November 7th Nelsons beach, Plymouth Massachusetts. 45 crews totaling 130 rowers were entered. A traditional rowing only open water event featuring any and all types of rowing craft. A beautiful blending of thousand pound mighty six oared pilot gigs and 38 pound racing shells with everything in between. Adirondack guide boats, Wherreys. Whale Boats, Manville Gigs, Maas 24's, Echo's, Aldens, Wintechs, Resolutes, etc.
A great event for spectators as the start and finish line were right off the beach and the entire 3.5 mile course was within sight . With so many gorgeous traditional and modern rowing craft gathered just walking amongst the boats was a feast for the eyes. The youngest rower was twelve year old Justin from Cape Cod Rowing who rowed twice for his club earning two silver medals. While helping his club earn the overall points trophy on the day by edging out the host club Saquish Rowing with a tie (default to the visitors). Some hard fought battles especially between two of the Dory crews. JimTarantino from Gloucester and Mr. Cote up from New Jersey slugged it out till the end with Tarantino's boat edging out Cote by 6 seconds with a time of 28:43
A perfect sunny day with temps in the 60 degree range and calm water (too calm for some) made for some fast times on the day.(see website) We had a great day and a bunch of fun including the after party/ awards ceremony where the beer flowed and the band played well into the evening. www.eastcoastopenwaterrowingchampionship.org,
The inaugural ECOWRC event and we are very pleased with how the day went. Our hope is for this race to evolve into one of the northeast's premier open water events.