set a pretty ferocious early pace.
By the halfway mark, however, Windsor Boys have regained the lead.
Yeah, so Windsor now just turning the screw.
It’s a lead they extend all the way to the finish line.
After going half a length down early on in the race, they kept their composure.
Windsor Boys’ School beating Westminster in the Fawley Challenge Cup.
Every race at Henley, you never know what you’re going to get,
and they gave us a very good race, the whole way really.
Yeah it was a pretty hard race.
We kind of did what we were trying to do. We executed it pretty well. We just weren’t really fast enough.
As expected, Westminster really took them on at the start line.
I mean, they really went after it, so they made our lives very difficult.
Will this be quite a tough loss for them?
For a lot of these boys, it’s the highest ever sporting achievement they’ll ever face.
I mean, grown men cry because they lose a race here.
Windsor Boys’ School would go on to the win their next two races and be crowned the Fawley Cup champions.
For the many spectators however, rowing is just one part of this regatta.
Alongside the sporting drama is a social event like no other.
Behind me is the Steward’s Enclosure.
To get in here, you have to be a member or one of their guests.
It’s also got a very strict dress code - for men, jackets and ties
and for women, dresses that come below the knee.
As important as the fashion is the food and drink.
Spectators will consume more than 1 tonne of strawberries and salmon during the week.
All washed down with 4,500 bottles of champagne and more than 20,000 pints of Pimm’s.
We start serving from about 12 o'clock today, and it’s absolutely critical that we get
the timings right just to make sure that everybody gets the best experience that they can.
Nearly 1,700 to 1,800 people in this particular marquee.
Is it quite calm in the kitchen?
I would say quite calm.
If we’re flapping and shouting, that says to me we’re in trouble.
Talk me through the food that we’ve got on the table.
So today, we’re going to be serving in the region of about 1,500 of these Orkney-caught smoked salmon.
That’s the main starter of the day.
Two cold main courses but this is one of them.
It’s a breast of chicken stuffed with a applewood cheese mousseline.
Once they’ve had that, we’ve got 15 minutes to re-do the dining room, to do afternoon teas.
We’ll be serving around about, 600, 650 afternoon teas in this one area this afternoon.
It’s got some very unique quintessentially British standards or things that we have to achieve.
This is a regatta that showcases rowing of the highest level, but for many it’s so much more.
An event that is the highlight of their summer social calendar.