This famous race is in fact two races, featuring the men’s and women’s Blue Boats of Oxford and Cambridge. The Blue Boat is the name given to the top crew from each university, whose members win the coveted Light Blue colours of Cambridge or Dark Blue of Oxford.

The openweight reserve crews are raced between the Boat Races (after the women’s race and before the men’s). The men’s reserve crews are Isis, for Oxford, and Goldie, for Cambridge. The women’s reserve crews are Osiris, for Oxford, and Blondie, for Cambridge.

The 2024 Gemini Boat Race was held on Saturday 30th March, 2024.

Cambridge was victorious in both races, its women’s crew winning by 7 lengths in 21 mins 1 second, with its men’s crew winning by 3 1/2 lengths in 18 mins 56 seconds.

To watch the winning CUBC Men’s race, click HERE.

To watch the winning CUBC Women’s race, click HERE

In the reserve races, held on Saturday 30th March, 2024, Cambridge was victorious in the men’s reserve race by 4 lengths, and in the women’s reserve race was defeated by Oxford by 5 lengths.

To watch the Blondie Race, click HERE

To watch the winning Goldie Race click HERE

The 2024 Lightweight Boat Races were held on Friday 29th March, 2024

Cambridge’s women’s crew won by 5 lengths in a time of 23 minutes 4 secoonds. To watch their race, click HERE.

Cambridge’s Men’s Lightweight crew won by 5 1/2 lengths in a time of 20 minutes 15 secoonds. To watch their race, click HERE

The Championship Course

Putney to Mortlake

The Boat Race course, known as The Championship Course is 4 miles, 374 yards or 6.8 km long.

It stretches between Putney and Mortlake on the River Thames in south west London. This course was first used for The Boat Race in 1845 and has been used for every Race since; apart from 1846, 1856 and 1863 when the race was held in the opposite direction between Mortlake and Putney. Between 1915 and 1919 there were no races due to the Great War and similarly between 1940 and 1945 due the Second World War. Due to the pandemic the Race was also cancelled in 2020 and in 2021 it was held on the river Ouse in Ely before returning to the Tideway in 2022.

The Fulham/Chiswick side of the course is known as the Middlesex side. The Putney/Barnes side of the course is known as the Surrey side.

The Boat Race is rowed upstream, but is timed to start on the incoming “flood” tide.

The Men’s Boat Race is an hour and a half before high tide, with The Women’s Boat Race a further hour before so that the crews are rowing with the fastest possible current.