We're Live!
A year of development and real-world testing with Oundle Town Rowing Club in the UK is behind us. Row HQ is now open for New Zealand rowing clubs, university boat clubs, and school programmes preparing for Maadi Cup and the national championships.
Row HQ is now accepting New Zealand rowing clubs, university boat clubs, and school programmes. Here is what it does and how we arrived here. The past year was spent building the platform alongside our pilot club, Oundle Town Rowing Club (OTRC) in the UK, pressure-testing every feature against actual club workflows. The result is a platform ready for NZ clubs managing Maadi Cup prep, school first VIII selection, Lake Karapiro regatta entries through RowIT, and the national club season at Lake Ruataniwha.
What is Row HQ?
Row HQ is a web-based rowing club management platform that brings training sessions, boat booking, crew lineups, member communication, events, and admin reporting under one login. It was built with a UK launch club and has local versions for New Zealand, the UK, US, Australia, Canada, and Ireland. It runs on phones, tablets, and desktops - members use whatever they already have in their pocket.
The Journey to Launch
Row HQ came out of a simple observation: most rowing clubs still run on spreadsheets, paper sign-up sheets, and WhatsApp groups. That works up to a point. After that point things fall through the gaps - particularly when a crew needs to be assembled for a RowIT regatta entry inside a two-week window.
Over the past year we worked closely with OTRC to map the specific friction points rowing clubs deal with. Coordinating training sessions across multiple squads, managing boat bookings without double-conflicts, tracking who actually showed up. The outcome is features built around how clubs actually operate - not around what looks impressive on a product page.
What features does Row HQ offer?
Row HQ addresses the workflows that eat a club committee's time. Session scheduling, boat booking with conflict prevention, drag-and-drop crew lineup builder, a self-service member portal, regatta and event management, NZD payment collection via Stripe, and an admin dashboard with attendance and financial reporting. Everything runs in a browser across phones, tablets, and desktops.
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Session management: Create, schedule, and run training sessions with crew suggestions generated from availability and skill data.
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Boat booking: Real-time equipment availability, conflict prevention, and usage tracking for every shell in the boatshed.
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Member portal: Self-service access so members book sessions, check schedules, and update their own availability without contacting the committee.
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Event management: Regatta entries through RowIT, crew assignments, and event communication pulled into one place rather than spread across email threads.
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Analytics: Attendance tracking, boat utilisation reporting, and a real-time view of what is happening across the club - relevant for ISA 2022 record-keeping and Rowing NZ affiliation.
Success with OTRC
OTRC by the Numbers
Active members managed
Significantly less time spent on coordination
Working alongside OTRC shaped the direction of Row HQ at every stage. Their feedback on what genuinely matters in day-to-day club operations kept development focused on practical problems rather than features that read well in a product brief. The full account is in our Oundle Town Rowing Club case study.
"What used to take hours of coordination just happens now. Coaches spend their time coaching instead of chasing availability, and members actually use the self-service features."
Our Commitment to Rowing Clubs
As we open to New Zealand clubs, here is what we are committed to:
- Fair, transparent NZD pricing that scales with club size rather than punishing growth
- Personalised onboarding and training for your committee, coaches, and club captain
- Ongoing development driven by what NZ clubs tell us they actually need
- Support from people who understand how rowing clubs work
What's Next?
This is the beginning. The roadmap includes:
- The Row HQ web app installs to the home screen from any phone browser and behaves like a native app on iOS, Android, and desktop
- Deeper performance tracking and ergo analytics tied to crew selection - relevant for Maadi Cup erg trials
- Tighter integration with RowIT for regatta entry workflows and Rowing Connect for member registration
- More coach tools for periodised training plan management across the NZ rowing season
- Multi-club support for regional associations and large school programmes
Every feature on the roadmap came from a club telling us what was missing. If something is not there for your Rowing NZ club, your school Maadi Cup programme, or your masters club at Lake Ruataniwha, we want to hear about it.
Try Row HQ
If your club is still coordinating on spreadsheets and WhatsApp, take a look at what Row HQ does differently. Browse the screenshot gallery to see the platform in action, read the FAQ for common questions, or get started directly. Enquiries are open to clubs of any size across New Zealand.
Thank You
Thank you to everyone at OTRC who served as our pilot club and gave honest feedback through the early builds. Their input is what Row HQ is built from. Read what other clubs have to say on our testimonials page.
Less admin, more rowing.
- The Row HQ Team