Bird Island Challenge

While you may have heard about the Bird Island Challenge, you may not be aware that NBCR also participated. No, we weren't in kayaks as you'd expect. We put out a mixed 8 with half adult rowers, half youth rowers. It was quite an adventure launching such a long boat at a normal boat ramp and several of our rowers ended up waist high in water but not a single one complained and they all went out there with determination.

We even won a plaque to go in our future boathouse and the rowers all got gold plated scallop shells for medals!

More Images from the Oyster & Wine Tasting

First of (hopefully many to come) Oyster & Wine Tasting!

On Friday evening on August 12th, 2011, New Bedford Community Rowing hosted it's first Oyster & Wine Tasting event at Tabor Academy's Fireman's Center. It was a lovely evening with great company, great food and wine, and lots of activity. We had a bar set up with 4 different types of wines that Martignetti's paired with our four different types of oysters (which were DELICIOUS, by the way). For those that aren't into oysters or wine, no fear - we had beer and non-alcoholic beverages as well as lots of little bites prepared by Pat Ball and Maria Pereira. We even had a couple of our youth athletes walking around with the bites (ever so cleverly displayed on a rowing seat) and mingling with the guests, including several of our adult rowers.

To make everyone relaxed and enjoy the evening, our very own Rachel Eisenhaure, a local Assistant District Attorney, was on hand playing live music. Not on a piano, not with a guitar - no, she played the harp!! And it was beautiful to not only listen to but also look at. She's an amazing, talented woman!

As if milling about with the other guests eating, drinking, and listening to music weren't enough, we also had 20 silent auction items on display, ready for bidding. Every item was bid on and we had many happy winners at the end of the night. Thank you to all that donated an item, and to those that bid on each item! There were a few hotly contested items but luckily no rower was harmed in the process...

To top off the night, we brought our two new (to us) fours for a christening/dedication. Through a donation by Walter Chang and his family (Ling Ling, Chris, Sharlene, and Darren) we were able to purchase two used fours for New Bedford Community Rowing this spring. One boat, a 'bowloaded' Filippi, already had a name. It's bad luck to rename a boat so we dedicated it to The Chang Family. The other boat, a Dirigo, while older had never been named. At the suggestion of Walter himself, we christened the boat "Integrity".

It was a very fun event in a beautiful location and we plan to host it again next year. I hope many of you can join us! Eventually, we'll have to host it at our very own boathouse that's not too far off in the future! Thank you to the organizing committee of Martha Maguire, Anne Eisenmenger, Margaret Ishihara, and Pat Lester for all of the amazing work they put into making this a top notch event!

Our set up at AHA Night. More to come!

AHA! Night 8/11 downtown was a huge success!

Well first off, thanks need to go out to Lee Heald for inviting us to participate in the AHA Night on Thursday. It was a great time and there were so many people milling about downtown! We brought out 3 ergs (rowing machines) and had lots of our adult and youth rowers on hand to either teach, or race any daring souls. We had quite a few takers and all but one of our t-shirts were won by challengers! We had quite a few youngsters like the ergs, but we did also have a WPI rower come out and take on our very own Walker Fuchs. I had my money on the tall, experienced, strong looking female WPI rower but Walker wasn't about to make it easy for her. She gave a good fight, pulled some good numbers, but Walker was victorious in the end! Congrats Walker!

We even had some parents of our athletes hop on to give it a try. In the photos below you'll see Bethany Mello and her mom Karen racing. We clearly need to get Karen on a team as she was the victorious athlete of the two lovely Mello girls!

Sippican Week

Check out the great article in Sippican Week (our very own Anne Eisenmenger's local paper for Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester)

http://sippican.villagesoup.com/community/story/emptying-shells-to-buy-shells/139644

Come on out to support the club!

Busy week ahead!

As if racing on Saturday and the famous New Bedford "Feast" wasn't enough, we've got a busy week ahead of us. We had several kids and several adults attend Narragansett Boat Club's Sweeps & Sculls race over the weekend and everyone had a good time. The junior boys double of Sam Carey and Tim McNamara won a silver medal - congrats to them! We had 3 other doubles and a four race as well. They didn't win medals, but that's not what it's all about. They raced hard, did well, and most importantly, enjoyed themselves.

This coming week we have AHA! Night on Thursday. We'll set up some ergs so people can try out rowing for themselves. We'll have several of our rowers on hand to "challenge" those that are ready for battle. 500 meters, anything goes, a t-shirt to the winner. Are YOU bold enough to try it???

Friday we'll opt away from a sweaty endeavor and move toward an equally enjoyable direction - wine! We'll have several wines on hand paired with 4 different types of Oysters, all grown locally. For those of you that aren't fans of oysters (I'll take yours) we will have other bites for you. One of our very own rowers who also tutors our kids (Rachel Eisenhaure) will be on hand playing the harp. Yes, live harp music!! We'll also have a few tables loaded up with some silent auction items for you to bid on. It's sure to be a very fun event and I look forward to meeting a few new friends, and laughing with some old ones. Come join us!