New members: November 2012

Like our beloved chief Secretary Kit Casey, Dan Polasky hails from Minnesota. He’s currently a research technician in a lab at the Tufts Medical Center doing biochemistry/analytical chemistry/stuff. Dan began rowing at Bowdoin College, the more studious cousin of Bates and Colby, and his favorite rowing moment is placing 4th (medaling!) in the Collegiate Four at the 2011 HOCR. Dan also competed on the Bowdoin Nordic team. He’ll be racing the Birkie this February with several other RBC athletes who have slightly less skill but enough pride to hopefully complete all those k’s (call us for lessons, please?).

Jon Kraus, friend to (or of) the McAuliffe Gig, comes to Riverside after taking time off from URI during a collegiate bout of mono. Jon’s hometown is Milton, MA but he is originally from South Boston. Pending recovery from both the gig and the mono (and the fall catch-up course-load), he’ll return to the program at URI. Jon’s favorite rowing moment was having the opportunity to stroke a 4+ at ACRA’s on the Olympic Course at Lake Lanier.

Don’t look this kid in the eye. Hannah Jeton is an Andover native who joins RBC after rowing at Dartmouth College. She is an Architecture Project Coordinator and Assistant at TROJB. She is an RBC rookie (Caro, sign her up for something), a sweep rower, and can hold one eye crossed. We can only hope that the Dartmouth tradition at RBC is carried on with her membership.

Suthesh Sivapalaratnam is a Post Research Fellow (MD PhD) originally from Amsterdam. He began rowing in 2001 and continues to prefer sweep rowing (of the big boat variety). Last year, he watched what was likely the most controversial Boat Race ever rowed. He is eager to get involved at RBC and is an avid cyclist and runner when not enjoying the bends of the Charles.

Jordan Sullivan is a Mainer, South Berwick to be exact. He’s been living in Cambridge since 2008 and only recently heeded the siren of the stripes. Jordan rowed all four years at Davidson College and his only experience in a single found him in the water. He now does genetic analysis at the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard. As luck would have it, Jordan’s favorite rowing moment is also having the opportunity to compete on Lake Lanier. Jordan used to work at a brewery so hopefully he’ll consider joining the ranks of the van Lennep Social Committee.

Katie Melvin is a Florence, Alabama native now working at Composite Engineering. She rowed at Georgia Tech from 2007 – 2011 and her favorite rowing moment is battling it out on the Schuylkill at Dad Vails in 2010 for a silver medal and taking second with just .016 over the third place boat. She’s a sweep rower eager to get involved at RBC and to cite her next best (or next-best) rowing moment on the Charles. She has lived in four cities in 18 months, so let’s encourage her to stay and row for a while.

Jamie Nicole Heinzen is a Neurologist originally from San Clemente, CA. She rowed for 2 years at Oxford, 1 year at Cambridge, and 1 – 2 years at MBRA in San Diego. Her favorite rowing moment is paddling out on the Isis River in Oxford at sunrise with the swans swimming around the boats and the steam rising off the water. I’m sure the geese and sweet sweet scent of bacon near the Hyatt will replace that soon enough. Jamie is a starboard and met her husband, fellow RBC member Evan Labuzetta, in the middle of a “Bumps” race (British collegiate rowing competition) in England. FYI, captains don’t approve of bumping in club equipment so please keep it clean. Welcome to RBC everyone!

Kansas meets Syracuse

Jeff and Lisa

How did it all start?
Lisa: I started rowing as an undergraduate at the University of Kansas in 1978. I signed up for rowing because 2 tall, gorgeous men were recruiting during enrollment. The club had no funding and little equipment. The men and women shared a Pocock 8+ from 1936 that was covered with fiberglass and weighed about 400 lbs. The coach was a former coxswain, so he coached from a small boat tethered to the 8+. Later, I bought a Vespoli 1x in 1985 and since I learned how to scull by watching videos of German scullers, I carried my hands right over left for several months. I often had to race against men as there were few women scullers in the Midwest. Despite the dearth of sculling in the Midwest in the 1980s, I was coached briefly by the Canadian rower, Theodore Dubois, and by Miriam Baer from the Minnesota Boat Club.

Jeff: I started rowing in the 9th grade at Poughkeepsie High School in upstate New York. I had been swimming, racing row boats, and mountain climbing since I could walk, so it seemed like a good sport for me. I had been playing the baritone horn in the marching band, but couldn’t do both band and rowing. I think the band director was relieved. I had a scholarship to Syracuse in rowing. I funded my post-collegiate rowing by coaching. I coached at St. Anthony’s High school on Long Island, the Merchant Marine academy at King’s Point, Northeastern University, and MIT as well as a few other places. I also started the rowing program in Albany, NY where Austin Meyer (who finished 4th in the under 23 2x at the world championships this year) learned to row.

Memories…
Lisa: Memorable experiences, both bad and good, make us better. Only 4 months after teaching myself how to scull I entered Women’s nationals in Corning, NY. I drove 22 hours with my old boyfriend in a VW rabbit. The water pump blew out on the way, a tornado wiped out the motel where I planned to stay, and then I raced Ann Marden in my first heat. Many of my fondest memories of rowing at RBC were of training with the sculling group every morning in the 1990s with coaches Jeanne Flannagan (Olympic 8+ silver medalist in 1984) and Iskra Balcheva (Bulgarian Olympian). There was the ever present smell of chocolate Necco wafers in the basin. One year I drove to the Canadian Henley with Jim Hanley and Jamie Ames. Hanley kept rolling up the window when Jamie was trying to spit cherry pits outside. Two of my best memories are rowing with Jeff in a double at the Foot of the Charles on the morning of our wedding and in June of 2009 after his heart surgery. Winning the HOCR in the master’s women’s 1x after starting dead last was rather fun, too. I have started last 3 times.

Jeff: My most memorable experiences of rowing are of racing. I won the San Diego Crew Classic with Andy O’Brien in my boat twice. I raced with John Condon (former RBC president) many times. Rowing with John is always a memorable experience. He had a lot of enthusiasm. Winning 3 gold medals in a row while not getting off the water at the Master World’s in Belgium was really a highlight. I won the 2x, 4-, and 8+. Lisa also reminded me that I met her at the RBC HOCR party after winning the Master’s 8+ at the HOCR. That was definitely a memorable rowing experience.

Coming to Riverside…
Lisa: I rowed with a women’s 4x in 1988 at RBC, but I officially joined RBC in 1989. A couple of other friends from Kansas had joined RBC a year before me and told me that it was a really great club with nice boats, fast rowers, good coaches, and indoor plumbing. I had raced at Canadian Henley a couple of times prior to moving to Boston and many of the winners were wearing the blue and white stripes that I figured it would be a good place for me to learn how to row fast. Since I had to sell my boat when I moved here, Jim Hanley let me use his boat for racing. I am forever in his debt. Folks on the board discovered that I could repair boats and rig, so I worked part time as the rigger.

Jeff: I joined RBC in 1999. I had been coaching several people at MIT including President Igor Belakovskiy. They had joined RBC and I wanted to continue training with fast people so I joined as well. I was working at Gentle Giant and RBC was a good bargain. I could also keep my boat on the lawn. I drove the trailer for a few years for RBC to help with the rowing expenses.

Seriously, Kastle Kunze?
Lisa: I was leaving Boston to start my residency in orthopedic surgery at University of Michigan in 1997. Teddy Littlefield was still the groundskeeper at RBC and although he liked to paint, his efforts often resemble a Jackson Pollock painting. The B&G people would hide the brushes and paint, but he would just buy more. One day I caught him entering the women’s locker room with paint in hand. I stopped him and told him that I was planning on painting the locker room before going to Michigan. I really didn’t want to do that, but I ended up painting the entire locker room and repairing several lockers. In honor and in jest of my deeds, Marianne Ganzer painted the “Kastle Kunze” sign and put it over the locker room. That’s it.

Current Riverside Project…
Lisa: I am working on the Development Committee, and my primary focus is on program development. It is a long term effort, but this year I have spoken with many RBC members and coaches about how to create good programs. My goal is to initiate changes that will improve our programs and make them financially sound. This will take time and money. Some improvements in the program structure, function, and equipment can be made over the next year, but overall, this is a 5-10 year project. I am so appreciative of the people who have helped me up to this point. If you have ideas about how to make programs run better, I would like to hear about them!

It seems like you and Jeff are always on the go no matter the season. Let’s play a game. I’ll give you a date and weather conditions and you tell me where I can find you.

February, 20 degrees, snow, wind: 5 mph
Lisa/Jeff: Biathlon experience at Soldier Hollow. Lisa scores 14/15 and Jeff 8/15. Neither of us can ski for beans, but we had a blast. Later that day we headed to the Olympic venue in Park City and did the bobsled and zip-lined along the ski jumps. Weeeee.

March, 18 degrees, snowing, wind: 30 mph
Lisa/Jeff: Lifting weights at the Murr Center at Harvard and running into the awesome Sarah Schwegman who is also pumping some iron and demonstrating her exceptional balance. (Note: There may have been some bribery associated with this response.)

June, 72 degrees, partly cloudy, wind: 8 mph
Lisa/Jeff: There is no better day to do 2 minute pieces. We welcome others to share our pain.

August, 91 degrees, clear and sunny, 72 degrees, wind: 2 mph
Lisa/Jeff: Paddleboarding at Marblehead! Lobstas for dinner.

October, 48 degrees, cloudy, wind: 12 mph
Lisa/Jeff: Rowing in the HOCR and cheering others on from the dock.
Lisa: I volunteer with the first aid team for the HOCR.
Jeff: I roam the crowds to talk with the some of the hundreds of rowing people from my past.
Lisa: After the races are over we head to the kickin’ RBC party. We first met at one of the parties so it’s one of our anniversaries.

Results: 2012 Head of the Charles

Event # | Event Bow # |  Stroke finished | time

1 Men’s Grand Master Singles [50+] 10 J. Tracey 10 / 19:58.30
2 Women’s Grand Master Singles [50+] 27 L. Kunze 9 / 22:10.524
3 Men’s Senior Master Singles [40+] 1 J. McGaffigan 5 / 18:48.885
3 Men’s Senior Master Singles [40+] 2 S. Wolf 2 / 22:10.524
3 Men’s Senior Master Singles [40+] 27 J. Bers 29 / 21:24.974
4 Women’s Senior Masters Singles [40+] 2 T. Vandersteel 1 / 20:36.039
7 Men’s Senior Master Fours [50+] 3 E. Frankenberry 2 / 17:58.985
7 Men’s Senior Master Fours [50+] 15 S. Danberg 20 / 19:50.059
10 Women’s Senior Master Doubles [50+] 16 L. Osborn 4 / 20:20.172
13 Men’s Club Singles 27 N. Kuronen 33 / 20:23.809
13 Men’s Club Singles 52 A. Neils 6 / 19:10.049
14 Womens Club Singles 1 A. Booth 16 / 22:05.210
14 Womens Club Singles 14 K. Woodacre 1 / 20:56.319
14 Womens Club Singles 16 C. Mance 26 / 22:34.027
14 Womens Club Singles 23 H. Walters 35 / 23:45.883
14 Womens Club Singles 38 K. Casey 27 / 22:54.382
15 Men’s Club Fours 13 J. Mercuri 3 / 17:07.266
18 Women’s Club Eights 21 H. Jeton 4 / 17:27.306
19 Men’s Master Doubles [40+] 3 K. McDonnell 3 / 17:46.124
23 Men’s Master Eights [40+] 9 G. Milne 9 / 16:04.904
25 Men’s Championship Doubles 18 C. Dyke 12 / 18:13.125
26 Women’s Championship Doubles 1 C. Reddick 5 / 19:11.672
26 Women’s Championship Doubles 8 M. Page 4 / 18:57.787
26 Women’s Championship Doubles 12 M. Foster 8 / 19:32.236
30 Women’s Championship Singles 6 E. Huelskamp 12 / 21:08.689
30 Women’s Championship Singles 9 L. Schmetterling 6 / 20:05.564
33 Men’s Senior Veteran Singles I and II [70+] 25 N. Daniloff 21/25:05.22
33 Men’s Senior Veteran Singles I and II [70+] 31 J. Peters 35/30:31.96
35 Men’s Veteran Singles I and II [60+] 22 J. Hanley 32/23:12.22
35 Men’s Veteran Singles I and II [60+] 26 P. Dale 18/21:57.21
36 Men’s Youth Fours 48 A. Rintell 17/17:54.65
37 Women’s Youth Fours 72 A. Bell 43/21:06.49
38 Men’s Master Singles 1 P. Morelli 2/19:20.91
38 Men’s Master Singles 6 I. Belakovskiy 11/20:06.37
39 Women’s Master Singles 4 S. White 5/22:10.12
39 Women’s Master Singles 8 E. Diamond 9/22:31.82
39 Women’s Master Singles 10 M. O’Neill 11/23:17.39
42 Men’s Lightweight Singles 10 M. Farry 14/19:56.14
43 Women’s Lightweight Singles 2 A. Sneff 4/21:41.82
43 Women’s Lightweight Singles 20 I. Zieff 15/23:17.59
43 Women’s Lightweight Singles 22 L. Gulich 9/22:15.62
DCM4x Directors’ Challenge Men’s Quads 1 Then There Were Four 1/16:08.781
DCM4x Directors’ Challenge Men’s Quads 17 Akamai 30/20:32.052
DCM4x Directors’ Challenge Men’s Quads 28 P. Smith 18/17:58.921
46 Men’s Championship Fours 18 K. Evans 14/17:56.223
47 Women’s Championship Fours 12 E. van Lennep 14/20:48.902

DCMX4x Directors’ Challenge Mixed Quads 7 Chevrons & Stripes 2/17:57.842

Our Boathouse’s 100th Anniversary

By: Richard Garver

Riverside Boat Club’s boathouse turned 100 years old last month.  Its construction is closely linked to the transformation of the Charles River into a park system at the turn of the 19th Century.  To that point, the river’s Cambridge shore between the Brookline (B.U.) Bridge and Watertown was a series of tidal marshes and mud flats, punctuated by industrial sites like The Riverside Press and the adjacent Cambridge Electric Company, between which was wedged Riverside 1891 boathouse, Harvard’s coal yards, and the Watertown Arsenal.  The river rose and fell at least five feet with the tides, sweeping through bridge pilings like a mill race.  In 1905, a Riverside rower was quoted as saying that the club members “find occupation for their leisure moments fishing Harvard oarsmen out of the river” when they fetch up against the Western Avenue Bridge.  “There was a time when a rescue meant the present of a new sweater or a pair of rowing tights, but now it is scarcely ‘Thank you.’ ”  At low tide the river became too narrow for two crews to race abreast.

In 1893, the City of Cambridge issued a plan to turn its riverfront into a recreational facility.  It proposed that the river be dammed upstream from Craigie’s Bridge.  The City would construct an esplanade between the West Boston (now Longfellow) bridge and the Brookline Bridge, a park and swimming beach above Brookline Bridge known as Captain’s Island (now Magazine Beach), and a tree-lined parkway to be called the Charles River Road that would run upriver past Harvard.  To that end, the City acquired most of its riverfront by eminent domain in January 1894.  The property takings caused the wholesale reconfiguration of the Cambridge rowing clubs.  The Cambridge Casino, the forerunner of Cambridge Boat Club, was moved to a site opposite DeWolf Street to make way for the new parkway in 1895.  The Harvard Rowing Club relocated the first Weld Boathouse to a new bulkhead in 1897.  Harvard’s 1869 boathouse was demolished and its crews moved across the river to Newell Boathouse in 1901.

The assembly of the right-of-way for the Charles River Road, which would be renamed Memorial Drive in honor of those killed in World War I following its transfer to the Metropolitan District Commission in 1923, was impeded by the presence of The Riverside Press, but in 1901 the City acquired this section of the alignment.  The taking included Riverside’s boathouse, with the implication that the club would have to relocate to a new site.  The transformation of the river into a recreational lake was completed with the construction of the Charles River dam, authorized by the legislature in 1903 and operational in 1910.

Ironically, these waterfront improvements accelerated the demise of some Charles River rowing clubs.  In 1906, Riverside Boat Club’s Cambridgeport rival, the Bradford Boat Club, moved its boathouse out of the way of the river improvements and the impending construction of a new Cottage Farm (the present B.U.) Bridge.  The park commission served notice in the spring of 1909 that the club must either renovate its building or remove it from the park reservation.  Bradford attempted to raise the money to rebuild within the new parkland but it was soon reported that, “It now looks as though (Bradford) have to vacate the location granted for the boathouse on the east bank of the Charles River just above the Cottage Farm Bridge owing to the lack of funds to meet the requirements of the park commissioners.”  On the other hand, the BAA took advantage of the improvements.  With the Charles River no longer tidal, in 1911 it gave up its floating boathouse on the Cambridge shore in favor of a new boathouse within the park just below the Grand Junction Railroad’s bridge at the site of the present Boston University boat house.

The Cambridge park commission permitted Riverside to continue to occupy its boathouse while planning went forward for the Charles River Road.  It was still in use in the spring of 1911.  At about 1:00 A.M. on May 2, a watchman at the Cambridge Electric Co. spotted a fire in the building and sounded the alarm.  The blaze was visible for miles and attracted a large crowd.  At one point it spread to the adjacent electric company coal bins, but was soon contained.  A Riverside member who tried to salvage club equipment had to be treated for smoke inhalation.  In less than an hour, the building had burned to the ground.  The club lost its boats, including four eights, two doubles, two four-oared workboats, two fours, twenty or more singles, as well as a number of whitehalls.  The fire also consumed seventy-five banners and trophies, including those for national championships won four years earlier at Worcester and in Saratoga in 1894.  As a result, only three of the New England Amateur Rowing Association banners hanging in the boathouse date before 1912.

On May 5, a membership meeting instructed a committee to locate temporary quarters until a new boathouse could be constructed.  The St. Alphonsus Athletic Association, which had recently opened a boathouse on the Boston shore just below the Brookline Bridge (August 2012 Riverside Press), invited the club to share it for the time being.  Riverside considered purchasing Bradford’s old facility, but decided instead to build a new boathouse.  On June 10, 1911, it held a fundraiser at the Scenic Temple, featuring moving pictures, music, illustrated songs and sketches.  Winter quarters were rented on Massachusetts Avenue.  By December, design work was underway and the Cambridge Park Commission was considering the club’s proposal for a site on a small spit of land between Pleasant and River Streets within the projected Captain’s Island Park.  On February 12, 1912, Riverside was granted a twenty-year lease for the site.

The City of Cambridge, the owner of the building when it was destroyed, settled with the club for $7,000.  With these funds in hand, Riverside filed building plans with the City in April, 1912.  Construction on the new structure, the club’s present boathouse, was quickly under way.  It is not clear what rowing activities were carried on that season, but under president Thomas Riley and vice president T. F. Toomey Riverside continued to conduct boxing tournaments, including its annual tournament in Cypress Hall on Prospect Street.

The new boathouse was completed in September 1912 at a cost of $7,600.  Surrounded by mud flats that were soon to form the western end of Captain’s Island, it was a two-story, hip-roofed structure 50 feet wide and 70 feet deep resting of wooden pilings capped with concrete piers.  The first floor housed the club’s boats as well as a training room, showers, lockers and a dressing room.  The second was devoted to a large assembly and dance hall with a raised band area, still visible in its downstream corner, as well as a women’s room and a checkroom.  The section of the Charles River Road and its supporting seawall between Western Avenue and River Street, the last to be constructed, were completed in 1914.  Cambridge’s 1916 Atlas shows Riverside’s boathouse within the newly constructed riverfront parkland, adjacent to the men’s, women’s and boy’s bathhouses serving Captain’s Island.

Results: 2012 Textile River Regatta (TRR)

Open and Masters

M Veteran 1x: Paul Dale
M 2-: 1st: Keir Evans, Brad Sherman
M Master 8+: 1st and 4th
W Club 2x: 1st Beatrice Sims, Chelsea Wakeham
M Open 1x: 1st Jim McGaffigan, 2nd Sean Wolf, 3rd Evan Bailey
M Club 8+: 5th
W Club 8+: 3rd
M Master’s 4+: 1st
W Club 1x: 1st Kelley Woodacre
M Open 4+ 3rd, 4th
W Open 4+ 4th
M Master’s 2x 1st (John Saxelby, Ernest Cook) 6th (Ed Frankenberry, Shameek Sarkar)
M Open 8+ 6th
M Club 2x: 3rd, 4th

Juniors

M Jr 4x: 2nd
M Jr 8+: 16th, 55th
M Junior 4+: 3rd, 27th
W Jr 4x: 7th
W Jr 4+: 11th
W Jr 8+: 15th, 43r

2012 Fall Sweeps Update

The Women’s Sweeps
By: Severine Imbert de Smirnoff

The Women’s Sweep Team is excited to welcome 11 new rowers and 3 new coxswains this fall: Talia, Hannah, Allisaon, Beatrice, Molly, Meghan, Janie (not new), Shana, Carrie, Chelsea, Rachel, Carly, Grace and Mike.  They all bring great talent and enthusiasm to the team.  This fall they have already raced 2 out of 3 of the Head of the Kevins, Textile River Regatta, and the Green Mountain Head.  Looking ahead, be sure to cheer them on at The Head of the Charles in the Women’s Club 8+ and teh Women’s Championship 4+.

The Men’s Sweeps
ByL Jeff Forrester

The Men’s Sweep Team is experiencing a run on masters  for the fall season.  There enough to fill an 8+ and two Senior Master 4+’s for The Charles. The 8+ is expected to be competitive and move further up the rankings.  In the last few years we have placed in the Senior Master 4+ (50+’s), so we are looking for some hardware in that category as well as in the age 60+ boat.  For the young guns, we have a Club 4+ and Champ 4+ entries.  Both are positioned to place quite well, if not win.

The Juniors
By: Katy Ruderman

The juniors are excited to be starting their fourth season as Riverside Juniors!  We have 20 boys and 20 girls this fall.  We completed our first race (besides the world renowned Head of the Kevins) at the Textile  a couple Sundays ago; we raced eights, fours, quads, and doubles.  We have a very young group this fall and it seems that each week someone drops another minute off their 6K!

For the Head of the Charles we have a men’s and a women’s youth 4+ entry (Sunday at 10:05 and 10:36 respectively), seat-racing is under way with many rowers competing for the coveted Charles boat seats.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our creative uniforms at the last two Head of the Kevins, next time we’ll be repping the stripes!

New Members: October 2012

By: Sophie Ordway
Photo Credit: Mike Farry

Victoria Stutz comes to us from Trumbull, Connecticut. In addition to rowing sweep all four years of college, Victoria has a couple summers of sculling under her belt. Her favorite rowing moment is when she crossed the finish line at the Canadian Henley with less than a second lead to advance. When she’s not consulting the general public on how to manage their money, Victoria has put in some work hours with RBC and hopes to help out with fundraising. Before Victoria ever got into rowing, she had the opportunity to play cello with Yo-Yo Ma at the Symphony Hall.

Beatrice Sims is a recent graduate of Brown where she rowed all four years and won NCAA championships her junior year. Because she couldn’t get enough of the sport (like the rest of us), Beatrice spent recent summers with the Quinsigamond Rowing Association near her hometown of North Grafton. She rowed for RBC this past summer along with volunteering at Master’s Nationals. She is also working towards a certification as an Assistant USRowing Referee in addition to her job as a Software Engineer at Vistaprint. While Beatrice obviously has skill on the water in both sweep and sculling boats, she has yet to learn the same finesse on land: She once broke her leg while answering the phone…

Christopher Lyver hails from all over the country and beyond. An honorably discharged ‘veteran’ from the Air Force, Chris spent his high school years bouncing back and forth between Fordham Prep during the school year (where he won most outstanding novice his first year and was captain as a senior) and Pelham Community Rowing during the summers. He rowed recreationally with Fordham University and has trained as far north as Canada and as far south as Miami. His favorite rowing memory is the New York State Scholastic Championships in 2011. He plans to volunteer on the 29th with RBC at Cambridge History Day and is hoping to sign up with some of the regatta committees.

Kelley Woodacre, from Wellesley, MA, comes to us from an assortment of different rowing teams and clubs. She rowed for University of Rhode Island all four years and managed to become Captain her senior year. She also spent a couple summers rowing for CanAmMex and the Boston U23 Development Camp. And if that’s not enough, she’s also spent some time with Community Rowing. We’re definitely hoping she plans to settle with RBC for a good while, as she can row pretty much anything and everything. Her favorite rowing moment is when she won Head of the Charles in the CRI Youth 8+. As a landscape architect for Sudbury Design Group, Kelley plans to bring her skills to the Buildings and Grounds Committee to help make RBC a more sustainable club. In addition to all the rowing Kelley has done the last six years, she’s also an avid skier and rock climber.

Grace Lin is migrating to us from just down the river. She has spent the past four years coxing for MIT, or as she responded, being ‘deadweight’. Of course we all know the real value of coxswains, so we’re very happy to have her with us. We will have to figure out how to keep her out of the Charles, as she’s been in over it ten times. We may also have to give her a new cheer, otherwise she’ll start up the Beaver Call come race time.

Allison Lavigne hails from the Midwest and has been rowing off and on for the past 11 years. She started at Bucknell in 2001 as a walkon and has also rowed with the Masters team for the Greater Columbus Rowing Association. She’s been rowing with the Women’s Sweep program for RBC and hopes to start sculling soon. Her favorite rowing moment was wet launching from the sandy beaches of Long Beach, CA during Masters Nationals. One fun fact about Allison is that before she learned to row in college, she spent her high school years playing tennis and badminton.

Rachel Pettis is originally from Georgia but she’s been a local in Boston since 2008. She walked on to the BC women’s team and has been hooked ever since. Her favorite rowing moment is when she raced in the Club 8+ event in the Head of the Charles. She is currently a legal secretary and hopes to help RBC with the fundraising committee. If you ever find yourself rowing behind Rachel, be sure to ask her where her extra vertebra is that she has endearingly named Fernando.

Ray Firth is making the transition to us from CRI, although he first learned to row on the Charles in 1970 with Northeastern University. He works for Alden Rowing Shells and while he can row sweep and scull, his racing shell of choice is the open water. If you ever find yourself on the water next to Ray on a rather windy day, be careful about racing him back to the dock. He was also an Adaptive Coach for CRI. He’s joined the Masters team with RBC and is looking forward to all the new faces and activities.

Jeanette Saraidaridis has been rowing since 2003 when she first learned at Phillips Academy Andover. She honed her skills at Brown University for 4 years, along with a couple summers at CRI and GMS in between. Jeanette can scull as well as sweep but for now she’s joining the women’s sweeps team. Her favorite rowing moment is the snowstorm during the Head of the Charles in 2009. And while we all may not understand her dislike of cheese, hopefully we can entice her to use her teaching skills to help out with some of RBC’s learn to row days.

Sophie Ordway, also from the Midwest, learned to scull around ten years ago. She spent the following six years sculling, coxing and rowing in a lightweight 4+ for Grand Rapids Crew. She rowed at Marist College for the two and a half years she wasn’t abroad and has since done a little bit of coaching but is looking forward to being back on the water. She’s helping the club out with the newsletter but she would also like to get involved in the Buildings and Grounds Committee. She loves to knit and sew, which is why she works at Gather Here, Cambridge’s first and only Stitch Lounge. It’s hard for her to pin down a favorite rowing moment, but one of the many mornings on the Hudson when everything just clicked in her Varsity 8+ will definitely suffice.

Andrew Hashway and 2012 World Championships

Andrew Hashway strikes a pose.

Tell us, how did you get started in rowing?
I started rowing my freshman year at Saint John’s high school in Shrewsbury, MA; one of my friend’s parents thought it would be nice for all of the kids from our town to participate in the same sport. Seeing as no one really has any prior experience with rowing before high school, it was a level playing field for us all. I also knew that I was not a superstar on my baseball or football teams, so I figured why not. I do remember that one thing I was not happy about was that fact that I had to wear spandex to participate… oh how times have changed!

When did you join Riverside?
I joined Riverside in the summer of 2007, partially due to a strong suggestion from Will Allen. He had rowed with me at college and knew my personality and drive and said that if I took a year off to do the backpacking trip I had planned to do in Asia, I would fall behind. So I decided I loved rowing enough to continue at a higher level, thus Riverside was the place to be, especially considering that same year the Senior World’s Lightweight Men’s Eight had been developed and qualified from Riverside, I felt that it was a good decision.

Tell us a little bit about the qualification process for World Championships.
For this year’s Senior Lightweight 8, our coach (and CRI Director), Bruce Smith employed two major tools to determine seat racing. The first is the PowerView, which is a fabulous tool that is even used in NASCAR and it can measure almost any little movement from the acceleration of the boat on the drive and recovery, to the amount of check that is produced just by getting the hands away faster or slower on the recovery. It is truly a miraculous tool. The second is the SmartOar, which is run by an RBC alum, Greg Ruckman. It was the main tool in deciding who made the boat. Essentially, it is a system that can measure the length of the stroke, the power curve created by the oarsman, the power produced as well as the stroke rate. By doing set distances and or timed pieces, Bruce and Devin, our assistant coach, were able to calculate the effectiveness of each oarsman at any given moment in the boat and then from there, choose the best-qualified rowers in the camp.

Once we handled the seat racing and internal selection process, we had to head to Princeton, NJ to race another lightweight men’s eight from Vesper, which was comprised of some rather talented rowers. Since there were only two entries, the first race was a race for lanes. We both went down the course head to head in order to determine which crew would be in the more “favorable” lane, as determined by the weather conditions on the day of the final. On the finals day, it was winner-takes-all and whoever crossed the line first, had earned the privilege to represent the United States at the 2012 Non Olympic World Championships. It goes without saying that I was very glad we had come out on top, but felt sad for a few of the guys in the Vesper eight, who I felt deserved a seat in our boat.

Tell us all about your experience in Plovdiv.
I arrived on a Sunday with the rest of my team, we flew from Logan International to Heathrow, England, then to Sofia, Bulgaria.

The course was rather nice, all man made and sort of surreal… I’ve seen the course from Worlds videos, but to be on the actual course felt weird. As the first day of the regatta came closer and closer, the course got crazier and crazier, I would liken it to the week leading up to the Head of the Charles. Every inch of that course was pulsating with elite rowers just trying to get their own workouts in as effectively as they could. It sort of felt like being home on the Charles when BU, MIT and Harvard all decide to take their entire fleets out at the same time. Lots of rough water and dodging oars and wakes.

In my off times I tried to unplug from rowing. I watched videos I had on my laptop, read a few articles about Bulgaria along with re-reading favorite parts of the book Assault on Lake Casitas, checked out what was going on in the States and of course, I slept like it was going out of style. My pre/post practices were spent plugged into my iTouch. I had all four of Dave Cooks comedic CD’s going, you just can never have too many funny jokes in a stressful situation. I also had some of my famous “angry” music to get me focused up before races. Anyone who has erged in the winter with me knows the style of music I enjoy getting ready to.

After races I did get to see parts of Plovdiv. I walked around some of the Roman ruins as well as some statues that were erected during the Soviet Union’s rule over the area. One particular statue was atop a massive hill which overlooked the vast mountain scape, quite picturesque.

What was the race progression for your event? Did you have any memorable moments during any particular race in Plovdiv?
There were two roads to the finals, the short way and the long way and we ended taking the latter. The long way involved a heat on the first day of the regatta. Since we placed 4th in that race, we had to race again the following day in the Reps for one last chance at the top six spots in the final. Sadly, we under-estimated some of the crews in our rep and we were relegated to the B Finals.

The most memorable moment for me was not that pleasant. Our four-seat, my roommate at the regatta, had come down with sun poisoning between the heats and reps, so we had to scramble for a replacement, since he was not going to be able to race. Luckily a US Junior coach keeps himself fit and thin enough to sweat down to max and hop in our boat. I can only imagine the amount of pressure he was under, knowing that he could be the deciding factor between us going to the A or B final. But no matter how much harassment he received from the other Junior coaches, warm-up through to post-race, he did something I would venture many others wouldn’t even have the gumption to try and he did it to the very best of his ability.

Hillary and Andrew

You’re a lightweight, we have to ask, what was your first post-race meal?
Ha, well for me, once I was deep into the lightweight life style, I forget how good the tastier things in life can be, so I wasn’t really craving anything post-race, but once I started eating outside my own pre-approved dietary needs, the flood gates opened up to the wonders of sugar. Once I finished my racing, the very first piece of food I ate was baklava from a local pastry department. After that, I sort of lost count of the devilish things I ate.

What future athletic endeavors are you looking forward to?
As proud of my accomplishments as I am (representing the United States), I feel that my job could have been done better. So this year I am going for it again! I am going to do a better job on the international circuit and better represent the US, Riverside, Marist, Saint John’s and my family.

Soon enough, I will be looking to transition from purely rowing to triathlons and competitive skate skiing. New sport, same amount of dedication

Results: Masters Nationals 2012

By: Todd Milne and Ernest Cook

“Stormy weather” was the theme song for this year’s regatta.  Thunderstorms delayed racing Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Many finals were canceled on Friday.  If heats were held in those events, medals were awarded based on heat times.  So we quickly learned to go all-out in the heats, no matter what kind of lead we held. This was a huge regatta with 2000+ rowers representing 150+ clubs from around the country – the largest ever held by US Rowing – and the competition was tough.

Men’s Sweep
The team was joined this year by some youngsters – Alex Caruthers and Evan Labuzetta – and that allowed RBC to put together some very competitive A and B boats. Overall, 20 of 24 entries made it to the finals with 15 of the Riverside boats placing in the money, so nearly everyone came away with hardware.   The RBC masters sweeps team medaled in age groups A, B, C, D, E, and F and in all sweep boat classes; 2-, 4-, 4+, and 8+.  There were also medals in team sculling boats with medals in the Club and Lightweight D4x events. With fewer than 25 rowers, Riverside placed 4th among the men in the quest for the points trophy.

Notable results:  Todd Milne and Neil Harrigan blazed to a gold in the C pair.  Later they were joined by Jason McDonough-Hughes and Evan to take first place in the Club B4+ and take home an obscenely large trophy.  Alex and Shameek Sarkar also conquered the field to take gold in the A pair.

All results

Gold
Womens Ltwt B 4 x
Mens Hwt. C 2- F (Todd Milne, Neil Harrigan)
Womens Ltwt A 1 x (Alexis Sneff)
Mens Hwt. B 1x (Jim Mcgaffigan)
Mens Hwt A 2- (Alex Caruthers, Shameek Sarkar)
Mens Club B 4+

Silver
Mens Hwt C 1x Final
Mens Hwt B 4+
Womens Open C 1 x (Tina Vandersteel)
Mens Club B 8 +
Mens Club D 4x
Mens Hwt. C 4-
Womens Ltwt A 2x b (Alexis Sneff, Ashley Lanfer)

Bronze
Mens Club C 4+
Mens Ltwt E 4
Mens Club C 8 +
Mens Ltwt I 1x (Nick Daniloff)

Riverside and St. Alphonsus Boat Clubs

By: Dick Garver

The number of rowing clubs in the Boston area was at its zenith in 1900. Many were neighborhood-based. In addition to Cambridgeport’s Riverside Boat Club, they included its archrival, the Bradford Boat Club, located just above the Cottage Farm Bridge; the Jeffries Point Boat Club, the East Boston Athletic Association and Boat Club and the Columbian Rowing Association of East Boston; and the Shawmut Club of South Boston. Farther afield were the Millstreams of Chelsea and the West Lynn Boat Club.

Most had Irish roots. The city of Boston was America’s second largest immigration port, with a population of 560,900 in 1900, of whom, counting native-born children of immigrants, 246,100, nearly half, were Irish. It was a turbulent time, rife with labor discord and bitter politics, but it was also the “golden age of fraternity,” when social, benevolent, and sporting organizations of all kinds were formed for the welfare of neighborhood, class or ethnic group members and as sources of identity and pride. Several area rowing clubs were the centers of social programs that were as strong or stronger than their rowing programs. The names of some of their presidents indicate their social affiliation: Shawmut, Healy; Jeffries Point, Rowan; Columbians, Foley; and Bradford, Phelan.

Religious faiths also formed organizations intended to raise their constituents’ welfare, as well as to recruit new adherents. Because the popular idea of welfare merged spiritual and physical well-being, they included athletic associations. At least two Catholic, parish-based fraternal organizations rowed. In keeping with their mission, each had both a lay and a spiritual leader. St. Joseph’s Church in the West End formed St. Joseph’s Boat Club, located on the industrial West End shore of the Charles. Its spiritual leader, Rev. Peter J. Walsh, was quoted in the Globe as saying, “The object of the training in the association was to prepare (members) to take an active part in the battle of life.”

The other parish-based rowing organization, the St. Alphonsus Boat Club, was linked to Riverside’s history for over thirty years. It was an outgrowth of the Mission Church, the grandest Catholic sanctuary in city, constructed by the Redemptionists Fathers in 1878 on bucolic Parker Hill in what was then the suburb of Roxbury but is now considered Mission Hill, after the church at its apex. By the turn of the century the area had become heavily settled, in great part by Irish and Germans. In the spirit of period, around 1900 the church formed the St. Alphonsus Athletic Association as a club for young men and as the parish’s social center. To attract members, it set low fees and offered a wide range of sporting activities. The association’s grand hall on Smith Street contained a bowling alley in the basement, a theater on the first floor, and a large gym on the second floor, as well as a reading room, a lecture hall, club rooms and lounges. It fielded teams in football and other popular sports of the day.

Despite its landlocked location, the association’s full participation in the sporting life of the city required that it offer rowing. At roughly the same time it was building its hall on Parker Hill it obtained control of a site just below Brookline (now B.U.) Bridge on the Boston side of the river. Until it could put a boathouse in place, however, its rowing activities were largely limited to machines in its gym. A February 1901 Boston Daily Globe article reports that 1000 people attended an exhibition in the hall that included gymnastics and wrestling but whose feature event was a double scull rowing machine contest between the amateur champions of America, E. H. Ten Eyck of Worcester and his partner Charles Lewis, and the famous Greer brothers of East Boston. The rowing machines were apparently connected by pulleys to a dial that—unreliably—reported the rowers’ progress. There were also four man rowing machine contests among Riverside, the Millstreams, Jeffries Point, Bradford, the Columbians and the Shawmuts. Note the absence of Yankee Union Boat Club or the Boston Athletic Association. The association repeated the event in 1902, with participants from as far away as New York.

In 1901, St. Alphonsus conducted a failed negotiation with the BAA to purchase its floating boathouse. In 1904, the organization, which was said to have only one eight oared shell, explored a merger with the Bradford club, which had a boathouse and a large number of boats but few active rowers. The merger collapsed when Bradford insisted that the merged club keep its name. Finally, in May 1909, St. Alphonsus opened its own boathouse. It was the former Weld Boathouse, acquired from the Harvard Rowing Club, which was building the present building, and transported to association’s site on the Boston shore. Inaugural festivities included refreshments, river excursions, a concert by the Mission Church band and a performance by the association’s 50-man minstrel company, reprising the hits of its recent show. Famous oarsmen from Riverside and the other clubs attended. The Globe reported a strong demand for membership from “the professional men in the Back Bay and Brookline…owing to their inability to become members of the B.A.A. and Union boat club due to the long waiting list at both organizations”–and perhaps due as well to more socially grounded reasons.

St. Alphonsus’ Boathouse in May 1909

Two years later, in 1911, Riverside’s boathouse burned to the ground. St. Alphonsus offered to accommodate its rowing program, an offer that was appreciated but proved unnecessary when Riverside built a new boathouse in 1912. The two were regular competitors in regattas over the next decade. Riverside’s senior eight won the New England championship in a special match race with St. Alphonsus in 1923. In 1927, an accident in the construction of the Cottage Farm (B.U.) Bridge destroyed a portion of St. Alphonsus’ boathouse, presumably the upstream section on the right in the picture. It is not clear whether Riverside reciprocated by offering space in its new boathouse, but St.Alphonsus continued to compete into the 1930s.

One of the highlights in the relationship between the two clubs occurred in 1935. The Great Depression was in full force and rowing was in decline. Attempting to revive the public’s interest, Riverside held its first regatta in fifteen years that September. Shawmut Boat Club was the big winner on the day, but to the spectators the highlight was a celebration of Boston area clubs’ past rowing and boxing glory, an “Old Timers” race. Nineteenth Century rivals, some of their clubs now disbanded, joined each other in an eight from Riverside and another from St. Alphonsus. Riverside’s winning boat included Bradford’s Joe Maguire, the 1897 national singles champion and now a 64 year old retired Boston police captain; Fred Hynes, national sculling champion in 1893; 1888 New England champion Dick Fleming, 73; and Riverside’s James O’Brien and Bob McKinley, both once national amateur 105-pound boxing champions as well as oarsmen. In 1936, the two boats rowed to what the newspaper called a dead heat, intending no pun. Riverside’s fall Old Timers and Club Regatta became one of the most popular rowing events on the Charles. It was run, with the ancients’ race as its concluding event, each year until World War II intervened in 1941 and was the first regatta held on the Charles after VJ Day, four years later, at which point St. Alphonsus Boat Club had ceased to exist.