Wilmington Rowing Center’s Learn to Row course is run by experienced coaches and coxswains and supported by volunteer WRC members. This program offers an introduction to the sport of rowing and is for adults who have no prior rowing experience in addition to those who have participated in the sport in the past and feel they need a refresher.
Our 2018 sessions are now posted!
Registration for the 2018 Diamond State Masters Regatta is now open! Register now here.
Please join Wilmington Rowing Center for the Diamond State Masters Regatta on Saturday and Sunday, July 21st and 22nd, 2018, at Noxontown Pond, in Middletown, DE.
Co-founded in 1991 by John Schoonover and Howard Smith, the Regatta has matured into one of the premier national events for master rowers.
For more information about the regatta, please visit the official website for Diamond State Masters Regatta.
Our very own Hans Mueller has offered to share some of his insights specific to the physics and mechanics of rowing and rigging.
Have you ever wondered any of the following …
Come join us for an informal seminar presented by Hans as he shares his knowledge specific to the mechanics/rigging that go into the rowing stroke.
Date: Wednesday March 23rd 7:30 PM
Location: WRC Boathouse
Who: Our very own Hans Mueller
Topic: “Some Physics and Mechanics of Rowing and Rigging”
RSVP to Betsy Rowland@aol.com
Spring Season is almost here! Celebrate the past year of fun and hard work, and catch up with friends for the upcoming season at the University & Whist Club!
What: WRC Annual Awards Night
When: Saturday, March 19, 2016, 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Where: University & Whist Club • 805 North Broom Street • Wilmington, DE 19806
https://www.universityandwhistclub.com/
Cocktails and Heavy Hors d’oeuvres
Approx. $60.00/person, includes beer, wine, soft drinks, water, and sparkling water.
Send a check to Kim Sagrati at 116 Pleasant Bank Lane, Kennett Square, PA 19348, or pay by credit card below.
This spring a Dragon Boat race is going to take place on the Christina River and all members of WRC are invited to participate!
On Saturday, May 30th the Riverfront Development Corporation is sponsoring a fundraiser for the Delaware Children’s Museum. They are planning a day of Dragon Boat racing. Registration and competition will be open to local companies, community groups, associations, high schools and colleges.
This could be a very cool opportunity for team building, competition and fun for WRC and our members. For full information you can visit the website at www.racingontheriverfront.com
Some of the details include:
This event will be great fun! Let’s all get together and get as many WRC members out on the water representing our boathouse and win some trophies!
Please let Nancy Falasco know if you are interested. We will be accepting registrations through April 30th. You can pay using a credit card below or via the U.S mail (WRC, P.O. Box 3742, Wilmington, DE 19807).
Go WRC Dragon Boaters!
Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday. A few things to update you on.
Over the next few weeks we are going with a “light” schedule. Check TeamSnap to see the latest sessions scheduled.
Starting Sunday January 4th we will be shifting the schedule around a bit-
Fellow Santa Rowers,
Fourteen years and still going strong!
The weather was not looking so good, but you did it again! Launching was even a little on the warm side, and the river was like glass. Then the rains arrived, but it never dampened the holiday spirit and good cheer that was evident back at the boathouse. The costumes get more entertaining each year and we even had 14 extra monks this time!
Our last tally is $14,077.00 and there is a pledge on the way in the vicinity of $3200.00, which will bring us over $17,000.00. An impressive number, all because of your generosity.
Many thanks to the volunteers who drove a launch, getting boats down from the house, those that manned the dock and helped in carrying oars back to the house all in the rain, and all of you who helped with setting up, counting the donations and cleaning up. And let’s not forget our brave Santa out in his single. The mimosas were flowing, the coffee and treats were much enjoyed and the smiles on all your faces were pricless.
Thanks to each and every one of you for your generous donations, your participation and dedication to this event. Br. Miguel summed it up perfectly in saying that this event helps out tremendously with feeding those in need and he looks forward to it each year. Once again, many, many thanks to all and wishing you a safe and Happy Holiday.
– Andy and Diane McGrellis
Check out the News Journal article on this year’s “Santa Row!”
“Torrential rain did not dampen the spirits of WRC members and rowers from the Charter School of Wilmington as they took to the water on Saturday, December 6 for the annualSanta Row to benefit the Ministry of Caring.
David Klein, WRC scholastic liaison, and his O.K. Video partner Brian Windle produced this short video http://youtu.be/t0QQr-IY0IE commemorating the “fun”…though I am not sure that’s exactly what those of us on the water were calling it at the time!
Feel free to share this video on Facebook, via e-mail, whatever! It includes info for making donations to the Ministry of Caring for anyone who may still wish to do so.
Happy New Year, everyone! — Sue Oldenburg, soggy coxswain and O.K. Video partner”
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The finish line beckoned as the long, slender sweep boat glided forward, its eight rowers pulling their oars with beautiful precision as the coxswain urged them on. “One! Two! Three!” she barked. “This is a sprint. Almost there!”
The team wasn’t alone. More than 900 rowers, masters, collegians and high schoolers alike, fought the current and the tide Sunday along the 2.75-mile Head of Christina Regatta, racing not each other but themselves, the time earned its own reward.
It was a splendid day to be out on the water. Fall has arrived and the day was breezy and cool, but the sun glistened off the Christina River throughout the day.
It wasn’t a day for winning trophies. Those come with springtime’s sprint races. As Evan Noble, head coach of the Concord High team and the Wilmington Rowing Center masters, put it, “You want to develop in the fall, and speed in the spring.”
Yet there are non-competitive benefits. For instance, the great feeling of fitness participants say they enjoy.
“It’s low impact,” said Sam Chamberlain of Newark, who began rowing with the Wilmington Rowing Center masters three years ago. “Your knees don’t bother you, or things like that. It’s core, and legs. So it’s a wonderful exercise. And you don’t have to race.”
“I started out as, like, a blob of nothing,” said Joe Weeks, 15, a Concord High School sophomore who began rowing after he learned that rowers can earn college scholarships. “And I started working out here, and started to actually build muscle. I got more physically fit.”
Whether rowing singly, in doubles, a “quad” or in eights, there’s strong social aspect, as well, he said.
“It helped me make more friends when I got to high school,” Weeks said. “There was a lot of people I really didn’t know the first day. And it helps build friendships, because a lot of good people do this sport.”
For many younger participants, it’s also a confidence builder.
Click here for the rest of the News Journal article >
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It had been a few years since Wilmington Rowing Center’s men quad team took first place at the Diamond State Masters Regatta.
News Journal Photo Gallery: Diamond State Masters Regatta
But on Sunday, the four-man sculling boat were champs in the 1,000-meter race finishing in 3 minutes, 30 seconds.
“It’s great, exhilarating,” said Doug Green who was the two-man in the quad. “It’s wonderful to be back.”
Green was one of the more than 440 athletes who competed in the 24th Howard M. Smith Diamond State Masters Regatta this weekend on Noxontown Pond at St. Andrew’s School near Middletown.
The two-day event, the brainchild of Wilmington Rowing Center board members John R. Schoonover and the late Howard Smith has become one of the nation’s top competitions for adult rowers, drawing competitors from throughout the country.
Schoonover credits the regatta’s organization and volunteers for helping make the event a spectacular one every year. But there’s still something else, he said.
Check out the rest of the News Journal article >
For more information about the Diamond State Masters Regatta, please visit the official DSMR website.
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