Seattle Parks and Recreation’s Green Lake Crew hosted its 54th annual Spring Regatta on Saturday.
In handing the One Guinea Pig cup to junior captains Patrick Hanson and Maddie McEachern, Bruce Morser, who stroked the masters mixed eight to a respectable second place finish, said “a famous definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.”
The word “eclectic” is hardly strong enough to describe the venue for the Portland Fall Classic regatta that took place Sunday on the Willamette River. A high-traffic urban bike path, a freight and passenger train corridor and an elevated portion of Interstate 5 loomed over the scene that also featured a homeless camp and a World War II submarine.
The ad read: “Women starting rowing club. Need coach, boat & enthusiastic women. Call [number] if interested in participating. No experience necessary.” Twenty five years ago Celia Congdon decided she needed something to fill the hole that her husband, Rich Bard, left each summer during his forays to coastal Alaska.
The transition from junior to collegiate rowing is best understood in the tightness of the races.
The theme of the annual Opening Day boat parade at University of Washington’s Montlake Cut was Myths and Monsters with vessels wrapped in giant squids, chased by Loch Ness monsters and swarming with shimmering mermaids.
Brentwood College School located on Mill Bay north of Victoria, British Columbia, put on its 45th annual juniors’ regatta this past weekend with more than 1,700 rowers participating from 34 clubs in western Canada and the Northwest United States.
The Husky Open is the first full-scale regatta of the spring season in the Northwest and combines a curious mixture of thrilling races to come with a certain amount of intrigue.
“Beware the Ides of March” proved to be a fateful message to Julius Caesar over 2,000 years ago and was no less an apt warning for this past Sunday. There are those that believe in a karmic bank account as far as weather goes, with nice days being withdrawals to be paid back in full (and with interest) on days like Sunday, where the rain poured down, the wind whipped and junior rowers from Bainbridge and Vashon joined host Olympia in a contest of shivering and teeth chattering, comprising this year’s Saltwater Scrimmage.
The first Sunday in November is the date for the Northwest’s premier fall regatta, the Head of the Lake race through the University of Washington’s Montlake Cut.
Vashon’s Master and Junior crews made their first appearance in this regatta competing in 16 events and as has been the pattern for this fall performed exceptionally well returning with 9 first place finishes.
The 50th anniversary of the largest rowing regatta in the world, the Head of the Charles, Vashon’s junior, masters and recent alumni crew members posted best-ever results.
The Tail of the Lake regatta in Seattle featured 44 events over a five-hour period starting early Sunday morning in near-mirror conditions and finishing on a lake made choppy by a frenzy of tour boats, float plane takeoffs and landings, squads of kayakers and even an oar-powered Viking ship.
