2012 Coastweeks Regatta

Today was the 21st Annual Coastweeks Regatta in Mystic, Connecticut. It was a sunny, but somewhat blustery day at certain spots both on land and on the water, and some rowers had problems maneuvering their boats. Here are some pictures I took....

For one of the earliest head races of the season in New England, slightly more than 160 rowers came to compete on the Mystic River, which is a little less than last year. It was still crowded to get down to the dock to launch your boat...

You had to watch out so you did not get bonked on the head by a rigger or an oar..

And then, when you were out on the water, you had to watch out for other boats which also were on their way to the start...

 Wonderful to see a very young crew of oarsmen rowing to start, taking it very seriously...

Another crew of boys in a bow-coxed boat. The cox is sitting up to get a better look, which is good because in front of them a young lady has just capsized in her single scull...

 however, she is not panicking, she is taking it easy and slow to be able to adjust her sculls and shell...

then she slides up, trying to keep her balance...

and she is quickly back in her boat again, sitting up-right, putting her feet in the foot-stretcher...

so when the motor launch arrives, she is already correcting her course, going up to the start - well done!

Here is a little trick question: which set of blades are placed the correct way? Well, your answer might depend upon which country you are from. For years and years, I was taught that the blades were supposed to point up. Then the Swedish Olympian oarsman Hasse Svensson told our club coach that he always put his blades down, so the rubber handles would not get gravel and small rocks inside. Since that day, we were also putting blades down and handles up.... After all, it was an Olympian who gave the advice and he ought to know what he was talking about.... No?

The 2012 Coastweeks Regatta results are here.

Thoughts on the Battle Between the Bridges

Hart Perry

For nine years now there has been a fun rowing regatta in Downtown Mystic on the day before the so called Coastweeks Regatta, which is tomorrow, Sunday 16 September, at Mystic Seaport. The Saturday regatta that I am referring to is the Battle Between the Bridges, which HTBS has written about before. The BBB, as it is commonly known, was created by Hart Perry in 2002 as an American 'Henley Sprint' on a 500-metre course with room for two scullers match racing between the Railroad Bridge and the Drawbridge in Downtown Mystic. BBB would, thanks to Hart's contacts, attract America's top female and male scullers. They would come from all around, and some of them would come directly from the World Championships or even the Olympic Games to compete on the river in the tiny little village of Mystic.

As it was founded in 2002, today it was supposed to have been the 10th annual regatta. It was not to be. When Hart suddenly died on 3 February 2011, some of the institutions that he directed, or was an important part of, faltered, as his colleagues did not really know how to proceed or what to do. BBB was one of those events of which Hart was truly at the helm. BBB was organised last year, but not without difficulty.

Before I knew that the regatta was called off, I thought that, for the 10th anniversary races, I wanted to honour Hart in a special way. Many fine things have already been said about Hart on the web and in print in newspapers and magazines, but no poem has ever been written in his honour, if I understand it right. Of course, I am not really a poet, not even a versifier, but, alas, I decided to have a go. It took me quite some time to get it the way I wanted. Struck by hubris, I thought that my verse could even get published in the regatta programme. Well, with a no-show and no programme, I decided to throw it on HTBS instead. So, here it is, a poem about a regatta that was cancelled and about a great man, who is still very much missed by many of us.

Thoughts on the 10th Battle Between the Bridges in 2012
In fond memory of William Hartwell “Hart” Perry, Jr., 1923 – 2011

So, it’s time again
To walk down to the Mystic River,
On a beautiful September day, when
The sky has clouds with edges of silver,
And the leaves sway calmly in the trees.
Men and women in their boats will row;
While the beams of the sun will glow
Over the riverbanks – only to be cooled off by a quiet breeze.

A river scene:
Rowers racing from bridge to bridge
Is an annual view, we for years have seen.
Thanks to one man’s dream, an image
Of gathered scullers with bodies strong;
Two scullers rowing side by side, abreast –
Pulling, getting those oar handles to the chest
On a course five hundred metres long.

The sculler’s muscles flex
When she races on the water betwixt
The bridges.  No rower neglects
To keep her eyes steadily fixed
On an invisible point behind the stern.
Effortlessly the scullers go on their slides –
The victor’s shell under the drawbridge’s darkness glides,
Leaving the fighting opponent astern.

These athletes display
A finesse to scull in colourful shells,
Appearing as an Impressionist painting by Monet.
The solemn knell of a church’s bells
In the distance,
Remind us of one man: Hartwell Perry, our Hart,
Who turned his life in rowing into a fine art –
Today we honor him in his absence.

There was only one such man,
It was said when he died:
A coach, an umpire, a Henley Steward – a gentleman;
Calling him a friend, we still do with pride.
Again and again we asked for his advice,
It might have been about a boat, a crew, or Henley fashion;
His might came from within, a warm passion,
Which he is using now, I bet, coaching crews in Rowers’ Paradise.

Göran R Buckhorn

Writing on the Water

Writing on the Water

Between the railroad bridge
And the Mystic Drawbridge,
The rowers oared their shells
In competitive heats.

I thought them words
In the act of being
Written, each one
A noun acting as verb.

They were subject and predicate in one.
They were the act and the act
Of being, the effort of their performances
The ink they used,

Invisible ink on the papery water,
All, to my eye, erased
as quickly a it was written,
Yet all etched, indelibly,

On the river of the rowers' souls.
This, then, was
The script of the race
Written as I watched.

Philip Kuepper
(The Battle Between the Bridges,
September 2011)

Coastweeks & Ed Monahan - A Man To Count On!

One way to understand that Autumn will soon be upon us is that the head races begins in New England. One of the first ones is the Coastweeks Regatta, which was held today on the Mystic River. It was actually the 20th Annual Coastweeks Regatta and although slightly more than a week ago, it looked like it was going to be a small amount of rowers - young boys and girls, and older men and women, novice and more experienced “oars” - who would find their way to Mystic, Connecticut, but things changed. Early this morning, the organisers handed out around 200 bow numbers to participating rowers. Not bad, not bad, at all.

The weather was cooperating: the sun was up and there was a light breeze, which however, was a little stronger out on the water, especially at the start, which was under the I95 Highway bridge upriver. The finish line was, as always, the dock by the Mystic Seaport’s North Lawn.

One in the group of organisers, Edward Monahan, 75 years young, was, as always, ready with his shell and sculls to fight for a medal. Ed was one of the founding fathers of this regatta 20 years ago, and to celebrate this, his fellow members of the Regatta committee had instituted a new prize, the Edward Monahan Founder's Trophy for the Men’s Veterans Racing Singles.

Ed Monahan (on the right) congratulates Steve Gurney of the New Haven Rowing Club, the first recipient of the Edward Monahan Founder’s Trophy for the class Men’s Veterans Racing Singles at the Coastweeks Regatta. Photo: Betty Monahan.

Ed, who by the way, did win a medal at this regatta, is a man who rows by the numbers, which was pointed out last month in an article in the local newspaper, The Day. Read more about Ed by clicking here.

You will find the results from the Coastweeks Regatta here.

The Coastweeks Regatta is one of the regattas in Mystic during this weekend. The other one, The Battle Between the Bridges Invitational Regatta, is always raced by men and women in single sculls the day before Coastweeks. I am afraid not much information went out about this year’s Battle Between the Bridges, which is rowed on a short 500-metre course between the railroad bridge and the bascule bridge in Downtown Mystic. Both events are sharing the same programme, ‘Mystic Weekend of Rowing’, which this year honoured one of the great men of American rowing, Hart Perry, who sadly passed away in February this year. Hart was the founder of this regatta, and from now on, the regatta will be referred to as the Hart Perry The Battle Between the Bridges Invitational Regatta – a very suitable tribute.

Wisdom Of An Ocean Rower

An event that is ending the Coastweeks Regatta on Sunday 19 September is a talk by Tori Murden McClure, author of A Pearl in the Storm, which has been picked as this year’s ‘One Book, One Region’. This reading programme is to “bring people together to discuss ideas, to broaden the appreciation of reading, and to break down barriers among people,” Betty Ann Reiter, Groton Public Library Director and chair of the programme, said the other day in an interview in one of the local papers.

In 1999, McClure became the first women to row across the Atlantic, and this book tells the story how she did it. I have earlier written about this book in an entry on 1 May.

McClure’s talk is going to be held at 5 p.m. in the River Room at Latitude 41 Restaurant at the north end of Mystic Seaport Museum, free a of charge.

Click here to watch a trailer for A Pearl in the Storm.

Mystic Weekend Of Rowing 2010

For many younger and older rowers in the southern parts of New England the Coastweeks Regatta on the Mystic River is the start of the autumn rowing and racing season. The 19th annual Coastweeks Regatta will be held on Sunday 19 September at Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut.

Rowers of all ages and capabilities are welcome to participate on the 2,000-metre long course from the start north of the I95 Highway Bridge rowing downriver to the finish line at the museum’s North End. There are races for singles, doubles, coxed fours, and quadruple sculls for Youths, Open Class, Masters, and Veterans. For more information and to register please click here.

The day before, on Saturday 18 September, the 8th annual Battle Between The Bridges Invitational Regatta will take place in Mystic. The participants – all top elite U.S. scullers – will row an almost 500-metre course just north of AMTRAK railroad bridge upriver to the drawbridge in the historical downtown of Mystic. Good places to watch these sprinter races are the lawn outside the Mystic Art Center or the Mystic River Park.

To read last year’s HTBS report, please click here. Both these rowing events are part of what popular is called the Mystic Weekend of Rowing, MWOR.

The 'Perfect Style'

On Sunday, at the Coastweeks Regatta, I bumped into a friend of mine, Bill, who had been out racing in the masters single event. I asked him how it went, and although Bill did not win his race, he was happy. This was his second year racing in the Coastweeks. As a matter of fact, it is not only his second year racing, it is Bill’s second year rowing. He began last year in April, taking some sculling classes during the summer, racing in the Coastweeks in September, and before the year had ended, he bought himself a shell of his own, lucky fellow.

Bill, who is a very nice man, has the right attitude towards his new sport. He enjoys being out on the water trying the get one perfect stroke after another. Adding them up, one outing after another. And though, sometimes he manages to get very few ‘perfect’ strokes on an outing, he enjoys what he is doing. Bill is having pure pleasure being out in his boat. And to me, this makes absolute sense, because whatever you are doing, it has to be fun!

Bill had read one of my entries from 13 September, showing an old ‘funny post card’. Being interested in different rowing styles, Bill asked me about the English Orthodox Style, which predominated during the time the card came out (it was sent in 1917). Some years later, in the beginning of the 1920s, Steve Fairbairn’s method (he refused to call it a ‘style’) became popular – or one could even say it came to be ‘in fashion’! It is hard to try to compare Fairbairn’s new method to the old English Orthodox Style. The only thing, more or less, that Fairbairn wanted his oarsmen, and later oarswomen, to think about was his or her oar in the water. They were not to spend a lot of time learning how their body, arms and legs were supposed to be at a certain time during the stroke, it would come naturally.

I have found two drawings in two old Swedish rowing books showing the difference between the Fairbairn method and other rowing ‘styles’ for Bill and you other readers to see and compare. The one on top shows the Fairbairn in black and the old style in grey, while the image on the left shows the ‘old orthodox style’, ‘younger orthodox style’, the ‘continental style’, and, at the bottom, Fairbairn’s style, or method.

Of course, today, rowers are not rowing in any of these ‘styles’, in their purest forms. However, I will leave that discussion to a later date. In the mean time, Bill and all you others, have fun out on the water!

The Battle Between The Bridges 2009

Under a beautiful, blue sky the first day out of two for Mystic Weekend of Rowing, the Battle Between The Bridges, was held in Downtown Mystic today. It was the 7th Annual Saturday regatta, while the Sunday races for the Coastweeks Regatta will be held tomorrow with the finish line at the Mystic Seaport Museum’s north end lawn.

But for today, roughly ten top-notch male and ten female scullers were racing on the 500 metre long course between the Amtrak Railway Bridge and the Mystic Bascule Drawbridge for the honour and for the Battle Between the Bridges’ ‘trophies’. Among the scullers were, for example, Megan Kalmoe (who won the female races), Laura Larsen-Strecker, Jessi Reel, Lindsay Shoop, Scott Killen, Jon Winter, Chad Healy, and local, Harrison Macris.

Yale University lightweight varsity men’s coach, Andy Card, was, as usual, the witty and entertaining commentator close to the Drawbridge. Of course, a lot of the local rowing dignitaries were present, to mention a few, Ed Monahan, veteran rower and author of Rowing Retrospections - A Personal View of New England Master Sculling (2004), Jim Dietz, Dean Macris, and Hart Perry, Executive Director of the National Rowing Foundation. Hart Perry was kind enough to introduce me to one of the finish line judges, Michele Guerette, Olympic silver medalist in the single scull in Beijing. I could tell Miss Guerette that I actually bumped into her father two weeks back at Mystic Seaport Museum. At that time I had the great honour to show him the National Rowing Hall of Fame and the eminent rowing exhibit ‘Let Her Run’.

Now, let me ask you, in what other sport could you see, and actually talk to, the top, elite athletes as we did today? Any other sport would charge you at least $50 for a seat far up on a spectator stand. Today we all had a front row seat for free. Thank you organizers of the Mystic Weekend of Rowing!

Mystic Weekend Of Rowing

The month of September is soon upon us, which means that it is time for the Mystic Weekend of Rowing (MWOR) again. As usual it is a two-day event on the Mystic River in Mystic, Connecticut, with The Battle Between the Bridges on Saturday 19 September and the Coastweeks Regatta on Sunday 20 September. Both events have been established to promote the sport of rowing in a community environment, and they are supported by the National Rowing Foundation (NRF), Mystic Seaport Museum, and the Mystic Arts Center.

In August every year there is a fundraising event, a cocktail reception for MWOR. This is always a nice evening at the Mystic Arts Center where you can mingle and rub shoulders with the organizers of the regattas and other rowing dignitaries. This year it was yesterday, and unfortunately, I was not able to attend, which was a real pity.

But now to go back to the rowing events: the Saturday races between the Amtrak railroad bridge upriver to the famous historic bascule drawbridge in downtown Mystic are for invited top-notch scullers. Every year some scullers, who have competed at the World Championships and Olympic Games, find their way to Mystic to sprint on the almost 500-metre long course.

These races can be best viewed from the Mystic River Park, the drawbridge, or the Mystic Art Center’s lawn. As always, Andy Card, Yale University lightweight men’s crew coach, will be the witty commentator and introduce the rowers and call their races. This is a brilliant opportunity to watch the country’s, if not the world’s, best scullers in action – and it is free!!

On Sunday the rowing will move upriver to Mystic Seaport Museum for the Coastweeks Regatta, which is an event for local and regional rowers and scullers. Hundreds of athletes, men and women of all generations, will race on the 2,000-metre course from north of the I-95 overpass to the north end of Mystic Seaport.

To read more about this event (and to find more information how to sign up to compete on the Sunday event), please click here.

Last year, the organizers of Coastweeks Regatta had a real treat to offer the rowers, their family and friends, and the spectators at the regatta. Two of the 2008 Olympic rowing medalists, Anna Cummins (gold, women’s eight; to the left) and Michelle Guerette (silver, women’s single scull; to the right), were present to give a talk on how it felt to compete at the Olympic Games and therefore be a part of the history of rowing. It was indeed a very pleasant and enjoyable event with two very humble ladies.