Help!
Our club just suffered a tragic set-back last night when our shell trailer flipped in route back from our AK rowing camp with Carrie Graves. Luckily, no one was injured, but we lost all three of our eights and one from our sister club in Kenai. We are not sure how we will proceed. Luckily, no one was hurt. Two of our eights, the Odell and the Herrick, are not repairable. Our third eight, the Enquist, may be repairable- we haven yet to conduct a thorough assessment. One of our fours, the blade runner was also damaged and is unrowable right now. The Kenai Crewsers eight, the Sara Mia, was also damaged and is unrowable. The trailer apparently fishtailed unexpectedly and ended up flipping into the ditch (and not into the line of oncoming traffic that was at a standstill). One car in the line of traffic was hit but again no one was hurt. The trailer itself is also damaged and was towed. We've tentatively called a couple of shipping companies. Totem and Ravenstar Shipping both think that they can get boats up here fairly quickly for us if any are available.
If you know of any good used equipment for sale/donation on the West coast please contact us ASAP and/or pass this along to any leads you may have. Unfortunately, we do not have much insurance and as a new club, not much in the way of a bank account yet either. We also have limited shell repair experience- especially structural- so this will be a challenging hurdle. Although our equipment was old by most standards, it was all we had.
We will likely make a move on at least one replacement eight, somehow, this week as we have several races approaching, several classes ongoing, and a very short season.
Any thoughts would be welcome.
Geoff Weston York
Anchorage Rowing Association
(907) 786-3928 [email protected]