The Boat Race course – known as The Championship Course – betwen Putney and Mortlake has been home to the Men’s Boat Race since 1845 and the Women’s Boat Race since 2015.
The timing for the races is dictated by the tides, which explains why there are such precise start times for each race. The crews race against the stream but with the flow of the incoming tide known as the ‘flood tide’. The Women’s Boat Race starts two and a half hours before the ‘flood tide’ and the Men’s Boat Race one and a half hours before.