Sally | Village Community Boathouse – Pier 40

Author Archives: Sally

End Of 2018 Boatbuilding Update

By Sally on January 1, 2019

After major moving and purging, the VCB boat shop now has three working bays with three projects well underway: Cedar strip built Whitehall Gig David T Heim, strip built canoe, and repair of Whitehall Gig Nonpariel

Posted in Blog Tagged Boatbuilding

Icebreaker 2018

By Sally on November 30, 2018

Ka Ming Wong

The Icebreaker Northeast Regional Youth Open Water Rowing Championships was held in Boston on Novemer 17th, where VCB was represented by a plucky Youth Fours crew consisting of coxwain Sophia Day, and rowers Jacky Chen, Ciaran Diep, Lucien Eckert, Yoshiya Ohno, and Mark Winter, all of whom had the grit and motivation to catch a 2:45AM bus to a race on the same day which is impressive all on its own.

Congratulations to the crew, who really rowed their hearts out that day, thanks to the HLM for putting together such an awesome event, and last but not least thank you to the VCB community for making it possible for us to send our rowers to a very memorable day!

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Posted in Blog Tagged Races

VCB Youth Race 2018

By Sally on November 14, 2018

By Phil Yee & Sally Curtis

The Winners -The Harbor School Boneheads won overall with a time of 18:07

Youth rowers from Stuyvesant, Sound School, and the Harbor School competed in the annual VCB Youth Race this year. Originally scheduled for Saturday, November 10th, the race was postponed to Sunday due to a forecast of high winds. The colorful crew names were the best part: Boneheads, Wave Breakers, Mixed Nuts, Eat my Bubbles, Misfit Toys, Mixed Nuts, and Kiss My Stern.

The Youth Race was won by Harbor School’s Boneheads with a total time of 18:07. Harbor School’s Wave Breakers came in second with a time of 18:32, and Sound School’s SS Men took 3rd place with a time of 18:47. Stuyvesant’s Mixed Nuts came in 4th with a total time of 19:17. The Sound School crew Eat my Bubbles finished 5th with a total time of 20:07.

The day started with a Long Race on the Hudson River from Pier 40 down to Pier 26. The Perimeter Timed Heats were sprints around the Pier 40 embayment. The times were combined between the Long Race and the Perimeter Timed Heats with time adjusted head to head sprints. The two rounds of Perimeter Heats finished up the race and times of each crew.

The Harbor School “Wave Breakers” snapped an oar in two at the start line and were granted a restart after Marcel acted quickly delivering them a replacement bow oar. Subsequently, the crew changed their name to “Oar Breakers”.

The race was fun and the weather was warm so everyone had a good time. We had over 100 people and consumed more than 90 hot dogs and 100 burgers. Thanks to all the incredible people who volunteered their time to make the make the event a success.

The Whole Harbor School Crew

The Whole Stuyvesant Crew

Phil Yee- Race Coordinator

Sayed Hogue – Chase Boat Captain

Michael Anton – Master of Ceremonies

Paul Caviano – Score Keeper

East River Crew

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Crews

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Long Row

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Perimeter Timed Heats

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Photos by Sucre del Rios – Harbor School Parent

Posted in Blog Tagged Youth Race

November Boatbuilding Update

By Sally on November 9, 2018

Lorne Swarthout

It has been a busy season of boatbuilding at VCB this fall. We have two craft underway, the David T. Heim Whitehall gig and a 15′ strip-built canoe. Every Wednesday and Sunday afternoon volunteers have been working with Marcel and Lorne to put together the wood and glue and fiberglass that will result in a couple of beautiful boats.

The DTH gig has been fully planked (with red cedar strips) and fiberglassed (inside and out). We have also inserted frames (to support the seats) and floors (to support the floorboards) as well as bulkheads fore and aft. This week we installed four beautiful mahogany seats. Then we set to work on the wide gunwales that will anchor the oarlocks. We may end up painting part of the DTH–discussions are lively on this subject!–but we are working carefully to ensure that if we want to simply varnish the whole craft it will look absolutely ship-shape.

The Ranger canoe was begun a few weeks ago with the building of a strong back and 13 molds. This week we steam bent the ash stems and next week we plan to machine the Sitka spruce strips that we will use to plank this craft. It promises to be a lovely companion to the Zoe canoe.

The VCB boat shop is open to all volunteers, Wednesdays, and Sundays from 12:00 noon on. It is a great place to learn some woodworking skills or just to escape the shackles of your desk for a few hours.

Lorne and Marcel – Boathouse foremen with David T Heim Strip-built Whitehall Gig

Frames and Floors

Marcel and Jorge

Gunwale Construction

Installing the Seats

Anne and Brian working on molds for Ranger Canoe – 15′ strip-built canoe

Bending the stems

Anne Brian & Fred with Ranger Canoe – Stems Bent

Posted in Blog Tagged Boatbuilding

Head of the Weir 2018

By Sally on October 24, 2018

VCB’s Youth Coxed-4 crew won Head of the Weir River race in their category, finishing in 41minutes, 22 seconds, beating Sound School by 35 seconds. The VCB HIgh School Rowing crew, coxed by Sophia Day rowed Gold Rush, a stretch gunning dory built by high school students and community volunteers at VCB’s Community Boatbuilding Program. The adult crew, coxed by Dave Clayton rowed Warrior to the finish in 40 minutes, 48 seconds – 48 seconds behind the Fiona in first place. The VCB adult crew’s time was actually more than a minute faster than the VCB high school crew. However, the Golden Clam Shells went to the kids.

Because of high sustained winds with 30 mph gusts the 5.5-mile race course was shortened to avoid the open waters of Hull Bay. The rowers stayed in the relatively protected waters of the estuary finishing at the marina in Hull.

VCB Cox-4 Youth Crew: Sophia Day, Mark Winter, Ciaran Diep, Lucien Eckert, and Yoshi Ohno.

VCB Coxed-4 Adult Crew: Dave Clayton, Marcel DeJean, Ka Ming Wong, Cillian Hogan, and Andrew Leung.