By Meg Salocks, Director of Marketing and Engagement Last weekend, over 160 Vermont youth rowers, a fleet of longboats built by our boat building students, and our intrepid coaches and Champlain Longboats staff rolled into Boston, MA for the 2019 Icebreaker Regional Youth Open Water Rowing Championships. An annual championship held in the Fort Point Channel in Boston hosted by …
By Nick Patch, Champlain Longboats Director On Saturday, November 9, Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s Champlain Longboats program held its annual Otter Creek Challenge youth rowing race at the Vergennes Basin just below Vergennes Falls. The race had been scheduled for November 2, but we had a record-breaking rain event two days before the race date that made Otter Creek inaccessible …
By Ben Mayock Last Tuesday, very early in the morning, I set out on a mission to Vinalhaven, Maine. Usually when I head to Vinalhaven it is for the express purpose of enjoying the inescapable magic of Penobscot Bay on vacation with good friends, but this time I had a different mandate: go to Vinalhaven to pick up the Lake …
By Charlie Beyer, Champlain Longboats Hi! For those that don’t know me, I’m Charlie Beyer, the Assistant Director of Champlain Longboats. I work with Nick Patch to run the Boat Shop here at the museum and to lead our new longboat construction each winter with local high school students. In the summer I teach kayak building for Champlain Discovery, lead …
By Nick Patch, Champlain Longboats Director This past Saturday, October 5, a total of 206 youth rowers gathered at Perkins Pier on the Burlington waterfront to participate in the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s annual youth rowing race, the James Wakefield Rescue Row. This race is named in honor of James Wakefield who, along with his son Jack, on December 9, …
By Nick Patch, Champlain Longboats Director The week of September 9 was a week to remember for Lake Champlain Maritime Museum rowing programs. On Wednesday we hosted 95 Otter Valley Union Middle School students at the museum’s North Harbor for a team-building day and on Friday we hosted Colchester Middle School in Burlington with another 90+ rowers. All of these students spent …
By Lisa Percival Recently, on Thursday, September 12, the museum had its annual moonlight row with members of our Community Rowing clubs and staff. Enjoy this account from museum staff member and Community Rowing Club leader Lisa Percival, and photos from participants Pat Jackson, Kris Jarrett, Andrew Rainville, and Mary Micklas. In total, we had a group of 29 rowers …
By Ben Mayock This past Saturday, August 17th, Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s rowing team traveled to Maine to compete in the 19th Annual Come Boating! Regatta in Belfast Harbor. The morning was cool and overcast (perfect for rowing!) as we took a warm-up lap around the harbor. All of the turning marks were visible and the wind was light and …
By Charlie Beyer Last Saturday we waved goodbye to our teen overnight rowing trip, Expedition Champlain, as they left the docks here at the museum headed for the Canadian border. The nine participants and three staff spent the morning in a final rush (the morning before leaving is always hectic, no matter how prepared you are) to pack everyone’s stuff …
Saturday, November 3rd was a bone-chilling, yet heart-warming day for 142 youth rowers from Chittenden and Addison who participated in the “Otter Creek Challenge”, a three mile rowing race on Otter Creek. It was 40 degrees and pouring rain at race time but rowers were fired up to go. The course starts at the Vergennes Basin on Otter Creek just …