Warrior, VCB’s Chamberlain Stretch Gunning Dory built by students from Benjamin Banneker Academy was used as a prop for a fashion photo shoot this week. People from M magazine contacted VCB through the website asking to rent a boat. They were directed to the photo gallery to look at photos of the VCB fleet. The producers were inspired by a photo of Notorious G.I.G. on the beach in Alpine. Since Notorious is in Brooklyn for the winter, Warrior was hired in her place.

From 2014-07-27

The Original Photo of Notorious on the Beach in Alpine

From 2014-07-27

M Magazine Crew

From 2014-07-27

Warrior all dressed up

From 2014-07-20

Public Rowing in Prospect Park Lake, a joint effort by Village Community Boathouse and Prospect Park Alliance has been a great success so far this summer with almost 350 waivers signed in the four Saturdays the program has run- Last session, Saturday, 7/19, 123 rowers went out on the lake. Thanks to volunteers Dexter Tong, Jenny Chen, Shana Luo, Nancy, Michael Anton, Karen Richardson, Phil Shinn, Marcel, Lena, Ed and also thanks to some kind strangers.

From Cow Day 2014

A group of Village Community Boathouse adult volunteers and Stuyvesant High School Students and Alumnae rowed 3 Whitehall Gigs from Pier 40 to Governors Island to participate in the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance’s (MWA) City of Water Day Festival. The festival is a free day-long celebration of New York Harbor. Held on Governors Island and Maxwell Park in Hoboken, NJ–the event draws thousands of people to participate various waterfront activities organized by MWA and its 700 Alliance Partners including Village Community Boathouse.
The VCB contingent of volunteers arrived a little late with the flood tide but just in time to compete in the Cardboard Kayak Race in which the crews build a kayak out of tape and cardboard and then compete in a series of heats. The VCB team took second place in that event. VCB also set up a booth with lots posters and photos to let the public and our waterfront neighbors know about VCB’s community rowing and boatbuilding programs.

VILLAGE COMMUNITY BOATHOUSE JOINS FORCES WITH WEEROW AT MAXWELL BEACH FOR COW DAY 2014

From Drop Box

The City of Hoboken also participated in City of Water Day for the first time in the festival’s seven year history. The event was staged at the beach at Maxwell Place Park, also the location of the Hoboken Cove Boathouse. Offerings at the beach included paddle boarding, outriggers, kayaking, and rowing. Volunteers from VCB and Weehawken Rowing (weerow.org) rowed a Whitehall Gig from the VCB Boathouse on Pier 40 and arrived just as festivities were getting under way. Experienced volunteers immediately began taking turns taking out crew after crew of novice rowers, many of whom were intrigued by our boat and its history on the river. Most of the rows were short (just a few hundred yards out of the cove) but provided a wonderful experience for those looking to go out beyond the confines of the kayaking area inside the cove. Altogether we took out 40 community members (counting those who went more than once), an amazing accomplishment given the 4 hour window and the time it took to load and offload passengers. Families were lined up on the beach in life jackets signing waivers waiting for their turn on what had become known on the beach as ‘the long boat.’ In spite of a super moon low tide current and a nasty wind out of the south (the combo of which created some ocean like conditions at times) we had a safe and successful event and returned to VCB right on schedule.

Many thanks to Eileen McCarren of Hoboken Cove Boathouse, Stephanie Hill and Ray Fusco of MWA for their efforts to coordinate this successful event.
Also thanks to all the VCB volunteers who made COW Day 2014 so much fun and such a great success: Michael Anton, Helen Ng, Margaret Ma, Rene Moreno, Patrick McShane, Rob Buchanan, Dave Clayton, Janet Richman, Charin Jun, Joy Yang, Dexter Tong, Brian Tong, Jenny Chen, Marcus Chan, Tony Fung, Shana Luo and Haymar Lim, David Shehegian, Emily Travis, Frank Cervi & Weerowers.

From CW2014

VCB volunteers Sally Curtis, Dave Clayton, Margaret Ho, Rene Moreno and Lissa Wolfe sailed up to the Great Hudson River Clearwater Revival aka Clearwater to support Harbor School students with public rowing at the festival’s working waterfront.
VCB volunteers and gigs, Bird & Nonpareil got a ride (tow) up to the fesival site in Croton Point Park (and back to Pier 40) aboard Lettie G. Howard, a 125′ schooner built in 1883.

From GVSHP Award

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation honored Village Community Boathouse with a Village Award. Deborah Clearman accepted the award and gave a rousing speech. There was a story in the Villager Newspaper about the ceremony which was MC’d by Calvin Trillin.

Photos by Michael Anton, Official Photographer of the NYC Department of Sanitation

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Deborah Clearman’s Acceptance Speech
2014 Village Award to Village Community Boathouse

I am Deborah Clearman, Recording Secretary of the Village Community Boathouse. On behalf of our entire community, I want to thank GVSHP. We are thrilled and honored to be receiving this award.
 
The Village Community Boathouse has occupied a space on the south side of pier 40 in one form or another for more than 15 years. We build and row traditional wooden rowboats which we use to fulfill or mission of providing free public access to the Hudson River Estuary.

Three times a week during rowing season—April to November, depending on the weather—anyone can show up at Pier 40 and row with us. After a brief orientation they don life jackets, climb down a 12-foot ladder into the boat, set their pins and rings (They’ve just learned what these are), toss their oars, and they’re off. Four oarsmen, each wielding one long oar. A seasoned coxswain—member of VCB—coaches them as they row around the embayment, getting the feel of it, often “catching a crab” or two (a nautical term, google it when you get home). Then the coxswain asks, “Are you ready to go out on the river?”

Bounding over wakes and waves, dodging traffic in the shipping lanes, the rowers feel the power of the wind and tide, great forces of nature sweeping through the heart of New York City. The city will never look the same to them.

In the winter we move inside, into our large shop on Pier 40, to build the boats. Again, the public is invited to participate under the guidance of VCB members. Learning how to use power tools, carving planks out of quarter inch plywood (One quarter inch between you and the river!), bending them around forms, filling the cracks with a mixture of epoxy and sawdust we call “peanut butter,” many hands make light work. With each week what we are building looks more and more like. . .a boat. At the end, another Whitehall gig, 25-feet long, joins the boathouse.

Our activities and programs enhance the quality of life in Greenwich Village and serve to remind our community of the rich maritime culture and traditions of the historic Greenwich Village waterfront. But VCB’s existence is under threat.

Pier 40, once a major source of revenue for Hudson River Park from its parking facilities, is crumbling. Over the years, park administrators, developers, and community leaders have floated various schemes to repair and maintain Pier 40 and to support the park. Somehow, the public boathouses in the park, which last year put more than 30,000 paddlers and rowers on the water, have been mostly overlooked in the discussions. Pier 40 is not just about its playing fields, which are understandably beloved by the community. Pier 40’s south-side embayment is the best and safest water access point in the entire Hudson River Park. The boathouses provide the literal “connection to the water” that the park’s creators, designers, and managers always intended. The experience of being out on the river in a human powered craft is unique and transformative. We are a city built on water, and the fate of the city will be tied to its relationship with its waterways. The preservation of public access to the water, and adequate indoor space for community boating groups, should be a central requirement of whatever development scheme is ultimately adopted for Pier 40.

So please, talk to your local politicians, community board members, and journalists, but most of all, come on down to the south side of Pier 40, any Tuesday or Wednesday at 5 or Sunday at noon, and row with us!