It was a banner SPF 50+ day with enough wind and current to create a challenge but not enough to dampen anyone’s spirits.
Full Results of Long Course can be seen here, courtesy Sound Rowers
Photos of Rat Island Regattas, courtesy of Sound Rowers
57:02.8. First Place went to a Maas prototype OW quad (pictured above) owned by Dr. Rainier Storb and coxed by Steve Chapin.
Storb (seat 3) is head of transplantation research at Fred Hutchinson. He keeps distance rowing-fit by commuting to work (5 miles each way) across Lake Washington. According to Steve, he’s 79 today! His son Adrian is in seat 2, and Peter Hirtle is stroke. All of them have at one time or another won the regatta in the past. They finished in well under an hour, beating the second place boat by nearly 2 minutes.
1:01:19.1 The Octet, coxed by Kathleen Sailer raced for the first time against Portland’s Oct and finished 4th overall, beating the other oct by nearly 3 minutes. She opened daylight right from the start of the race. Crew by seat position: John Collins (stroke), Cate Comerford, Lorraine Rimson, Sue Ohlson, Steve Jeffries, David Harris, Ted Shoulberg and Katie Franco (bow).
1:07:08.4 Next of our Rats to finish was Jim Mason and Mark Miller in the Maas OW double “Moth”
1:07:16.5 Tuf as Nails was right behind them in their Wintech 8, the Erica Lynn, coxed by Rodrigo Rodriguez.
1:12:45.3 The first of our quads to cross the finish line was the Riverside, who screamed ahead of all other quads in her class (She also beat the other RIRSC quads last year). The Riverside was making her debut after extensive renovation led by Jim Mason and his team. Her crew was Peggy Myre (stroke), Sally Aerts, Peggy Johnson and Sally Giesler (cox).
We had a fine turnout of Rats that included the crews of the Frank C., the Bogie, Dose and the Lorna. Dave McWethey was out in his Maas single. The Friendship 8, coxed by Jim Buckley included some brave students fresh from the Learn to Row class.
Thanks go to Ted Shoulberg and Marsha Wiener for putting the crews together. On shore, other hardworking crews pulled together to make this event a memorable one. Thanks go especially to Sally Giesler, Steve Chapin and countless others who provided delicious food, excellent racing support staff, and the elbow grease needed to make it all run smoothly.
For more pictures, see Behind the scenes 1 and Behind the scenes 2 Cover image features winning boat, Rainer Storb’s Maas prototype OW quad (courtesy Michael Lampi, Sound Rowers)