The annual two-day regatta, the first major one of the season, starts at 7.30am tomorrow with the women's coxed four, and will wrap up with the men's open coxed eight at about 2.30pm on Sunday.
Lucy Geddes and Macaela Turfus (both from Dunstan Arm Rowing Club) are two of 36 entries in the girls under-17 single sculls, the largest field of the regatta.
Geddes and Turfus are among the favourites in the 2000m race, which will have five heats.
Juliette Alm-Lequeux (North End) is also expected to push for a podium finish, but with 36 entries, a spot in the A final will be hard to come by.
Alm-Lequeux will team up with Emma Wallace, Eliza Adams and Karley Wilden-Palms for North End in the women's club coxless quadruple sculls.
Their battle with Sydney Telfer, Micaela Irvine, Julia Fauth and Maysie Scott (Oamaru) is expected to go down to the wire, but a trio of Southland crews - two from the Waihopai Rowing Club and one from the Invercargill Rowing Club - cannot be ruled out.
The Oamaru crew is also among the favourites in the women's club coxed four, when it adds cox Jessica Mulligan to the mix.
Rangi Ruru Girls' School has three strong crews entered in the race, which has 18 entries.
Tom Grave is one of eight rowers from the Otago Rowing Club set to battle it out in the boys under-17 single scull.
Grave, who finished fourth in the under-16 race at the Maadi Cup in March, goes into the race as one of the frontrunners.
Woody Kirkwood, a club mate of Grave, is another strong Otago contender.
The pair will also team up with Lochie Chittock and Harry Hasselman in the men's club coxless quadruple sculls.
Bradley Leydon and Lochie Bain will be looking for a repeat of last weekend, when the pair won the boys under-16 double sculls at the Dunstan regatta.
The pair are one of eight from the Otago Rowing Club in a field of 25, which will be split into four heats.
Six of the eight crews from the club made the A final last weekend and Ben Morris and Alexander Timmings finished third.
The 142 races scheduled tomorrow will be staged at four-minute intervals.
