VCB 2011 highlights

By Rob on December 24, 2011

Here are 99 select photos from the past year, with an emphasis on boatbuilding, special events, and the East River. Lots more shots posted here.

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Ice Breaker 2011

By Sally on November 21, 2011

VCB sent six crews and four gigs including four crews from Harbor School and two crews from Stuyvesant High School, to Hull, Mass for the northeast open water rowing youth championships, the Icebreaker. There were heavy winds and rough surf throughout the day-16 mph sustained winds with 30 mph gusts. The sprints were cancelled because many of the crews couldn’t get the boats off the beach due to the wind. Despite the weather, all six crews performed admirably. The Harbor School second fours boat came in first place. The Stuy Rowing first fours won the nautical mile and have a plaque to show for it.

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VCB Youth Race 2011

By Sally on November 14, 2011

Sixteen teams from four different rowing groups including Newburgh, Sound School, Harbor School (UANYHS) and Stuyvesant High School competed in the fourth annual VCB Youth Race. The wind was whipping at 16 mph out of the southwest making it a challenging day for the crews.About 150 people attended the event.

The day started with a race against the clock around the perimeter the buoys in the mooring field. The Girls winner was “G Boat” from Harbor School had the best combined time of 8:28 minutes. The three mixed winners were “Corsairs B1” from Newburgh with the third best time in the group at 7:03 minutes. The “A Squad” from Harbor School clocked in at 6:47 minutes. The Stuyvesant “Flying Sea Monkeys” logged the best combined time of 6:30 Minutes and also had the best single time of 3:14 minutes around the buoys.

The Girls final was deemed a tie due to inadequate instructions to the crews and bad communications with the race starter. However, it was an exciting which included at least two T-bone collisions and one oar lost and recovered. The mixed final, a race to the Sanitation Pier and back was won by the Stuyvesant High School team “Flying Sea Monkeys.”

All the coaches agreed that Youth Rowing in NYC has come a long way since a decade ago when the NYC teams would place last or in the back of the pack in Hull lifesaving Museum’s Icebreaker Race, the fixed seat championship races. In the last three years youth crews from VCB have come to dominate top positions in their class of boat.

Tony Rentschler shot this video of the Youth Race:

http://vimeo.com/32023328

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Head of the Weir- 2011

By Sally on November 7, 2011

Six VCB rowers, were joined by Linda Remington of the Warren Whirleygigs, for this 5.5 mile row sponsored by The Hull Lifesaving Museum. This was the racing debut for King Tide, VCB’s 32′ Cornish Pilot gig. Forty-three boats including kayaks, racing shells, six and four oared boats from all over New England and New York competed. The race began at the mouth of the Weir River, a narrow estuary and then out onto open water, traveling past Bumpkin Island, across Hull Bay, to the museum’s Windmill Point Boathouse at Hull Gut.
Although we were a little slow, we did finish the race and King Tide’s razzle dazzle paint job got a lot of attention. King Tide finished 34th out of 43 boats in the race. We were last in the Adult Pilot Gig category with a time of 1:14:16. Our time was 1 minute, 16 seconds slower than Cady with a crew of Whirleygigs from Warren, RI. As Dave Palsgrove remarked, we were the slowest of the fast boats and the fastest of the slow boats.

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VCB Video Starring Dave Clayton

By Sally on October 18, 2011

Stacey Szewczyk made this video, posted on YouTube, starring Dave but also including guest appearances by Frank and Kith.

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