PHOTOGRAPHY BENEDICT TUFNELL
Other than 1996, when the “100-year storm” wiped out the whole race, the Head Of The Charles Regatta (HOCR) - the world’s largest two-day rowing event - has taken place on the shores of the Charles River in Cambridge Massachusetts every fall since 1965.
But with the global pandemic in full swing by May this year, HOCR race organisers gave themselves until the end of July to make a “go or no-go decision” on what would be the 56th regatta. On July 15th, two weeks before their self-imposed deadline, it was announced with regret that the race could not safely go ahead in its usual format and would instead run as a global, virtual event.