When Hurricanes Helene and Milton struck the Sarasota area in quick succession this past fall, the rowing clubs in the area and Benderson Park got hit hard along with the rest of the community.

Lemon Bay Crew Club, 32 miles south of Sarasota in Englewood, suffered a total loss. First, Helene damaged many of their shells despite the club's usual pre-storm preparations. Then before they could salvage those boats and send them away for repair, Milton's storm surge swept their entire fleet out to sea. You can see the aftermath of each storm in the short video below.

The club, a community-based group that focuses on masters rowing and learn-to-row classes, has about 44 members, about a third of whom are seasonal residents.

While the damage from Helene alone would have been costly to repair, the club must now start over with almost nothing because of Milton, according to club president Linda McGinley.

"We have a chain-link fence that's 8 foot tall around our boat yard, and [Milton's] storm surge had to be over 8 feet," McGinley said. "It probably was 10 or 12 feet high because what happened as a result is that everything in our boat yard was gone.

"Literally most of our fleet was swept away."

In addition to the boats, the surge carried off ergs, oars, spare riggers, and even most of the outdoor racks.

"We're starting from scratch to rebuild," said McGinley, but she stressed that the rowers at Lemon Bay remain undaunted, and determined to get back on the water.

"These hurricanes destroyed our boat yard and they decimated our boats, but they really didn't break our spirit. We are passionate about rowing and since the hurricanes we've been really busy with plans."

Damage in the boat yard post-Milton (photo credit: Diane Barghini)

That has included working with Sarasota County, which leases the boat yard to the club, on debris removal and regrading the site, visiting other clubs for ideas on stronger storage solutions, and beginning to buy replacement shells.

"We're starting out by planning to purchase an eight and hopefully a four and some singles so that we can get back on the water," said McGinley. "That's really our biggest goal, because people miss rowing, so we want to be back on the water and our goal is to hopefully be back on the water by the end of January."

While the Lemon Bay club is relatively small, hundreds of masters rowers have enjoyed its waters over the years thanks to Mayrene Earle and the Masters Coaching clinics she runs there each winter.

Earle estimates that over 300 women rowers have rowed at Lemon Bay through her clinics and said that both the camp and the club have "thrived because of this friendship." Within a week of Milton's devastation, Earle had set up a GoFundMe page to ask the wider rowing community to help Lemon Bay replace their fleet.

"Masters Coaching has come to Lemon Bay every year since 2006," added Earle. "It is our home away from home. For all of these years, LBCC has welcomed MC rowers with open arms from sharing their boats and beautiful water to planning breakfasts and sharing their homes. They have met every need, big and small, and we would like to support them as they rebuild their fleet and re-establish their rowing community."

The effort has raised over $20,000 dollars so far for the fleet, said McGinley, and the club also has a second fundraising site devoted to rebuilding the boatyard itself.

"We've been really astonished by the broader rowing community's response to us," she said, "and in addition to the generosity of rowers nationally, we've had rowers reach out to us across the nation to say, what can we do to help?"

That has included help and advice from Cape Coral Rowing Club just down the coast near Fort Myers, which has shared what they learned from rebuilding after Hurricane Ian in 2022.

"I'm confident that our club is going to continue," said McGinley, "because ninety-eight percent of the time, the setting we are in is just gorgeous and to be on the water all year-round, enjoying rowing, the sport itself as well as the as the surroundings and the spirit that it brings in terms of camaraderie, there's just no question that that we're going to we're going to prevail."

Anyone interested in helping Lemon Bay get back to rowing can donate either to the GoFundMe for the fleet started by Earle, or to the club's GiveButter site for rebuilding the boatyard.

"We're starting from scratch to rebuild," said McGinley. (photo credit: Diane Barghini)