The 60th annual Head of the Harbour Otago secondary schools regatta brought back memories to race official Ian Dick.
Dick stroked the Dunedin Technical College four that won the Phillip Ham Trophy in the first big trophy race in 1953.
The trophy is now contested in the men's open eight, won on Saturday by the Otago Boys' High School crew, stroked by Matthew McNamara.
Otago Boys' maintained its dominance at the annual regatta and convincingly won the boys aggregate trophy with 55 points, ahead of John McGlashan College (9) and King's High School (6).
Two of the most dominant rowers in the Otago Boys' crews were Jack Waddell and Jack Boyd, who won the senior boys' double sculls and shared the glory in the singles sculls, with Waddell pipping Boyd.
Tim Hogan and Aaron Roydhouse took control in the last 500m of the 1000m course to the North End clubhouse on the Otago Harbour and comfortably won the junior boys' double sculls from Mitchell Booth and Sam van der Weerden (King's).
Ben Cotter (Otago Boys') won the novice single sculls from Jack Gibbons (John McGlashan).
But not everything went Otago Boys' way. Tom Grave (John McGlashan) applied pressure in the last 300m to win the intermediate boys single sculls by two lengths from Otago Boys' scullers Corey Lewis and Calum Gordon.
The John McGlashan junior boys four of Jack Gibbons, Ollie Sidney-Moore, Daniel Neil, Tom Conway and cox James Preston pushed Otago Boys' back into second place.
The John McGlashan rowers are coached by Rob Coslett, who leaves after the Maadi Cup for a coaching appointment in Florida.
St Hilda's Collegiate won the girls aggregate trophy with 33 points and was followed by Otago Girls' High School (23) and Queen's High School (7).
St Hilda's dominated the senior girl's events, with the most impressive win coming in the quadruple sculls when the crew of Maggie Burns, Eliza Adams, Tessa Read, Zoe Sabonadiere and cox Mia Knott applied pressure in the last 300m to beat Otago Girls'. A feature of that crew was its smooth and effortless rhythm in the water.
Courtney Shea kept St Hilda's on top when she won the senior single sculls from Laura Anderson (Otago Girls').
The St Hilda's senior double sculls of Claudia Dyet and Jess Taylor held on to beat Anderson and Michaela King (Otago Girls') in a close race.
The best race of the day was in the junior girls four, when the St Hilda's crew of Georgia Clarke, Briana Shea, Claudia Maker, Ali Higham and cox Mia Knott had a neck-and-neck battle with Queen's before winning by centimetres.
Riley Homan (Queens) won the novice single sculls from Amy Densem (Otago Girls') and Claudia Maker (St Hilda's).
Karley Wilden-Palms (Otago Girls') won the intermediate girls single sculls from Adams (St Hilda's) and Tabitha Seaton (Otago Girls').
