Have a Great Time & Help the Junior Crew Team!

Dave Roseberry and Tina Brown Enjoying a Dance at the 2011 Crew Club Dinner

Saturday, April 7  Annual Club Dinner at Orcas Center

By Martin Taylor

Orcas Island Rowing Club invites all to indulge with them in their once-a-year celebration of all things Orcas and rowing. They call the evening “Pure Pleasure” because it’s an evening of undiluted feasting and entertainment. This year it is being held at Orcas Center. It had to be rescheduled from back in January when the event was cancelled due to the atrocious weather.

The event takes place on Saturday April 7. There will be a happy hour with a no-host bar and music by Islanders and OIR alumni Bridget O’Toole and Hailey Thompson from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.  Dinner is Served at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $35 each.

It’s a great deal, but it is also the primary fund raiser for the rowing club. Each year they need about $5,000 more than they collect in fees from the junior rowers just to keep the program running. That is without buying any boats, oars or major equipment. That is just to get the kids to and from the regattas and to cover those pesky bills that keep coming in. And they do have to buy those big tickets items like boats and oars occasionally. They won’t make enough from ticket sales alone. So the club would appreciate additional donations from any that can afford it.

In particular this year the club is hoping to buy a new “straight quad.” This is a necessary change to the clubs rowing shell fleet to accommodate changes in the NW regions rules. All varsity quad competitions will be changing to coxless (straight) from coxed configurations. The crew is limping along using their coxed boats, taping the rudder, steering by oar pressure alone and leaving the coxswain seat empty. That is fine for practice, but that leaves them at a serious disadvantage for regattas (competitions). That rowing shell will cost about $15k even buying the most reasonably priced shell. But it will last a good 20 years if well looked after. The club will sell an existing shell to make room and offset the cost. But the shells they have that are candidates for selling are older and will be difficult to sell for more than about $2k. So the club is seeking some generous donations to cover the cost of the new shell.  If a single person, business or group should donate 75% or more of the cost of the shell they could get to have their name and or logo on the boat.

The same day as the evening revelry there is a rowing regatta on Cascade Lake. The “Alumni Regatta” is open to all rowers, but there is an especially warm welcome to alumni of the junior rowing program. This annual regatta is a series of short sprint races. Each race is a single length of Cascade Lake, a mere 1000 meters. It’s a hard distance to race over. You have to maintain good form and a heart racing pace for about 4 to 5 minutes to win one of those races; longer to lose. The finish line is right by the boathouse and the dock, so it is a good opportunity to see what rowing regattas are all about. The racing starts at 10:00 a.m. and should be wrapped up within two hours by noon. Come on down to take a seat in a boat or to watch the spectacle.

Contact Martin Taylor martin@orcasdigerati.com or 360.376.6935 for reservations and information or buy tickets online at the rowing club’s web site: www.orcasislandrowing.org. It is a little late for ‘snail mail’ reservations, but you can send donations to :

Orcas Island Rowing
c/o Martin Taylor
455 Eastsound Shores Road
Eastsound, WA, 98245

Captain Max Blackadar at "The Release" at the 2011 Alumni Regatta