HRCR Competes in Our First Regatta

Fall 2009 marked HRCR's first foray into competitive rowing. To those who prefer taking their strokes in the late afternoon, the idea of meeting at 6 a.m. probably sounds like crazy talk, but a handful of rowers rose (literally) to the challenge, meeting a couple of early mornings a week to practice for the Head of the Fish regatta, Oct. 25.

Those early mornings, by the way, were lovely. We were on the water by dawn, and the birds were just waking up. There was no boat traffic, save for a few shells from other boating groups, and most days perfectly calm, smooth water. By the time we got upstream to Spuyten Duyvil, the Palisades cliffs were cast in red by the rising sun. Someone was cooking bacon near the river (Applebees?), which gave us powerful hunger pangs. We rowed all the harder for it.

After weeks of preparation, we headed up to Saratoga, NY, for the Sunday race. The Head of the Fish is a wonderful regatta—big, yet well managed; competitive, but friendly; and lots of fun, as it's scheduled near Halloween, which results in many folks wearing costumes in the shells. (My favorite from prior years was an eight, with the rowers dressed in blaze orange vests and the coxswain wearing deer antlers.)

The weekend promised lots of rain—in fact, the drive up took an extra hour due to torrential amounts of the stuff—but it had begged off by Sunday morning. Still, we had to contend with the mud. Lots of mud. Scads of it! Wellies were the footwear du jour; flip flops served only to mire one's feet in the muck or flick spackles of crud all over the back of the legs.

We had two boats compete: a mixed quad and a men's double. Neither boat had been raced before, and a couple of the rowers in them hadn't raced since college days. (How long ago was that? Let's just say they have never worn a unisuit.) Our team colors and uniforms have yet to be determined, so we opted for holiday-specific garb: orange caps. They were a tremendous help in identifying our rowers as they came down the course.

Though we didn't place near the top of our categories, we felt better when we learned there were former Olympians competing. (For real, Olympians—is that fair?) We ran into friends and other familiar faces. Manhattan College had trailered our boats for us; their women's double is shown heading back to the dock as our men's double charges down the course. A rower on the Williams College crew team had been in Jenny's junior learn-to-row group a few years back (he's even taller now). Coach Trisha and Martin the Brit were there to rally her Sarah Lawrence novices. We ended the weekend with southern cooking at Hattie's (www.hattiesrestaurant.com). Red beans and rice, fried chicken, jambalaya...yum.

All in all, a successful outing isn't judged to be one by how many medals you bring home, but by what a good time you had. We're already planning for next year.

Trick-Oar-Treat!

Beneath an atmospherically appropriate grey sky, HRCR rowers let their true colors show at an end-of-season Halloween Row.



HRCR's very own Spuyten Duyvil grins wickedly as an NYPD patrol boat cruises by.

Pirate Jenny prepares to board the ship!

Powder blue shell, electric blue coif: complementary or clashing?

Pop 'n Lock

Ah, the rites of spring: new life abounds, spirits lift, warmth returns, docks are refurbished...

One of these things is not like the other you say? Well, my friend, then you have clearly never enjoyed the rejuvenating excersise that is the cleansing, draining, plugging, and re-assembly of a JetFloat dock.

Think large, floatable Legos: our dock is a modular affair, composed of sturdy, buoyant blocks held together by pins that fit neatly into four overlapping tabs on the corner of each block. While theoretically waterproof, enough wear and tear on the Harlem River renders the blocks a tad soggy. Add the effects of flocks of Canadian geese over the course of a year, and you have one honking mess.

So what's a rower to do? Time to bust out scrub brushes, scrapers, giant hex wrench, and plumbers tape! Yes, it's about as much fun as it sounds, but many hands make light work, and after a few chilly mornings, we had the pieces ready to go.

Little did we suspect that the hardest task was ahead of us, for despite the somewhat clunky appearance of the floats and pins, we discovered that assembly demanded considerable precision: the tabs on the corner of each block must be aligned in perfect sequence, and one tab out of place throws off the entire setup, like a giant sudoku puzzle.

Mental and logic tests aside, we were challenged by an unexpected need for brute force to jam the connecting pins through the tab, and then wrench them around with a special key designed just for these pieces. Our kung-fu technique improved quickly as we learned how to aim our kicks just-so, and soon we had the pins popping in with a satisfying click, followed by our Keymasters locking the pieces in place.

Much of this assembly was accomplished on land, but eventually we had figure out how to attach large sections of dock to the ramp that connects to the shoreline, without letting any section float downstream a la Huck Finn. This required an understanding of fluid dynamics that was somewhat lacking in our group of intrepid dockworkers, but somehow we prevailed, and unlike the process of removing the dock for winterizing, no one went for a swim in the still-frigid waters of the Harlem this time.

I hope I speak for the group when I say I have never seen a more beauteous dock in my life; the long stretch of black blocks resting lightly upon the water, warm in the late afternoon sun, yeilded an enormously satisfying feeling of accomplishment. Woe to any geese who dare sully the fruits of our labor!

We stand victorious, and ready to ROW!

We are Guppies!

HRCR was thrilled to receive the first-ever "Guppy Award" in December from the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, for being the best new Alliance partner in the past year. We are so proud to have been recognized by MWA who have been so helpful to us as we literally and figuratively navigate the waters of New York City. Special thanks go to outgoing MWA Executive Director Carter Craft, whose wise council and endorsement has been invaluable to us, and we wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

Our fellow honorees included Jessica Lappin, New York City Council Member and Bill Woods, New York City Department of City Planning, who received the Wetsuit MWAward for most helpful bureaucrats, and Dan Petrie, devoted volunteer captain on Big G, who won the Waterlogged MWAward for best volunteer. We’re psyched to be included in such company! While all awardees received a take-home prize, we feel that without a doubt our giant green glass fishing float, complete with intricately-knotted netting, was by far the most distinctively nautical (and conversation-starting) of the handouts. Debate rages as to where we shall enshrine our big glass ball—surely such an artifact deserves a place of honor and high visibility. Look for it and us on the Harlem River this coming spring!