After a nervous five-day wait during stage-four lockdown, regatta organisers welcomed the announcement from Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews that restrictions would be lifted and the day could proceed.

READ MORE ROWING:

The biggest day on Ballarat's rowing calendar has endured a roller-coaster week, with a host of restrictions announced last Friday, the recent lockdown casting doubt on the event and now the news that it will run as planned.

Chair of Ballarat Associated School's Rowing and Ballarat Grammar Headmaster Adam Heath said he's excited to be able to see all rowers get their chance to compete at Head of the Lake.

"We're just delighted. The rowers invest an incredible amount of time, not to mention the coordinators," he said.

"Rowing really only occurs because of a huge number of volunteer coaches who dedicate their time to nurturing these young people, so there's a lot of people who are desperate for the event to go ahead, let alone parents, supporters and other students."

Another wrinkle in the ever-evolving story of the day is the forecasted wind. The allowable limit for wind and gust at Head of the Lake in line with Rowing Victoria guidelines is 30km/h. However with the forecast predicting up to 40km/h winds, Heath said the schools may need to be ready to make some changes.

"With the current wind forecast predicted to make the event difficult to host if possible at all with gusts exceeding the allowable limit, we may need to delay the start of the event, or possibly even consider re-scheduling it if the weather prevents us from going ahead," he said.

Heath said an announcement will hopefully be made Thursday morning in regards to this, but if the wind picks up unexpectedly on the day, a change may need to be made.

Whether supporters will be allowed to attend is yet to be confirmed by the Victorian Government. Heath said they are waiting on this announcement to make further decisions around restrictions on supporter numbers.

"We're just waiting for further updates from the Premier's office and the government around events," he said.

"We anticipate that will provide guidelines around spectator numbers and we would expect (they) will be required to be reduced or we may not be able to have spectators."

Whether supporters are able to attend or not, the entire regatta will be available to watch via the following link; https://youtu.be/8hoz-VbcDMM.

If you are seeing this message you are a loyal digital subscriber to The Courier, as we made this story available only to subscribers. Thank you very much for your support and allowing us to continue telling Ballarat's story. We appreciate your support of journalism in our great city.