30th Annual Charlie Butt Scullers Head of the Potomac - Register now!

Men's Eights jockey for position as they approach Key Bridge during the 2008 SHOP.

• Click here to register!

Ms. Samantha Byrd, chair of Potomac Boat Club’s Regatta Committee, is proud to announce that the 30th Annual Charlie Butt Scullers Head of the Potomac (SHOP) will be held this year on Sunday, September 26.

The regatta is held in memory and honor of legendary rowing coach, Charlie Butt.

Once considered a tune up regatta for the Head of the Charles held in mid-October, today the SHOP includes more than 40 sweep and sculling events, and is considered its own milestone on the fall racing calendar.

To register, please visit the Scullers Head of the Potomac online registration area on Ronin Racing. Entries must be received by Saturday, September 11, 2010, to avoid the late fee. Please note that once registration closes on Saturday, September 18, 2010, it’s closed. There will be no race day registration this year.

Still have a question about the SHOP? Please send it to our Regatta Committee at headofthepotomac@gmail.com.

The Charlie Butt Scullers Head of the Potomac is a true test of physical endurance and mental toughness for sweep crews and scullers alike. Don’t miss a chance to race down one of the Nation’s most historic rivers!

Potomac Masters make a run for gold at the border

Perennial favorites Camilla Durfee and Cal Sutliff will try to bring home the gold once again in the mixed 2x. (Pictured above in 2006.)

From Camden to Canada, Potomac Boat Club’s most experienced this week head north again to St. Catherines, Ontario, for the 2010 FISA World Rowing Masters Regatta.  The four days of racing starts tomorrow, September 2nd, and culminates on September 5th, with a usually raucous party. (And we’ve seen pictures of our MRP at this party from years past, fully enjoying their time away from home waters. Let’s just say that one year, they got the cops on the dance floor … to dance!

But with over 2,700 entries and 300 clubs participating, the racing does get serious, folks. See for yourself!

Camilla strikes again, this time with Kathy Hughes in the G-J 2x. Thanks to Debbie Charles Chisholm for the pic!

Draws are now available here.  Click here to visit Regatta Central for a list of PBC entered events and the names of those competing for the club.  For real time results throughout the event, make sure you click here. (Refresh your browser often to ensure the latest results are visible.)

Not enough schedules and results for you?  Visit a link below to find results for each day of the regatta:

• Thursday’s Results
• Friday’s Results
• Saturday’s Results
• Sunday’s Results

And maybe we’ll get lucky again and have more guest reporting from the event.  Check back over the next few days for updates!  [Update: Folks are writing us! (Squeal) See who below!]

Good luck to everyone and … GO, PBC!

Winners of the Women's H4+: Potomac's Marilyn Means, Camilla Durfee, Gretchen Ellsworth, Sarah Grady and Sally Sternbach.

Potomac’s 2010 Masters Nationals Results

Only white caps would have made this more fun for our Chuck Selden.

Masters National Championships 2010 had us thinking: Where is it almost always perfect rowing weather? Wherever it is, we want to live there.  Or at least race there. At Masters Nationals in Camden last year, the sun and heat were absolutely punishing. At Masters Nationals in Camden this year, the wind definitely got the best of some.

But that’s okay, right, PBC? It’s not the moment that defines us. We define the moment. No matter the conditions. (Yes, we’re watching the PGA Championship and our results roll in from Camden.)  Besides, if we didn’t have conditions to complain about, we’d call it, um … bowling?

Anyway, at the end four days, our PBC masters pulled off another stellar MatNats performance, and walked away with their annual haul of gold, silver, and bronze hardware. They also earned us second in the overall team point trophy! And, folks, that’s second only to the most populous rowing club in the universe, Saugatuck. Impressive stuff.

Is that a giant trophy you're holding or are you just happy to us?! Members of PBC's Men's Sweep Team at the conclusion of another successful MatNats.

By the way, if you haven’t already, make sure you check out Ed Ryan and Debbie Charles Chisholm reporting from Camden under “Recent Comments” on the right side of the Star.  Our thanks, again, to them!

Awesome job, everyone!

• Click here to access all of the results.
• Click here for Point Detail for Potomac Boat Club Women - 4 Gold/6 Silver/1 Bronze
• Click here for Point Detail for Potomac Boat Club Men - 8 Gold/5 Silver/6 Bronze

Combined Point Detail - Potomac Boat Club

(Click on the red links below for more detail.)

PBC Juniors race Saturday in Racice!

Best of luck tomorrow to Potomac Boat Club’s Nader Al-Naji and Rob Rasmussen in the C/D semifinals of the men’s double sculls, and to Christina Bax and her crew as they go for a third-consecutive women’s eight world title for the U.S.!

For the full race schedule (in Racice time), go to http://www.worldrowing.com/medias/docs/media_361927.pdf.

To access the live viewer, go to http://www.worldrowing.com/index.php?pageid=151.

Want to see more photos?  Dr. Ted Walkley, U.S. Team Physician, not only took the photos we used in this post, but will post more online throughout the event!  Click here to go to his album.

Christina (second from left, 5 seat) and her teammates go for gold tomorrow!

RACICE, Czech Republic (USRowing) - Five U.S. crews advanced Friday, despite heavy rain throughout the second day of racing at the 2010 World Rowing Junior Championships. The women’s four, women’s quadruple sculls and women’s eight are set to race for medals tomorrow, Saturday, August 7. In total, seven U.S. boats are headed to either the semifinals or finals after today’s races.

The men’s double sculls duo of Nader Al-Naji (Fairfax, Va.) and Robert Rasmussen (Washington D.C.) finished sixth in the third quarterfinal, and will now race in the C/D semifinals. The U.S crew finished fifth in its heat and second in its afternoon repechage en route to the quarterfinal. In today’s race, France pulled out early, gaining more than three seconds on the field in the first 500 meters and eventually winning in a 6:49.51. The U.S. posted a time of 7:20.35 and will take on Croatia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic and Estonia on Saturday.

Christina (second from left, 5 seat) and her teammates go for gold tomorrow!

The U.S. women’s eight and men’s four with coxswain are back in action tomorrow after winning their respective heats on Thursday. Coxswain Christine Devlin (Harvard, Mass.), Rosemary Grinalds (Southport, Conn.), Louise Breen (Northampton, N.H.), Madison Lips (Parker, Colo.), Christina Bax (Bethesda, Md.), Marianne Hoeft (New Canaan, Conn.), Kristen Faulkner (Homer, Alaska), Faith Richardson (Wellesley, Mass.) and Carli Goldberg (Sarasota, Fla.) will look to win a third-consecutive women’s eight world title. Coming off of a convincing win in its preliminary race, the U.S. crew will take on Czech Republic, Romania, Great Britain, Germany and Russia in the last event of the day.

Potomac’s Results for IDR 2010

Turns out, the weather up in Philadelphia for this year’s Independence Day Regatta (IDR) wasn’t so bad after all!

Missing from the racecourse, but not the initial heat sheets, was the women’s Masters Rowing Program. We’re told they decided to skip the holiday traffic. Hard to blame them for that! We’re sure we’ll see them up at Masters National Championships in August.

Below are the PBC IDR results we could dig up.  To see all the IDR results, please visit the results page here.

Good job, everybody!

12 Mens Junior 1x (G. Young) – 4th
13 Mens Junior 2x (N. Al-Naji, R. Rasmussen) – 2nd
17 Mens Junior 4x Potomac B.C. A (P. Lacey, T. Myers, E.Meade, J. Hanlon) – 2nd
17 Mens Junior 4x Potomac B.C. B (A. Casey, W. Richhart, G. Gellatly, P. Bates) – 4th
27 Mens Intermediate 2x (N. Al-Naji, R. Rasmussen) – 4th
27 Mens Intermediate 2x (E. Meade, J. Hanlon) - 6th
37 Mens Junior 1x (P. Lacey) – 6th
38 Mens Inter. Light 4x (W. Richhart, D.Thom, B. Vihstadt, G. Gellatly) – 3rd
44 Womens 1x (K. Stainken) – 3rd
44 Womens 1x (L. Krawczyk) – 6th
58b Mens Masters 1x (E) (E. Ryan) - 3rd
58c Mens Masters 1x (F) (N. Young) – 4th

Watch a replay of the 2010 Boat Race!

If you missed the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race live yesterday on the BBC, you missed a good one!  But no worries!  Click here to watch the blow by blow replay on the Theboatrace.org!