In The News

Come Boating! Will Begin 2010 Season with Winter Race

Two teams from Come Boating!, Belfast’s community boating organization, will compete in the annual Snow Row in Hull, Massachusetts on Saturday, March 6. Teams of six men and six women will row Belfast’s Cornish gigs, the “Belle Fast” and “Selkie,” on the 3 ¾-mile course, which starts and ends at Windmill Point beach and rounds Sheep Island.

The race is a one-of-a-kind gathering of wooden pulling boats: gigs, Irish currachs, wherries, whitehalls, peapods, dories, ocean shells, and kayaks. Adult and youth rowers from all over New England, New York, and along the East Coast will participate. For the tenth year, crews from Cornwall, England will compete. Gig racing originated in Cornwall, where rowing is taken very seriously.

A high speed ferry follows the race course, affording spectators a close view of the event. Spectators should contact the Hull Lifesaving Museum, sponsor of the race, for more information. The museum will be open the day of the event.

Come Boating! has participated in the Snow Row for several years. “We’ve always been one of the leading gigs, but the Cornwall team always wins,” says Belfast coxswain Malcolm Gater. “The weather at this time of year is unpredictable, and the races can be quite thrilling,” he adds. Belfast rowers have been out on the water all winter to prepare for their first race of 2010.

Martha Garfield of Morrill will be rowing on Belfast’s women’s team. She was named “Rower of the Year” for 2009 by Come Boating!. She competed in every New England race in which Belfast participated last year, pulling hard as the sole woman on Belfast’s winning team in Come Boating!’s annual regatta last July.

1/28/10

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Come Boating! Plans Rowing Trip to Cornwall

They won’t be rowing across the Atlantic, but they will be rowing in the Celtic Sea this spring.

Rowers and members of Come Boating!, Belfast’s community boating organization, have been invited to row with the kings and queens of gig rowing in Newquay, Cornwall , in the United Kingdom for several days this May. They will be guests of the Newquay Rowing Club and will row original gigs owned by the club that date from as early as 1812 and 1820.

Come Boating! is one of about one hundred clubs around the world that row Cornish pilot gigs. The primary concentration of pilot gigs and rowers is in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in England. The Cornish pilot gigs were originally work boats that raced out to ships approaching a harbor to get the job of piloting them safely in. The boat that reached the ship first got the job.

Cornish pilot gigs are six-oared, 32-foot wooden rowing boats with a beam of four feet ten inches. All modern racing gigs, including Come Boating!’s “Selkie” and “Belle Fast” are modeled on the “Treffny,” built in 1838 and still owned and raced by the Newquay Rowing Club.

The Cornwall-bound rowers will include adults and junior rowers from the Belfast club and Station Maine in Rockland. From May 6 to 10 they will row with local crews as well have an opportunity to visit Tintagel, home of King Arthur, Penzance, Land’s End, and St. Ives and enjoy coastal walking trails.

Come Boating! hosted rowers from Cornwall in 2008 and will welcome them again on Columbus Day weekend this year.

1/29/10

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Come Boating! Ending Season with Competitions in Massachusetts

Rowing teams from Come Boating!, Belfast’s community rowing programs, will compete in two major late autumn races in Massachusetts. After Come Boating!’s second-place finish at the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Race in August, hopes are high for a strong showing at these events.

On October 31 Belfast’s “Selkie,” with six rowers, will participate in the 20th annual “Head of Weir” races in Hull, Massachusetts. Sponsored by the Hull Lifesaving Museum, the 5 ½-mile open water race draws more than 150 of the best rowers in the Northeast in more than 60 boats, including gigs like the “Selkie,” livery and work boats, currachs, ocean shells, and kayaks. On November 7 Belfast will send a men’s team and a women’s team to the “East Coast Open,” a championship race in Plymouth, Massachusetts, sponsored by the North American Rowing Association.

Despite the rainy days of June and July, Come Boating! attracted more than 325 rowers to its morning and evening community rows this year. Cameron Jack, an eighth-grader from Belfast, launched a youth rowing program, so next year Belfast may compete against other youth rowing teams. Come Boating! hosted successful rowing and sailing regattas in July and participated in the Camden Windjammer Festival in early September, offering visitors an opportunity to trying rowing one of its Cornish gigs.

Come Boating!’s two gigs are out of the water for the winter, but the intrepid racers will continue to row on fall and winter Sundays, weather permitting, in preparation of the “Snow Row” in Hull, Massachusetts, in late February.

10/25/09

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Come Boating! Announces Winners of Rowing and Sailing Regattas

Come Boating!, Belfast’s community boating organization, hosted a very successful Regatta Day on Saturday, July 25. This was the first year that the organization’s sailing and rowing regattas were held the same day. Morning races included rowed small craft and Cornish pilot gigs, while six triangle sailing races were held in the afternoon.

Regatta coordinator Chrissy Fowler called the day “perfect,” citing calm weather conditions for the rowers and good wind in the afternoon for the sailors. She commented, “We were pleased to have so many rowers and sailboats. Four gigs participated this year, and what a beautiful sight it was to see all those sailboats lined up on shore with their sails up before the races began.” Competitors were pampered with lunch, home baked goodies, and mahogany trophies for the top three winners in each class.

Competing in the rowing races against the Belfast gigs Belle Fast and Selkie were Red Jacket from Rockland and the Mike Jenness from Plymouth, MA. Selkie, rowed by Come Boating!’s Jim Bahoosh, Martha Garfield, Eric Beenfeldt, Rafe Blood, Roy Rogers and Wes Reddick, with Chris Gordon as cox, took first place in the 3.2-nautical-mile race, with a time of 32 minutes, 19 seconds. Belle Fast, with a mixed crew of rowers from Come Boating! and the Gloucester, MA rowing organization, and Plymouth’s Team Saquish in Mike Jenness tailed one another through much of the race. They were neck-to-neck at the finish, with Belle Fast prevailing for second place with a time of 34 minutes, 46 seconds, closely followed by Mike Jenness, with a time of 34 minutes, 50 seconds. The Junior Cornish Gig winner of the 2-nautical-mile-course was team Station Maine in the Red Jacket, rowed by Muriel Curtis, Rowen Walauski, Noah Curtis, Cameron Jack, Vallerie Shacklett and Qwynn Walauski, with Devon Walauski as cox.

The Small Craft race included sliding seat single sculls, a 15-foot peapod, and an Adirondack guide boat. Winners were Dan Guiod; Dan Seales; Jim Wescott, Shirley Barlowe and Carol Gater; and George Hill.

Come Boating!’s 8th annual Small Boat Sailing Regatta was held just outside of Belfast Harbor with winds of 12 to 18 knots out of the southeast and 1- to 1.5-foot seas. Three boats competed in the Open Dinghy class and 18 boats in the Laser class. Competitors came from as far away as South Portland. The Open Dinghy Class was won by Channing & Jaime Boswell of Morrill, sailing their Javelin sloop. In second place was Keith Bradley of Stockton Springs, sailing his MX-Ray dinghy. Lassie Henry of Jackson took third place in her Shellback dinghy.

The Lasers were competing in the first of three regattas of the Maine Championship Series. The next two regattas will be at Lake Cobbosseecontee on September 12 and the Saint George River on October 4.

Laser sailors were divided into age categories. Winners were:

Overall:

• 1st Frederic Boursier of Camden, ME
• 2nd Mike Gaffney of Georgetown, ME
• 3rd George Haselton of Rockport, ME

Under 18: (juniors sailed with a smaller “Radial” sail)

• 1st Michael Ianno of Falmouth, ME. – 6th overall
• 2nd Tuckerman Jones of Wolfboro, ME. – 7th overall
• 3rd Caroline Browne of Falmouth, ME. - 9th overall, 1st Woman
• 4th Jack Zinn of Falmouth, ME. – 12th overall

18-34:

• 1st Rosie Frost of Camden, ME – 10th overall, 2nd Woman
• 2nd Tyler Vroman of Rockland, ME – 11th overall

35-44:

• 1st Frederic Boursier of Camden, ME – 1st overall
• 2nd Scott Bennington of Litchfield, ME – 15th overall
• 3rd James Arrison of South Portland, ME – 18th overall

45-54:

• 1st George Haselton of Rockport, ME – 3rd overall
• 2nd Tom Jamieson of Belfast, ME – 4th overall
• 3rd Chris Biggart of Thomaston, ME – 13th overall
• 4th John Arrison of Belfast, ME – 14th overall
• 5th David Demere of Belfast, ME.– 17th overall

55-64:

• 1st Mike Gaffney of Georgetown, ME – 2nd overall
• 2nd Syd Sewall of Hallowell, ME – 5th overall

65+:

• 1st Hollis Caffee of Bangor, ME – 8th overall
• 2nd David Jones of Rockport, ME – 16th overall