The National Amateur Rowing Association (NARA) was founded in 1890 to cater for the large number of working-class men who were prevented from joining the Amateur Rowing Association (ARA) by virtue of their manual occupations.
(According to the interpretation of the narrow definition of Amateur status then enforced by the ARA rules, these men were to be considered professionals).
The new body gained significant support though practically, the only difference between the two organisations was their outlook on the bar on manual labour; in all other respects the NARA was as strict about amateurism as the ARA.
The organisation was however very different from that of the ARA, as the NARA was composed of ten self-governing regional associations: All of these were actively engaged in organising regattas for their member clubs and around 90 regattas a year followed NARA rules.
It was proposed to call the resulting organisation the British Amateur Rowing Association and NARA was dissolved in June of that year.