Head of the Hooch

Head of the Hooch
The Head of the Hooch Regatta logo
Date	First Weekend of November
Location	Chattanooga
Event type	Head
Distance	3.1 miles (5.0 km)
Primary sponsor	Outdoor Chattanooga
Established	1981
Official site	www.headofthehooch.org
Participants	2,100 entries; ~200 clubs

The Head of the Hooch Regatta, previously known as the Head of the Chattahoochee Regatta, is a 2-day rowing regatta held annually on the first full (Saturday and Sunday in the same month) weekend in November in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The head race is currently run downstream on a 3.1 miles (5.0 km) course on the Tennessee River. It presently ranks as one of the largest rowing regattas in the United States with over 10,000 rowers and over 2,100 boats entered for the 2014 event. 1,245 boats raced on one day in the 2012 competition, more than any other US regatta on a single day.

The event is currently co-hosted by the Atlanta Rowing Club and the Lookout Rowing Club. The St. Andrews Rowing Club is also a major partner providing assistance with the set up and operation of the regatta. The Hooch organization is 100% volunteers, with no paid staff.

The Hooch has been recognized as one of the most laid back and hospitable regattas in the country by Rowing News Magazine.

Competitors each year come from over 30 states and several foreign countries. The athletes’ ages span from high school crews to adult masters rowers aged 80 and above. The regatta runs a comprehensive list of events with men's, women's, and mixed boats in youth (high school), novice, college and club, varsity collegiate, championship, and masters categories.

In 1981, the Atlanta Rowing Club organized a head race on the Chattahoochee River, in front of their boathouse in Roswell, Georgia. The first race hosted only 105 boats. As word spread the regatta drew increasing numbers of rowers each year to the beautiful Roswell, GA venue on the Chattahoochee River. By 1998 almost 500 boats raced in one day. The wait at the docks to launch and recover was becoming too long and trailers were stacked up in the park and on both sides of the adjacent Azalea Drive for more than a half-mile. Clearly the regatta had outgrown the site.

In November 1997, the regatta moved from Roswell to the 1996 Olympic rowing venue in Gainesville, Georgia. Following the move, the number of boats raced at the Hooch grew annually by 15-20%. While the Olympic Venue was and is an exceptional racecourse, by 2004 Hooch regatta attendance was overwhelming available hotel and restaurant facilities in the nearby town of Gainesville, GA. In 2004, over 1000 boats raced and the regatta began looking for alternate venues to accommodate further growth.