Left to right: Stone Su, Christopher Dou, Mary Harvey, Ka Seng Soo, Kaiden Yeung, Brian Chen, Nafel Khan, Francesco Siniscalco, and Emmy Chen. Center: Coach Ka Ming Wong
On November 23rd, Village Community Boathouse (VCB) sent two crews and a gig to Fort Point Channel in Boston to compete in the Northeast Regional Youth Open Water Rowing Championships, aka Icebreaker. Hosted by The Hull Lifesaving Museum, the race included more than 250 middle school and high school participants. Beginning with heats in the channel, the event culminated in the Nautical Mile race in the harbor.
Teams came from all over the Northeast, including New York City, New Haven, Avery Point, Boston Harbor, Cape cod, Plymouth, Westport, Lake Champlain, and Maine to race in 30 traditionally built gigs.
VCB’s First Fours (skilled crews in four-oared boats) came in fourth in their category in the heats and second in the Nautical Mile. VCB’s Second Fours came in fourth in the heats, but finished second in the Nautical Mile.
NY Harbor School, who do their on-water programming at the VCB boathouse, sent three crews. They came in first in their categories in the heats and the Nautical Mile.
We are so proud of our NYC high school rowers (VCB and NY Harbor School). Team spirit, small-boat skills, athletics, perseverance, and heart all contributed to their finishing first and second in this highly competitive event.
Special thanks to Ka Ming Wong, VCB High School Rowing Coach/Director for getting the crews to Boston and providing support to the crews on the river. Thanks to Dave Clayton for wrangling boats before, during and after the race. Grateful to Rob Buchanan and Lorne Swarthout for coming to our rescue when the trailer turned over under the Manhattan Bridge. Lee Berman was a great help driving the rig back to Pier 40 on Saturday night after the race. It takes a community!
As more families move into lower Manhattan, there is an ever-increasing demand for ballfields for youth team sports. Ballfield advocates are pitted against real estate interests and developers who want commercial development and tourist attractions like the Highline. The conflict is all the more acute since it is taking place in Community District 2 that has one of the lowest open space ratios in New York City at 0.58 acres per 1,000 residents. The citywide standard is 2.5 acres.
Amidst the controversy over balancing the needs of the community with the need for commercial development, an important resource is being overlooked: The Village Community Boathouse (VCB) where a diverse group of New York City high school students row wooden rowboats in the vast and underutilized open space of the Hudson River and compete in open water rowing races throughout the Northeast.
On a sunny and cold Saturday in November, VCB hosted its annual Youth Race at Pier 40. Rowers came from four different rowing groups: Stuyvesant High School and Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, the Sound School in New Haven, and Cortlandt Community Rowing. All the groups walked away with some prizes. In the words of announcer Michael Anton, “There are no losers today.”
More than 160 enthusiastic rowers, coaches, and volunteers gathered at the boathouse in the cold to share food and their love of rowing. The crew names, were the best part, reflecting a competitive spirit tempered by a teenage sense of humor: The Wet Sox (Stuyvesant); Eat My Bubbles (Sound School); Kiss My Aft (NYHS); DeeDahs (Courtlandt) among others.
VCB is an all-volunteer, donation-based nonprofit organization. Incorporated in 2008, VCB occupies a space on the south side of Pier 40 where it had operated as a downtown chapter of Floating the Apple since the establishment of Hudson River Park in 1998. Utilizing a fleet of more than a dozen traditional wooden boats called Whitehall gigs, VCB volunteers take thousands of local residents, students and international visitors out rowing for free all over New York Harbor every year.
High school rowers are VCB’s most enthusiastic and numerous constituency. Rowing clubs from Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, City As School and Stuyvesant High School meet several times a week for rowing during the school year at the VCB boathouse on Pier 40.
Many of the young people who began rowing with VCB in high school return after college as volunteers, bringing with them valuable maritime skills, learned over their years of involvement with VCB.
Pier 40, located in Hudson River Park has four ballfields that are heavily used by children of all ages from local schools and athletic clubs. The legislation that created the park calls for using the pier to generate funds to support the rest of the park. However, the dilapidated pier is in need of adaptive reuse or demolition. Advocates for youth athletics have been working with The Hudson River Park Trust and elected officials to address the needs of the community for ballfields and boathouses. Unfortunately, team sports don’t generate much revenue, creating conflict between the need to generate revenue to support the park and the needs of the community.
Like the ballfields, the boathouse on Pier 40 has nowhere else to go in lower Manhattan. Advocates for youth athletics should recognize and value of the high school rowing programs run by VCB. The boathouse on the south side of Pier 40 should be included in discussions of preserving and expanding space for youth athletics in lower Manhattan.
Steven (ESPO)Powers Mural was the perfect backdrop to the Youth Race thanking VCB volunteers and everyone else who worked so hard to make the event a great success!
On a sunny and cold Saturday, Village Community Boathouse hosted
its annual Youth Race at Pier 40. With 80 participants, this was our largest
race to date. Teenagers came from four different rowing clubs: Stuyvesant High
School and NY Harbor School, both in New York City; the Sound School of New
Haven, Connecticut; and Cortlandt Community Rowing in Westchester County. The
Cortlandt kids were at a disadvantage because they normally row shells on quiet
water and were unaccustomed to Whitehall gigs. Nonetheless, they performed
well, and all the groups walked away with some prizes. In the words of announcer
Michael Anton, “There are no losers today.”
The format of the races, organized this year by David Palsgrove,
differed somewhat from previous years. All 16 crews competed in the first race:
two consecutive timed loops around the perimeter of the embayment. The top
score in each category—male, female, and mixed—were selected to go on to the
final river race without competing in the sprint tournament. Top scores in the
perimeter loop went to the Cortlandt Big Boys (male), Harbor School’s Kiss my
Aft (female), and Sound School’s Kiss my Stern (mixed).
Fifteen crews competed in the next event, the sprint tournament.
This consisted of three heats. In the first heat four groups raced from a
standing start and the first two across the finish line in each group moved to
the second heat. In the second heat two groups raced and again the first two in
each group across the finish line moved to the third heat. The third heat
consisted of four crews. They raced to determine their place in the tournament.
They crossed the finish in this order: first prize to Harbor School’s Harbor
Lambs; second to Stuyvesant’s Swordfish; third to Harbor School’s Marvelous
Day; fourth to Sound School’s Golden Age. All four crews went on to the final
river race. The first-place winner was given a 10-second bonus in the river
race.
The river race started in the embayment, left it to head north against the ebb tide, to a turn boat stationed approximately a half-mile north of Pier 40, and returned to cross the finish line inside the embayment. Seven crews participated in this timed race with a staggered start. There was a last-minute substitution because one of the winning crews from the first event (the perimeter loop) had left early. So Sound School substituted its female crew, the Bombshells. Winners of the river race were: first place Harbor School’s Harbor Lambs, second place Cortlandt’s Big Boys, third place Sound School’s Golden Age.
Coaches, parents, and VCB volunteers crowded the south walkway and cheered on the teams. We estimate that 160 attended the races, including the participants. Frank Cervi provided breakfast coffee and bagels. Dave Clayton had prepared number flags, and the arriving crews were invited to individualize their flags with markers. At the end of the day, they would take their flags home. Sally Curtis and Ruth Lindner had loaded up Sally’s large SUV with hot dogs, burgers, rolls, snacks, etc. the day before. Soup and salad contributions rolled in. Lorne Swarthout manned the barbecue grill with help from Bob and Dave (we think from Sound School). Paul Caviano set up the scoreboard and kept the score brilliantly. Michael Anton provided his ever-witty announcements. Deborah Clearman organized the timekeepers: herself, Ruth Lindner, Lee Berman, and Derek Wollenstein. This year we had two timekeepers per boat, to guard against stopwatch failure and human error. For the river race, we asked for volunteers to provide 14 timekeepers. Seth Rivera, Pablo Garcia, and Kristina Allocco acted as line handlers, helping crews in and out of boats at the floating dock.
On the water, Harbor School’s Rick Lee and his wife Amy Rose Knudson provided a chase and photographer’s boat. Sally Curtis took photos. Seth Rivera, Dave Clayton, and Sound school’s Bob Lazara operated VCB’s RIB as a turn marker. Special thanks to Ingo Gunther for chase boat support and race course map.
Coaches had their hands full organizing and supporting their teams
and lending a hand where needed: Sound School’s Neil Geist, Harbor School’s Roy
Arezzo, Stuyvesant’s Ka Ming Wong, and Cortland Rowing’s whose name we didn’t
get, but she was very busy.
Huge thanks go to all who made this a great day on the water. Kudos to race organizer David Palsgrove and harbormaster Marcel Dejean. Congratulations to all the racers who put their hearts and oars into the race.
The Winners:
First Place Winners! Harbor Lambs NYHSSecond Place Swordfish Stuyvesant HSThird Place Marvelous Day NYHSFourth Place Golden Age Sound School
Golden Clamshell Winners Stone Su, Nafel Khan, Francesco Siniscalco, Andy Lin, Brian Chen, Ka Ming Wong, Andrew Leung, Dave Clayton, Frank Cervi, Don Betts
On Saturday, October 26, the Village Community Boathouse sent race crews to Hull to participate in Head of the Weir. The race is a five and a half-mile open water course starting at the head of the Weir River, traversing Hingham Bay, and ending at Windmill Point. Conditions were particularly favorable for a row that morning, as minimal wind and temperatures in the low 60s made the race feel more like a leisure cruise to take in the changing foliage VCB sent youth and adult crews to Hull. This was the inaugural race for this youth crew since our dominant crew from last year’s race circuit graduated in May. Rowing Lady Moody, a coxed four stretch dory similar to our Warrior, VCB’s youth crew finished second in their category, behind only the professional team from Sound School. A great showing from our amateur crew that would have earned them medals in prior years! VCB’s adult crew was a work in progress that was only assembled in the eleventh hour. Two rowers and a coxswain made the journey up to Hull, where we joined forces with Don Betts, who generously provided the boat for our youth crew to row. Still short a rower going into the coxswains meeting half an hour before the race start, we were prepared to row a short-handed coxed three in Rescue One, a Whitehall gig loaned to us for the race by our generous hosts. A Sound School student joined our ranks and pushed us into the mixed youth/adult category, which proved to be a fortuitous change. VCB’s medley of a mixed crew finished first in that category and brought home more hardware for our trophy case. A good race was had by all! Thanks go out to Don Betts and the Hull Lifesaving Museum for providing boats, and to Sound School for rounding out our mixed crew. Come to Pier 40 on Saturday, November 9 to see our youth crew in action during VCB’s annual youth race!
Adult Crew Pulling HardYouth Crew Getting Some Pointers VCB Youth Crew in Rowing Lady Moody at the Start of the RaceVCB Adult Crew Pulling Over the Finishline at Windmill Point
2019 HEAD OF THE WEIR RACE RESULTS
21 Coxed 4 – Youth Sound School 1st Constitution 0:56:51
13 Coxed 4 – Youth Village Community Boathouse Lady Moody 1:05:05
22 Coxed 4 – Youth LCMM – Rice Memorial HS Ropa 1:11:22
15 Coxed 4 – Mixed Y/A Village Community Boathouse Rescue One 1:16:06
18 Coxed 4 – Adult Cape Cod TSCA Alex McDougall 0:51:55
17 Coxed 4 – Adult Avengers Mighty Herring 0:52:17
20 Coxed 4 – Adult Sound Alumni Joda Jane 0:56:26
12 Coxed 4 – Adult LCMM Adults American Shad 0:58:37
11 Coxed 4 – Adult Dharma Voyage Mariner’s Endeavor 1:00:40
16 Coxed 4 – Adult Ledyard Rowin’ Mike Davis 1:21:45
14 Coxed 4 – Adult Ledyard Rowin’
On Saturday, September 28, Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT) held its annual Submerge Marine Science Festival sponsored by the Hudson River Park Estuary Lab Team on Pier 84. Village Community Boathouse (VCB) was a founding member in support of the original Submerge Marine Science Festival on Pier 26. In the early days we would walk a 25-foot Whitehall gig over to Pier 26 with the concept that, along with our mission to place people on the water, we also build boats for the public’s edification. This year due to so many river events and change of venue to Pier 84, we set up a table up with navigation charts, a copy of the VCB Training Manual, cruise report sample, navigation compass, pH chart, and photos of the various types of boats we build, but with no actual physical boat present. The table was out of the way from the main traffic but that was okay because we had a splendid view of traffic along the river. When we had the boat on display, children always ran straight to the boat and began to ask questions. This year the adults were the first to approach the table. The big favorite with the children was the compass. I would ask them which way was North. They would always point back to the shore and uptown. Then I would show how true north was 23 degrees in the other direction, towards the river. The adults were usually unaware of this magnetic skew with the north/south Manhattan street grid. At around 3 pm volunteer Christine McVay was explaining how we build boats to put people on the water when the first “Rocking the Boat” crew flew by on their “Row around Manhattan” fundraiser. We explained that they borrowed VCB boats for this day-long thirty-mile voyage. Soon boat after boat came by, adding a visual component to our oral narrative of the human-powered boating community on the Hudson. As we explained tides and current, and the connection of science to the skill sets needed for navigating the river, many began to appreciate the difference between being a passenger and being a community rower. As part of Hudson River Park’s Park over Plastic initiative to reduce our plastic footprint and improve the health of the Hudson River, VCB has stopped selling single-use water bottles. I bought a “Park over Plastic” water bottle to show VCB support of the concept. I would like to thank The Trust, The Estuary Lab Team and Anna Koskol, the Environmental Educator whose vision of Informal Science engagement makes this such an exciting event for children as well as parents and educators. Tina Walsh who reached out to make sure VCB had everything in order for participation, thank you and of course Sally Curtis and Deborah Clearman who helped me stay the course. Dave, Frank, and Marcel for Boathouse maintenance tips in preparing the line for the kiddies.
