Henley 2010 - Men’s Sweep Practice

Below are some random photos taken of Potomac Boat Club’s Men’s Sweep practice, on Thursday, June 3, 2010.  This year, the men return to the UK, to compete in the Henley Royal Regatta (June 30 - July 4).

We hope to have more information on the lineup and race schedule soon.  Stay tuned.

Security reminder from the president

Hi All –

A recent locker room theft reminds us that despite significant improvements in house security, we must continue to take reasonable precautions to secure our belongings while at the club.

This particular theft was from an unlocked locker.  Please make sure you are locking your locker and closing doors behind you.  As an added measure, don’t be shy about questioning anyone you don’t recognize.

It’s unfortunate we have to be on guard at our own club, but if we remember to do these simple things, we will continue to increase the level of safety and security for all of us.

Bob Price
President, PBC

Brrrr … 4-Oar Rule starts today!

Social Committee socks it to us at the 140th Anniversary

You’ve probably heard this a few times by now, but if you didn’t make it to the 140th Anniversary Celebration on September 12th, you missed a great time.  Despite no-show valets, our Social Committee was able roll with the punches and pull off another big win in the party category for the Club and for the almost 200 folks in attendance. 

“The weather couldn’t have been more perfect and everyone made good use of our porch and deck and PBC’s excellent vantage point on the river,” said Susan Trice, co-chair of the Social Committee.  “The valets didn’t show, but everyone took it in stride and found parking on the street or in a garage.  And the food was fantastic!”

Credit for the fantastic food goes to Catering by Charlene.  And it must have been at least really, really good because you’ve been asking for the caterer’s contact information ever since. It just so happens that member Eric Dobson ran into Charlene at another event catered by Catering by Charlene, and he shared the following with us:

Catering by Charlene, Tel 703-684-9228

She even has a small carry-out located in Old Town Alexandria at this address:

Gourmet Food to Go
104 North West Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22314

And how about that Silent Auction?!  Many of you generously answered the call from the Social Committee for auction items, donating lessons, personal training, concert tickets, restaurant certificates, cupcakes and flowers, Patagonia gear, weekend getaways in Chincoteague and Annapolis, a week in a cottage in the UK, and more.  In the end, the auction raised approximately $4,000 for the Potomac River Sports Foundation to support our Open Sculling Program.  The Social Committee says “thanks” to all of you who donated and bid.  And we say “great job” to the Social Committee for putting it all together!

Okay, so, let’s review:Great food. Auction items. Hoofing it in your party shoes from a far away parking lot to share an evening with 200 of your closest friends.  Hmmm.  What else did you miss?  Oh, yes.  Socks! (If you’re listening from the other room, that was s-o-c-k-s.)  If you didn’t make it to the party, you missed an opportunity to take home a pair of 140th Anniversary commemorative socks!

Fortunately, the Social Committee still has a few left … and they’ll only cost you $100 a pair! Okay, for you, $5 a pair, if you can pick them up at the Club, or $6, if they have to be mailed.  Interested?  Send us a note to editor@potomacstar.com, and we’ll send you what you need to know to get your very own pair.  Supply is limited, so hurry. [Available sizes for men:  shoe size 6-8=M, 8-10=L, 10-13=XL. For women:  7-9=M, 9-11=L, 11+=XL.]

Well, then. We bet after finding out you missed all that, you’re swearing up and down that you’ll never, ever, ever miss another chance to be social at PBC, again! Good. You have two more chances coming up before the end of the year. Mark your calendars for the End of the Racing Season Potluck on Saturday, November 21st (the weekend before Thanksgiving), and the PBC Holiday Party hosted by the Open Scullers on Sunday, December 13th.

And while you’re at it, maybe tie a string around your finger to remember to thank the following members of our Social Committee for making our 140th Anniversary Celebration one for the record books: Mae Joyce Gay, Rose Calabro, John Forrest, Nancy Butt Packard, Katherine Hoffman, John Lavery, Camilla Durfee, and Susan Trice.

Club Stockholders, Crack Oarsmen, and PBC Heavyweight Wrestling

Happy 140th Anniversary, Potomac Boat Club!

Thanks to the Library of Congress’ Chronicling of America tool, we were able to put together a few archived mentions of Potomac Boat Club dating back to 1882, just for you!

From club stockholders to champion wrestlers, the pages linked below are chock-full of interesting, if not weird, bits of PBC history from the turn of the last century.

We listed the headlines “newest” to oldest. When you find a story you would like to read, click on the link and zoom in!

 

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Regatta Ends (The Washington Times, August 14, 1910)

Best Entrants in National Regatta Are Rowing in Today’s Events on the Potomac (The Washington Times, August 13, 1910)

A.A.U. Championships Regatta on Potomac, Has Attracted the Greatest Gatehring of Oarsmen Ever Held In America (Palestine Daily Herald, Texas, August 12, 1910)

Crack Oarsmen from All Over The Country Are Arriving for the National Regatta, First Out-of-Town Arrivals for National Regatta on Potomac (The Washington Times, August 10, 1910)

Regatta Entries Are Now All In, Sixty-three Crews to Take Part in Big Event, Ottawa Rowing Club Coming (The Washington Herald, August 8, 1910)

All Is Set for the Big Regatta (The Washington Herald, August 7, 1910)

Potomac Boat Club in the Society Page (The Washington Herald, July 17, 1910)

National Rowing Regatta to Be Great Event (The World of Sports, July 17, 1910)

Potomacs Sign Middies’ Coach, Dick Glendon Succeeds Pat Dempsey at Local Club (The Washington Herald, June 30, 1910)

Great Regatta May Come South, Potomac Boat Club Will Make Effort to Land National Amateur Rowing Event (Richmond Times Dispatch, March 6, 1910)

Wrestling Bouts Draw Slim Crowd, Mueller Champion of the Heavyweight Title (The Washington Times, February 25, 1909)

National Regatta May Be Held Here, Potomac Club to Make Strong Bid for Big Event, Prominent Men to Take up the Plans (The Washington Times, December 24, 1908)

Seventeenth Regatta on the Potomac, Prussians Who Competed in Olympics Games Row With Americans (The San Francisco Call, September 8, 1908)

Potomac Juniors Win Their Event, Washington Eight Beats Baltimore and Middle States Regatta (The Washington Times, September 7, 1908)

German Contenders In Two Sculling Events (The Washington Times, September 6, 1908)

Editorial Comment on High School Rowing (The Washington Herald, May 10, 1908)

Gossip of the Oarsmen (The Washington Herald, March 4, 1907)

Oarsmen on their Mettle for the Big Rowing Event (The Washington Times, September 2, 1906)

Don’t Want Jamestown For National Regatta (The Washington Times, December 16, 1906)

Labor Day Regatta Has Record Entry, List Opened Last Night Contains Names of Many Crack Oarsmen (August 30, 1906)

Finest Regatta Ever Pulled Off On The Potomac, Forty-five Clubs Represented (The Washington Times, September 7, 1905)

Washington Oarsmen Making Great Plans for Next Year (The Richmond Times Dispatch, September 11, 1905)

Potomac Boat Club Makes Firm Denial, Says Statements by ex-Member Concerning Organization and Its Methods are Untrue - An Explanation and Some History (The Washington Times, August 20, 1905)

Rough Water Interfered With National Regatta, Oarsmen Unable to Do Their Best Work Because of Choppy Condition of Course. McGowan of Potomacs Was Fouled. (The Washington Times, August 12, 1905)

Have Regatta on James River, Virginia Boat Club Perparing for Interesting Event This Summer, Engages Capable Coach, Dr. Joseph A. Reilly of Georgetown Will Train Local Crew (Richmond Times - Dispatch, May 7, 1905)

Washington Should Aid Its Coming Regatta, More Money Required to Accommodates Crew at Coming Potomac Regatta (The Washington Times, August 7, 1904)

Titus Defeated by Vesley in the Senior Single Race (The Washington Times, September 8, 1903)

Noted Oarsmen Row For Prizes, Middle State Regatta Is Witnessed by Large Crowd, Medals and Silken Badges Are Distributed Among the Victors (The San Francisco Call, September 8, 1903)

Visiting Oarsmen Arrive on Scene (The Washington Times, September 6, 1903)

Pat Dempsey To Coach Potomac Boat Crews, Services of a Veteran Trainer Necessary, Local Crews Working Hard (The Washington Times, August 31, 1903)

Frank Greer Wrests Sculling Championships from C.S. Titus (The Saint Paul Globe, August 16, 1903)

Championship Regatta of National Oarsmen, Preliminary Races Are Successfully Rowed Off at Lake Quinsigamond (The Saint Paul Globe, August 15, 1903)

Potomacs Again Win Double Sculls (The Washington Times, August 13, 1903)

Plans Perfected for Potomac’s Regatta, Races Tomorrow Evening to Terminate With Dance (The Washington Times, July 17, 1903)

A Day on the Water with Georgetown’s Aspiring Crews (The Washington Times, May 17, 1903)

Announcement of Performance to Benefit the Potomac Boat Club Building Fund (The Washington Times, April 26, 1903)

Potomac Regatta A Brilliant Success, Races Witnessed by Thousands of War Veterans (The Evening Times, October 6, 1902)

Labor Day Regatta Officials Named, (The Washington Times, September 2, 1902)

Entries for the Annual Regatta of National Amateur Oarsmen’s Association (The New York Tribune, July 11, 1900)

Harlem Regatta, Arrangements for the Meeting of Amateur Oarsmen Completed (The Saint Paul Globe, July 10, 1900)

Potomac River Regatta Is Successfully Pulled, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia (Richmond Dispatch, August 2, 1896)

From the Capital (The Salt Lake Daily Herald, May 27, 1888)

The Potomacs Win the Cup (The New York Sun, September 6, 1887)

The Passaic Regatta, Interesting Contests Between Crews from Many Cities (The New York Sun, June 12, 1887)

Miscellaneous (The Salt Lake Daily Herald, October 8, 1882)

Register for the 29th Annual Charlie Butt Scullers’ Head of the Potomac

Registration is now open!

Potomac Boat Club’s Regatta Committee is proud to announce the 29th annual Charlie Butt Scullers’ Head of the Potomac (SHOP) will be held on Sunday, September 27, 2009.

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

Registration for the SHOP is open from now until Saturday, September 19, 2009.  Visit the Scullers’ Head of the Potomac online registration area on Ronin Racing to sign up.  Once there, you will also find a schedule of events, directions, a link to the waiver, athlete check-in information, and the most up to date list of competitors.

Please note, entries must be received by Saturday, September 12, 2009, to avoid the late fee.  And once registration closes on Saturday, September 19, 2009, it’s closed.  There is no race day registration this year.

Still have a question about the SHOP?  Please send it to PBC’s Regatta Committee chair, Samantha Byrd, at headofthepotomac@gmail.com.

Raced through one of the Nation’s most historic corridors, the Scullers’ Head of the Potomac is a true test of physical endurance and mental toughness for sweep crews and scullers alike.  Don’t miss it!

An Event 100 Years in the Making

Since many of you were in attendance at the celebration of the 100th anniversary of our boathouse on Saturday, September 13th, you know that a great time was had by all.

This post, originally sent through our Yahoo Group listserv, is a special thanks from PBC president, Bob Price, to the many volunteers who worked so tirelessly over the preceding months to make the event such a grand success.

We can hardly wait to see what they come up with for the 140th anniversary of the Club next year!

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Hi, All.

I wanted to add my thanks to all who made our Centennial Celebration such a nice event! The House looked great, the turnout was impressive, and the party was a lot of fun. When you get a chance, please let the following people know they really put on a great show:

§ Camilla Durfee
§ Gib Durfee
§ Susan Trice
§ John Lavery
§ Pam Roberts
§ Katherine Hoffman
§ Barbara Corrigan
§ Robert Cooper
§ Catherine Souvain

More thanks go to Jake Higley and Sylvia Frayne for setting up the boat christenings. For those who were unable to witness it, the ceremony was great. It’s a privilege that we have as a rowing community to name our boats after the special and important people in our sport, and to see new racing shells the David Challinor, the Cynthia Cole, and the Allen P. Rosenberg receive a proper welcome was truly a treat. Now let’s make sure we win lots of races in them!

As we mentioned on Saturday night, the planning for the Centennial Celebration provided the opportunity to appreciate the House and its history - and I ask the PBC membership to support our Committees to ensure that it sees another 100 years. Specifically, the House Committee, led by Cal Sutliff, has a long list of House projects in need of volunteers. Whether leading as a project manager or providing a few hours of elbow grease, any assistance you could provide will certainly help speed these projects along. Please contact Cal or any member of the Board of Governors if you’d like to help.

We also have a new effort underway - a few energetic volunteers have assembled a History Committee! We realized as we prepared for the party that many members have nuggets of information that isn’t collected by the Club and we want to mine those riches. With more detail to come on how the Committee will work, let me now list the Committee members so you can share with any of them info, photos, texts or objects you have that shed light on our history:

§ Bill Lanouette
§ Bob Parke
§ Elizabeth Webber
§ Gretchen Ellsworth
§ Barbara Corrigan

At the party, we welcomed an impressive guest speaker, Tersh Boasberg, chairman of the DC Historic Preservation Review Board. Tersh gave an entertaining and informative recount of some key historical events that shaped our early history as a Club. I’ll ask Tersh to provide his text so that we can post on this forum - at times it was difficult to hear the story as many members were anxious to get the party started! But I’m sure those who were able to hear it found it fun and enlightening so we’ll share it with everyone. Thanks, again, Tersh!

So, once more, great job to everyone involved in making the Centennial Celebration such a success. It was wonderful to see so many PBC friends and family having such a fun time at the Club!

-Bob

“Better to row and sink than never to row at all.”

The following post was contributed by Liz, a PBC senior member and a member of its Open Sculling Program.  Liz was invited to race in the 2008 Tour du Leman, along with fellow PBC’ers MJ and Bill G.

The Tour is a 160 kilometer (100-mile) non-stop race around Lac de Géneve in Switzerland. Our PBC rowers were joined by Ryan G. and Osval A. of Thompsons Boat Center, and together, they made up one of only five mixed crews in the race and the only crew from the United States.

Reprinted in its entirety, the original was sent to friends and supporters of Liz’s team following the race in Geneva in September 2008.  Liz was kind enough to let us share it with you again here, despite the outcome!

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Some of you may have heard by now that our race this weekend in Geneva did not go according to plan. Nor did it take as long as we had expected it to, for we were swamped and down for the count within the first hour of the race. Yes, it’s true: despite a great deal of sound logistical preparation (not to mention training), the strong NE wind prevailed. We did a lot of things right but met with a couple of unfortunate events that made us more vulnerable when bad luck hit.

Below is my account of how things went down. Apologies in advance for a long email. If any of you are especially brave, I have also attached some emails sent to a handful of DC rowers throughout the weekend by our teammate and team scribe, Ryan. Some of you received these, but many of you have not. His accounts are quite accurate and provide some color for you of the excitement before, the drama during, and the heartbreak after our ill-fated attempt.

Here we go.

The wind and water were horrible as we left the dock. We were well-prepared, though, and had gotten a great deal of useful advice from our competitors as well as competitors from previous years, including Tom Dryer and Bob Miller, who competed in 2005 as the first US team to race in the event. They came in 2nd that year, setting the record in the Masters category along the way.

Shortly after we turned around the first buoy (800 meters from the start), we were in about 4th place when Bill’s foot stretchers popped out. This forced him to drop out to fix them, and slowed us considerably. As waves washed over the gunwhales, Ryan tried to bail, but our handpump was totally overpowered. MJ also dropped out to help bail, and Ozzie and I kept rowing, but I knew this was not good. Not only were we going slower, but slower moving boats tend to sit lower in the water. Water was pooling in the stern, in part because the three stern-most people had stopped moving (to bail) and in part because the stern was heavier than the bow to begin with. Once water started to pool, incoming water kept rushing to the stern, making the imbalance even worse. To be honest, I had no idea how bad it was because I was in the bow and could only see about two inches of water in the boat beneath me (in contrast to 12-16 inches in the stern). In fact, when MJ asked for my knife to cut a water bottle to bail more effectively, I thought to myself, we can’t do that! We’ll need that water to drink in a few hours…” I was pretty oblivious.

Finally, we all had to stop to bail. This was a bad sign. We weren’t moving anywhere, so we weren’t getting any closer to good water (which turns out to have been more than 20 KM away). We were also sitting extremely low in the water. During this time, a number of boats had passed us, including an all-women’s crew who, we later recalled, were sitting very high in the water. They probably had an average weight of 120 lbs. This helped them for awhile, but 90 minutes into the race, two consecutive waves did them in. They’d made it for awhile, but their time had come too.

What finally did us in, though, was a safety launch that zoomed up next to us and threw out an enormous wake. In one rolling wave, all of our good bailing work had been zeroed. Ryan yelled furiously, but too little too late: Ryan, Bill and MJ were sitting in water. “It’s over,” said Ryan quietly.

It’s hard to describe what I felt in that moment. My gunwhales still above water, I could see everyone going down in front of me. Is this really happening? This is not what we came to Geneva to do. There’s got to be a way to keep rowing. I also thought, wow, we’re idiots. How could we have made so many stupid mistakes to allow this to happen? Everyone must be laughing at the dumb Americans who had no idea what they were doing.

For a few minutes, I thought we might have a chance. It didn’t occur to me (us) that by accepting help from the safety launch, we were disqualifying ourselves. We asked the officials several times if we could keep going but got no response. I think they couldn’t bear to break the news to us, and figured that we’d realize we were done soon enough. Ozzie, Bill, and Ryan were pulled in to the safety launch and wrapped in space blankets. It was really cold out, and everyone was shivering. MJ and I spent a good 15-20 minutes in the water after that.

Nobody knew what to do. I ended up taking charge, orchestrating a group effort to pull the shell alongside the launch, flip it over guts up (it had flipped once we got out of it), and pull/lift the boat out of the water to drain as much water as possible. At this point, we secured the boat to the launch, and MJ and I climbed aboard. I was pretty charged with adrenaline and wasn’t too cold. Frankly, I think being in the water was warming than being in the boat. Bill and Ryan were shivering uncontrollably. At that point, MJ said, Liz, I think we’re done. I think we all knew it, but at that point we agreed. It was over. How disappointing.

It is ironic that our rescue boat delivered the wake that did us in. To be honest, though, if that wake hadn’t come along, it is highly likely another wave would have delivered the final blow. Overall, the rescue effort was impressive. 80 athletes had to abandon the race and almost all of them spent some time swimming in Lac Leman. Nobody was injured. In addition to the safety launches chaperoning the athletes, there was a yacht dedicated to every shell in the race equipped with safety equipment, a radio, and a doctor on board. Had we finished the race, our yacht would have followed behind us for the duration. The race could not have happened safely without such a dedicated and serious safety team.

We were brought to the nearest shore, where to my surprise, two boats were waiting, having rowed to shore of their own accord rather than sinking. To this point, I had thought that we must have done some incredibly stupid things to bring this about. With some sheepishness, I must admit great relief after realizing we weren’t the only boat to succumb to the conditions. Even more amazing, I could not believe that some crews had elected to abandon the race on their own. Maybe they weren’t taking it as seriously as we? Maybe it was less important to them because they hadn’t traveled so far? Many of these crews had raced this before, and were from the UK and Germany. Easy enough for them to come back next year… While we hadn’t come to Geneva to become swamped in the first hour, we certainly hadn’t come to row back to shore when we saw how bad the conditions were.

We were taken back to SNG. The boat arrived on a trailer several hours later. We took hot showers and were fed hot soup in the club (which is more of a country club than a DC boathouse). By the time we arrived at the boathouse, seven crews of 21 were out. By the time we left the boathouse an hour later, there were only six crews left. (The sixth crew was disqualified many hours later after missing a mandatory time cut-off).

One of the first crews to sink, even before us, was a crew of 20-something Germans who had all been on the U23 German national team. They had come in 2nd the year before, and had also issued a challenge the night before to the reigning champs. They were fantastic rowers, they had prepared their craft well, and they had gone down within the first mile.

One of my other favorite failure stories was of another German crew. They had two electronic bilge pumps, each of which could pump 150 Liters/minute (that’s 18,000 liters/hour). They got a couple of waves back to back and were done. Unbelievable. As Ryan recounts in his emails (attached), it’s bizarre to think of a race in terms of who sunk when.

Throughout the weekend, we worked through the events in our minds, wondering what we had done wrong or what we could have done differently. There are clearly several things that went wrong, and probably some things we could have done better, but it became clear to us that we had prepared as well as we could have for this race. Even a bilge pump or two would probably not have saved us.

At the same time, though, five crews made it through. They did everything right, and were blessed by good luck. Any of them could have been overcome by a few ill-timed waves. They got it done. On Saturday night, as the first crew came in, everyone surrounded them and their boat, to congratulate them and figure out what it was about their craft that had gotten them through the first 20+ KM. We got some ideas for next year, but also saw that we had done many things similarly to them.

We are all itching to see if we could have survived, what we would have looked like/felt like/rowed like after 14 hours. We enjoyed the rest of the weekend, but it was painful to see how flat the water was on Sunday. We are tremendously disappointed that the race went down the way it did, but I don’t think we have any regrets for how we prepared or responded to the circumstances.

One thing I do know: if they had canceled the race due to the conditions, we would have been even more disappointed. How many times have I responded to a canceled race saying, “I would have rather tried to brave the conditions and have failed than not even get the chance to try?” Well, we got our chance.

Better to row and sink than to never row at all.

For all of you that have made it through the email this far, thanks for your patience and perserverance. Above all, thanks for your interest in and support of this endeavor. It means so much to me that we had so many people rooting for us. Special thanks to Marilyn, Robin, and Michael for coming with to Geneva.

The weekend didn’t go as planned, but it was an adventure nonetheless.

Best,
Liz

Men’s Sweep Practice August 2008

Men’s Sweep Practice August 2008

Below are a few photos of the Men’s Sweep Team taken back in August 2008. Although Coach Mark Borchelt may have been too busy coaching to have taken all of the pictures on this particular day (…we think there were more than 800 total?), he happens to be a professional photographer, as well as a longtime PBC senior member.

We hope this Gallery will inspire members from all of our competitive teams to start sharing their photos online with us here at The Potomac Star. If you have photos, links to photo collections, or photo ideas that you would like to share, please contact us at editor@potomacstar.com.

By the way, you can find out more about Mark as a photographer at Borchelt Photography. And if you would like to see Mark in action as a rower, just take a close look at the photo above (you might have to click on it for a better view … ).  That’s Mark in the bow of the lead Pair without coxswain (2-), the event he won with Lt. Terry Adams at the Henley Royal Regatta back in 1973!

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