Five nights in Cambridge, rowed from the Goldie Boathouse on the Cam and the Great Ouse at Ely, with a coaching staff on the water for every session, a private room at The Fellows House, and dinner with the coaches every evening.
Five nights in Cambridge, rowed from the Goldie Boathouse on the Cam and the Great Ouse at Ely, with a coaching staff on the water for every session, a private room at The Fellows House, and dinner with the coaches every evening.
Who this is for
This week is built for crews and scullers entered at Henley Masters. You train from Cambridge University Boat Club's two boathouses: the Goldie Boathouse on the Cam and the club's boathouse at Ely. CUBC coaches coach you on their own water.
The rowing and swimming standard is in the booking terms.
The week
You arrive and we meet the train at Cambridge station. Most sessions are at Ely on the Great Ouse, where the university does its long work, and some go out from Goldie on the Cam. Each day has a full morning session, the work talked through over lunch and a lighter afternoon. Dinner is together each evening, the group at one table in the hotel's private room. The last two mornings turn to starts, pacing and rating, and the final morning is a race simulation.
The week is planned around the water. Sessions and outings can move with weather and conditions.
The coaching
The coaching is the work Sparks has done since 2010: learning when to stay with discomfort, when to attend to effort and how to balance the two. One head coach sets the approach and every coach on the water teaches to it. The aim is that you leave able to read your own rowing and take a sharper approach into your own training.
In a race week the question becomes a practical one about how you mean to row at Henley.
The hotel and the table
The Fellows House is a Curio Collection hotel on Milton Road. Each guest has a room of their own with no single supplement. Dinner is in the hotel's private room, the whole group at one table. The coaches eat with you each evening, and breakfast is early on training days.
What is included
- 5 nights in a room of your own at The Fellows House
- 5 breakfasts
- 4 dinners together, with wine
- 4 lunches on training days
- 4 coached days on the water
- Video of each full session, reviewed with you
- The evening talk
- Transfers between hotel and water
- Boats provided and rigged for you
- The race plan you and your coach set down
- A 30-day drill plan built from the week
Not included
- Airfare. Airport transfers. Travel insurance. Personal gear. Dinners on free evenings.
Good to know
- Ely is sheltered and rarely unrowable. If a session cannot go out it moves to the next window or onto the Cam. Sessions move, they do not disappear.
- The week ends before racing. Henley Masters entries, accommodation at Henley and travel there are your own.
- Rowing standard: as in the booking terms.
- Solo guests always have their own room and are never paired.
- 105-day confirmation: No later than 105 days before departure, Sparks confirms by email whether the week will run. If it will not, you choose a full refund or a transfer to another 2027 departure. Please wait for this email before booking flights.
- $1,000 deposit to reserve. Balance due 90 days before departure.
- Travel insurance covering medical and evacuation is required. Cancel-for-any-reason cover is recommended and offered at checkout. Every guest signs a participation waiver. Gratuities are not expected.
Questions
Reserve a seat
Early Access
Seats are sold in tiers with the lowest price first. Prices are all-in per person, excluding airfare. Tiered pricing rewards early commitment. The current price and the seats remaining at that price are shown above. A $1,000 deposit holds your seat, and the balance is due 90 days before departure.
Before you arrive
Thirty days before departure you receive the welcome packet: the gear list, training suggestions from the coaching staff, the arrival plan and local contacts. Final logistics follow a week before you travel. If you would like to talk the week over first, chat with us in the lower right corner or click here to set up a call.