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Registration for the Paris 2018 regatta continues to swell, and the number has just hit the current 250 registrant ceiling. In the past couple of days, some rowers have been unable to register. The regatta organizers will be conferring with the Paris Gay Games organizing staff, referred to by GLRF as the "Central Committee," to again amend the registration cap upwards.

It continues to be a 'not know rowing' situation with the Central Committee. They don't understand that 250 participants is really just a starting point for a rowing regatta. In the United States, a small regatta is considered anything less than 500 participants, a medium regatta is anything less than 1000 participants, and a large regatta is anything over 1000 participants.

The lack of knowledge of rowing is probably affecting their judgement by thinking that the regatta will be too difficult to host or run with more participants. They don't understand that it is actually easier if there are enough competitors to fill the race entries for each category.

We hope to post some good news in the following week. Meanwhile, rowers should not be concerned. The Paris Gay Games registration system has now entered the 'Late Fee' phase for registrations, that runs from 01 March 2018 to 30 April 2018. To date, the Paris Gay Games has indicated they have 6900 registrations, out of the hoped for 15,000 so you would think they would be eager to welcome more rowers but who knows how the Central Committee minds think.

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The Euros 70 discounted sports fee for the Paris 2018 rowing regatta has been extended to Sunday evening, 24 September 2017 Paris local time (when it is midnight or minuit there...)

So for rowers who have not registered, this means you get another week to decide and to get in on the discounted rate. Starting on Monday, 25 September 2017, the rowing sports fee will jump to Euros 90.

We want to emphasize our choice of words here: discount and NOT early bird fees. The reason we call this out is that the Paris 2018 website uses the "early bird fees" to describe a lower participant fee, and if you're at all like this rower, you would naturally assume that if Paris labels the lower rowing sports fee as an "early bird" rate, it would mean we get the lower participant fee as well. Nope.

For those unfortunate rowers who ended up paying the Euros 90 rate either late Sunday or on Monday, you can apply for a refund of Euros 20 by contacting support.registration@paris2018.com but hurry, you have to do that by Friday, 22 September 2017.

One final note: the wonderfully expensive participant fee, the one that currently is listed at Euros 160 jumps to Euros 175 on 01 October 2017 so it is worth your while to register soon!

Registration for the Paris 2018 rowing regatta opened as planned on 04 September but the rowing sports page continued to decree a maximum participant level of 100. For rowers, that is unheard of. It is a disgrace and a bewilderment to the rowing community and to those who observe from afar (read straight supporters and rowing officials).

Actually, there was and is no participant cap. If you read the descriptive text on the rowing sports page, it says:

There is no restriction in the number of participants.

Yet the graphic in the right column said 100 maximum, at least until Sunday late afternoon. That graphic was backed up by a hard coded script that froze registrations at 100 participants late Sunday afternoon. After the Regatta Organizing Committee interceded, a new graphic appeared, indicating a maximum of 250 participants, and rowing registrations reopened, or for a more accurate descriptive, unfroze.

Rowers can continue to register, and we hope that those who were frozen out on Sunday will be allowed to pay the lower rowing sports fee of Euros 70 instead of Euros 90, and for those who were overcharged, they will be credited Euros 20.

The best news for rowers is that the Paris 2018 regatta is being organized by a group of experienced rowers and the regatta should be very well run.

Registration is scheduled to open in September!

Here is the latest:

Registration for rowing at the Paris 2018 Gay Games will open from Monday 4 September 2017 at the Early Bird rate of 70 € until Sunday 17 September 2017. From Monday 18 September 2017, the normal rate of 90 € will be applied.