Shiplake College Boat Club - Henley-on-Thames | UK Rowing Clubs | Row HQ

Shiplake College Boat Club rows from the college's grounds on the River Thames near Henley-on-Thames. The college says the club has about 140 members and races at heads and regattas throughout the season.

The boat club was established in 1962, three years after the college opened. Its first eight entered the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta for the first time in 1971, when contemporary reports described Shiplake as an emerging leading rowing school.

Year 9 boys begin by sculling before moving into sweep rowing, mainly in eights, while girls predominantly race quads. The Davies Centre holds the boat fleet, rowing machines and a weights room; crews also train at Henley, the Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Lake and Dorney Lake.

National Schools' Regatta and Henley Royal Regatta are central fixtures, and at least one senior boys' eight competes at Henley each year. Current and former pupils have represented Great Britain, including Olympic champions Will Satch and Ben Hunt-Davis.

In 2021 two girls' quads qualified for Henley Royal Regatta and the A crew won the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup. The club's 60th-anniversary account also records boys' Championship Eight wins at the National Schools' Regatta in 2017, 2019 and 2022, alongside two Henley Women's Regatta victories.

Shiplake became the first school to win both Championship Eight events at the 2025 National Schools' Regatta. That summer the boys' first eight won the club's first Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup, beating Radley in the final, while the girls' eight reached the Prince Philip Challenge Trophy final. The girls returned to that final in 2026.