Rocket City Rowing sent 19 of the 2,009 boats that participated in the 2015 Head of the Hooch Regatta, the second largest regatta in the United States November 7-8 in Chattanooga TN. Competing in large fields with nationally competitive crews from around the United States, Diane Winters received a silver medal in the Women’s Lightweight Masters 1x and assistant coaches Logan McEwen andKevin Cardno received a bronze in a composite Men’s Open 4x. Other top 5 finishes include …the mixed masters 2x crew of James Robinson and Elizabeth Theiss (Nashville Rowing Club) and the Women’s Masters 4+ with top half finishing boats in the Women’s Masters 4x and, Men’s Masters 2x.
Our youth crews gained much needed racing experience in sometimes challenging conditions. Novice rowers stepped up to row in varsity races in the Women’s Youth 4x and Mixed Youth 8+. The Mixed 8+ had an especially fierce finish.
Seven Rocket City rowers including 2 of our most recent adult Learn-to-Row graduates, had the once-in-a-lifetime experience of rowing in a 24-person sculling boat, the Stampfli Express which is touring major regattas in the eastern United States this fall. On Saturday and Sunday what was expected to be leisurely cruise up and down the Tennessee River turned into an actual race down the course with ratings up to 32 strokes per minute, truly astonishing considering that no one in the boat had trained together as a crew.
With the conclusion of fall 2015 team racing, masters, youth, and middle school rowers will retire to the boathouse for winter training to lay in the fitness and mental discipline needed for the spring sprint race season that starts in March 2016.